Is there a big difference between Southern Style and Northern

1. Is there a big difference between Southern Style and Northern
2. Whats the diffrence
3. Which one is better

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“	Originally Posted By: yireses 1. Is there a big difference between Southern Style and Northern 2. Whats the diffrence 3. Which one is better	”

1. Southern and Northern style what
Southern Mantis and Northern Mantis or Southern China styles and Northern China styles

2. Depends on what you're talking about.

3. There is no better or best ,just what works or doesn't work for you.

jeff

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I think you should ask that question in one of the General Forums. Xingyi has very little to do with northen/sourthen style differences

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Aja

agreed.... moved to another forum that may get more responses

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I agree with Felipe and Jeff. It depends on what systems you are talking about. Choy Lay Fut is definitely considered a southern gung fu system that is based on long arm tactics, but it is considered to be more northern than other arts like Wing Chun, etc. Although it is a long range type of style, it is definitely different in flavor to say Tong Bei.

Hsing Yi is considered a northern system, but it has a lot of similarities with southern shorthand systems.

IMO, I think that the northern vs southern distinctions don't really help you much. I prefer to look at things on a system to system basis. Take two arts and just compare their individual methods.

Overall, in gung fu, you will find more similarities than differences.

Peace

From what I heared: Southern is more hands, northern is more kicks. Best Just use what best for ya, you figger it out!

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“	Originally Posted By: strayder From what I heared: Southern is more hands, northern is more kicks. Best Just use what best for ya, you figger it out!	”

Yeah, this is the common sentiment. However, there are systems in the south that are known for their kicks (like Mok Gar), and there are systems in the north known for their punching skills (like Hsing Yi and Tong Bei).

That's why I say you should just check things out on a system by system basis. Blanket categorizations like "north and south", "internal and external", don't really tell you much in the end. Unfortunately, this ticks some folks off because it removes the "niche" that they think they have in the martial world.

Peace

yeah, for which stylesa rule of thumb is that northern is usually more fluid, while southern are usually more rigid, this goes for most of the chinese styles.

“	Originally Posted By: peccavi yeah, for which stylesa rule of thumb is that northern is usually more fluid, while southern are usually more rigid, this goes for most of the chinese styles.	”

Huh

what


hmmmm.......






jeff

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“	Originally Posted By: peccavi yeah, for which stylesa rule of thumb is that northern is usually more fluid, while southern are usually more rigid, this goes for most of the chinese styles.	”

Same rule applies. You have southern systems like Choy Lay Fut and Lama that are more fluid, and northern ones like Hsing Yi and Ba Ji which are more staccato and not-so-fluid.

Fluidity and "rigidity" are probably two of the most subjective criteria that could be used. The fact remains that these two criteria are really left up to the individual.

Peace

“	Originally Posted By: yireses 1. Is there a big difference between Southern Style and Northern 2. Whats the diffrence 3. Which one is better	”

Could you be a bit more specific Southern and Northern have certain differences, but they're really tendancies. As soon as you lay out generalizations of what a Nothern system is and what a Southern system is, you'll start seeing styles that break the trend.

As a general rule, Northern systems tend to be more long-arm, more acrobatic, and Southern styles tend to be more solidly rooted and more short-fist. I understand that the Northern systems also tended to focus a bit more on long-term excellence, whereas the Southern systems tended to focus more on short-term effectiveness. But those are loose rules with too many exceptions to list (even if I knew all of them to list them).

Better Better for what Every system is going to have its advantages and disadvantages, but most of the ones that have lasted this long are at least somewhat well-balanced. Most systems are designed around a situational reality. The characteristics of a system will tell you a little bit about the area in which it was developed and vice versa. Physical characteristics of the people in the region, terrain, social mores, attitudes towards fighting, attitudes towards weapons, etc, all play a role in determining what type of art will be effective in an area. The best ones are the ones that also have the flexibility to adapt to other realities, and also work for those of us who don't also live in ancient Northern or Southern China. Most of the systems that have survived this long, when taught well (big, big caveat), fit that bill.

If someone is looking for an art to study, I think they may be going about it the wrong way. I think it's better to look for a good teacher. Although I maintain that some arts are generally better than others (un-PC as it is), and that some arts are vastly better for certain things than others, the quality of teachers is far more variable than the quality of arts. And if you look for the best teacher you can find, the differences in the quality of the arts themselves (for whatever it is you're looking for) will be more-or-less automatically selected out.

Look at Taiji Quan, for example (I know this is an "External Styles" discussion board, but the example works in this case regardless of external/internal distinctions). An excellent art with a very rich history (many argue that it's among the very best, including people whose primary art isn't Taiji Quan). But 99% of the Taiji Quan teachers out there aren't even competent as either martial artsists OR martial arts instructors. Most of them don't even teach the Quan aspect at all (some call it Skin and Hair Taiji or Hippie Taiji; others have created a distinction between Taiji and Taiji Quan). If someone looked around and determined that Taiji Quan was the best art and what they wanted to learn, and just went looking for some Taiji teacher, chances are, they'd be shortchanged in the long run, and have spent time training in a nice internal exercise program (if they're lucky) that isn't a martial art anymore at all.

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(kungfujoe; Could you be a bit more specific Southern and Northern have certain differences, but they're really tendancies. As soon as you lay out generalizations of what a Nothern system is and what a Southern system is, you'll start seeing styles that break the trend.)

1. Uniform
2. ( Forms) Katas
3. Style of fighting, combanation of fist and legs

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I know, I know, OK....It snows in the north, stays warm in the south, south like spicy food, north like mild food, north love clothes, south likes to be naked. so to sum it up northern styles have warm clothes,mild food and the deadly snow technique, The southern styles have cool or no clothes,spicy food and the deadly no snow technique. Well maybe thats not quite it.

I agree with Kungfujoe, he makes some good points, and there is a lot to list if you could list it all...which would be pretty tough to do...

“	Originally Posted By: yireses (kungfujoe; Could you be a bit more specific Southern and Northern have certain differences, but they're really tendancies. As soon as you lay out generalizations of what a Nothern system is and what a Southern system is, you'll start seeing styles that break the trend.) 1. Uniform 2. ( Forms) Katas 3. Style of fighting, combanation of fist and legs	”

Heh, sorry, I guess I should have been more specific when asking you to be more specific. I was referring to specific systems. The overall trends can be listed (I touched on some of them, others touched on some others), but there are so many differences that the generalizations aren't very useful. If you want to compare a specific Northern system (or set of Nothern systems) with a specific Southern system (or set of Southern systems), some more meaningful comparisons can be made, though the tricky part there may be finding people who can speak intelligently about the specific systems you list (chances are, I'm not one of them, unless you just happen to pick some of the systems I've been exposed to or read much about).

A very simple example of why these generalizations don't work - Hung Gar and Wing Chun. Both are Southern systems, but they're so vastly different that it's hard to find any commonality between them (and when you do find a commonality between them, you'll probably also be able to pull in a Northern system pretty much at random and find just as much commonality between it and Wing Chun or Hung Gar, too). Wing Chun could be argued to be a bit of an anomaly, though. Sticking just with classical systems, though, if you compare a representative Cantonese style with a representative Hokkien style, you'll probably still see as many differences as similarities. Our system has a form that looks nothing like any of the really common "Southern Systems" you generally see (Hung Gar, CLF, etc), but when I showed it to someone with much greater breadth of knowledge, he watched it and said "oh, that's classic Hokkien boxing." Doesn't get much more southern than Hokkien.

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