Praying Mantis 101

I'm posting this more for academic curiosity then anything else. Furthermore, this thread I hope, doesn't become a comparison of Praying Mantis to "fill-in-the-blanks-do or fill-in-the-blanks-jutsu". It's merely an attempt to ascertain and collect information from practioners, teachers and well-read fans of this great art.

My question relates to the following...

a.) How many sub-styles of Praying Mantis Kung Fu are there

b.) How far do they stray from the original Praying Mantis art

c.) Are reputable teachers and schools easy or hard to come by If you know any (and it doesn't matter from where since folks from all over come to this site) please post a link or a address to them if at all possible.

d.) What are the strengths overall of Praying Mantis, and what are the strengths of your specific style that you have studied, taught, or still practice

e.) What are the inherant weaknesses of Praying Mantis and are they easy or hard to overcome


f.) When speaking of the two main substyles, that being of Northern and Southern Praying Mantis. I've heard that they could almost be completely different styles were it not for their origins. That said...
~what's the main differences
~what's the main advantages and weaknesses of each substyle
~Is it counterproductive to learn both at the same time, should you do it one at a time, or is mixing the two confusing and/or a waste of time

g.) And finally, I've heard more than once that Praying Mantis is a complete art. Does it have an internal aspect to it and if at all possible, could you describe that here



And ahead of time, I thank everyone who posts for their efforts and input, it is greatly appreciated in furthering the level of understanding of this great art form. Just so everyone knows, I do not now, nor have I ever practiced any form of Praying Mantis, I've just heard slightly more great things about it than bad and have seen some great real-life examples of it working for the people who used it.

__________________
Insults are not a reason to fight. Pride is a sorry thing to fight for, if a person can take your pride away with words, you didn't have it to begin with.
~ ShirKahn (Cyberkwoon)

northern or southern

__________________
May the force be with y'all.

Northern, Southern, or even intergalactic...lol! Anything with a Praying Mantis in it's title. Although you made me think of another question...thanks!

__________________
Insults are not a reason to fight. Pride is a sorry thing to fight for, if a person can take your pride away with words, you didn't have it to begin with.
~ ShirKahn (Cyberkwoon)

there's
7 star PM
8 step PM
6 harmony/combination PM
Iron ox PM
chow gar PM
Ju gar gau
taiji PM
bamboo forest PM
...

there are those that hold their forarms with the extended index finger and the 3rd, 4th and pinky acts as the saw part of the mantis limbs - (for trapping) and the others that hold mostly in fist of different shaped.

Their forte is speed and accuracy in strikes and lots of trapping.

From what I see, the northeren PM is more lower stances, arial kicks and acrobatic. Southeren is more close quarter fighting, low kicks (for someone with almost no knowledge first hand - kind of like wing chun). they go for pressure points a lot.


As for teacher - can't help you - since you're in Texas. Actually John wang on empty flower did do PM and he's in Austin Texas - close to you

Anyways complete art - depends on the teacher.

Weakness - that's up to the individual and teacher.

__________________
May the force be with y'all.

If you have a decent background you could try correspondence videos with Jon Funk. That was my first experience in Kung Fu and I would definitely recommend those tapes. They are done very well, and when I had questions he replied via email and offered to critique me if I sent him videos of me performing the forms.

__________________
"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

Hmmm... now it may just be my North American bias (I've heard that elsewhere in the world, they think differently about this) against going that route of learning from video but with an art heavy on forms, that could be a good idea, who knows In any case, I've heard of a good and reputable teacher of Praying Mantis (don't know which specific style though) here in Houston. You know, outside of an aide in Tai Chi, I don't think I ever considered videos for anything else, what's your experiance on that and especially as it applies to Praying Mantis

__________________
Insults are not a reason to fight. Pride is a sorry thing to fight for, if a person can take your pride away with words, you didn't have it to begin with.
~ ShirKahn (Cyberkwoon)

Well if its a choice between videos and nothing...well I'll take videos!

My experience is that I was coming off a 11 year martial art career in Karate and other Japanese arts. I wanted to try a chinese art, but the local Wing Chun place was not recommended to me by a friend. So I got those videos and tried to make heads and tails of them. I understood a lot, but after having a real teacher a lot more is apparent now.

The only thing with videos is that you HAVE to find at least one friend willing to "learn with you" by also learning the forms so you guys can work the applications on one another. That way you can understand the applications and can feel them as well.

__________________
"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

Thanks for the advice, if I take that route in the future, I think you just saved me some headache. Cool.

__________________
Insults are not a reason to fight. Pride is a sorry thing to fight for, if a person can take your pride away with words, you didn't have it to begin with.
~ ShirKahn (Cyberkwoon)

Wow ! I'm impressed Allen ,
Ghost rider since your in texas you got one the best schools of praying mantis in the country right there. Just look up www.authentickungfu.com ,and I know of Sifu Steve Catrell .There is also a good glossary of schools to choose from with addresses and all.
Good hunting !, Sifu Steve I'm sure he'll be able to answer any of your questions.

f) from what i understand (not much) northern and sothern are completely different. I have heard that souther mantis is a different art but took that name to escape the authorities back in those days. I would not recomend trying to learn both as their machanics are completely different. I believe 8 step is a southern art and seven star the northern, most subgroups came from the seven star branch. Please correct me if i am wrong.

Yup ,you are correct. Some would say there is 12 sects of 7 star ,but originating from 4 main GrandMasters ,starting at Fan yu Tung and from there the schizm starts.If you look at "the mantis cave" it will give some insight to this.

“	Originally Posted By: TangLang817 f) from what i understand (not much) northern and sothern are completely different. I have heard that souther mantis is a different art but took that name to escape the authorities back in those days. I would not recomend trying to learn both as their machanics are completely different. I believe 8 step is a southern art and seven star the northern, most subgroups came from the seven star branch. Please correct me if i am wrong.	”

i dont know much about mantis but a book i have does say that southern mantis "Took that name to escape the authorities back in those days" i would say that southern mantis might have something to do with the insect i thought that maybe southern style just has the attitude of a praying mantis tell me if im wrong on that

http://cclib.nsu.ru/projects/satbi/s.../wushu/sm.html

read the history section, third paragraph

what is the history section

...
click on the link,
scroll down to 2. History,
read the third paragraph of that section