# Animal Styles



## 7starmantis (Oct 14, 2002)

OK, so what do you guys think about tiger style kung fu, or even Dragon style, as far as the theory of how they were created? Preying Mantis I can see, you see the bug, you poke it, watch it, copy it. How would you do that with a tiger? What do you guys think about how the systems were created, what is myth and what it truth ?


7sm


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## tshadowchaser (Oct 14, 2002)

Watching a tiger or leopard might not have been that hard.  Not getting eaten  might have been another trick.
 I don't know what animals where around back when the styles were first created but observing them should not have been that hard. Makeing the body emulate the moves of the animals was a matter of trial and error , I'm sure.
 Now the dragon, thats a different matter, you take all the animals wrap them to geather and add imagaination (maybe)
 only MHO
Shadow:asian:


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## 7starmantis (Oct 15, 2002)

yeah but how do you create a form or move based on what you have to watch from 200 yards away. Well, at least I'm not getting within 200 yards of a wild tiger! I had the privaledge of working with some indochinese tigers at a refuge for a while, AMAZING!!

7sm


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## sean_stonehart (Oct 17, 2002)

7* --- I don't think all of the styles are supposed to be "exact" imitations of the animals they're named after. I think some of the them are more about capturing the spirit or essance of that animal. 

There are notables, Praying Mantis being one that the founder actually imitated the creature. It was a lot easier for Wang Lang to catch & imitate a mantis than say Kou Sze to capture a monkey & devlop the Tai Hsing Monkey system. Like Wang Lang, Kou Sze took what he already knew (Piqua & Ditang) & watched the monkeys. He copied much of their movements to be sure, but also more than anything he captured their spirit & essance in the way that they faught.

Besides... how could Lung Ying (Dragon Form boxing) come about? I missed the dragons myself!  Like you as well, I wouldn't wanna get caught watching a tiger too closely!!! I tabby cat that weighs several hundred pounds & has a paw bigger than my head with a bad attitude is not going put up with me doing something like that!


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## theneuhauser (Oct 18, 2002)

its an awesome testament to human self expression. sean_stoneheart you hit it right on the head about capturing the essence of the animal. its funny, because humans are hardly the perfect physical specimen, but while a leopard could never hope to imitate a crane, we in our imperfections are able to improve ourselves through the imitation of any and all of the earth's creatures. 

and i mean all creatures, have you ever seen mandarin duck style?


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## sean_stonehart (Oct 19, 2002)

Ummm... yup I've seen the Duck style boxing performed both in China & here in the states. Since I have only seen two demonstrations of it with no application of technique, I can't if it works or not, but it is "different" to see.


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## 7starmantis (Oct 20, 2002)

Yes, that is a good point about the essence of the animals, its amazing how we can take so much from the world around us. 
I have never seen the duck system, sounds very interesting to say the least.


7sm


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## theneuhauser (Oct 20, 2002)

it's supposed to use some of the most powerful kicks. ducks have powerful kicks?


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## 7starmantis (Oct 20, 2002)

> _Originally posted by theneuhauser _
> 
> *it's supposed to use some of the most powerful kicks. ducks have powerful kicks? *



Well....thats deffinatly interesting. I wasn't aware that ducks had powerful kicks, maybe it should be called osterich style  
Sorry I couldn't resist, seriously though, I would really enjoy seeing some of that system! I'm interested in all systems. Do you know of its origin or history/leneage?

7sm


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## theneuhauser (Oct 20, 2002)

> _Originally posted by 7starmantis _
> 
> * I wasn't aware that ducks had powerful kicks, maybe it should be called osterich style
> 
> ...



or ultimate kangaroo.


i dont have a clue about it's history, sorry.


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## Kempojujutsu (Oct 20, 2002)

We have a couple of cats, now I know cats are small verison of tigers. One of are cats is very aggresive. He tends to snink around and ambush the other cat. He likes to jump on top of the other cats back and bite the neck area. The other cat will try and roll on to her back and use the back legs to fight with. This is what I have observed when the two cats go at it.
Bob  :asian:


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## theneuhauser (Oct 20, 2002)

cats are ruthless, that's why i dont have any


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## Kempojujutsu (Oct 20, 2002)

We have a Dalmation dog that is afraid of the aggresive cat, and the dog is 3x the size of the cat.
Bob:asian:


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## theneuhauser (Oct 20, 2002)

gotta love dogs, though.

i cant commit the time to a doggie, just yet, so im buying a terrarium and im going to raise some praying mantises. i found a website in the uk that sells all types, and when the giant malaysian hooded mantis goes into breeding season, im gonna be all over that.


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## 7starmantis (Oct 20, 2002)

> _Originally posted by theneuhauser _
> 
> *gotta love dogs, though.
> 
> i cant commit the time to a doggie, just yet, so im buying a terrarium and im going to raise some praying mantises. i found a website in the uk that sells all types, and when the giant malaysian hooded mantis goes into breeding season, im gonna be all over that. *



oh oh oh , are you serious? post or PM me the link to that site would you? Thats awesome, I'm trying out my hand at some asian plants and such on my patio, including different varieties of bamboo, but to have a preying mantis would be just simply awesome!!

7sm


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## theneuhauser (Oct 20, 2002)

heres a quote from the website:


> Why Own a Goldfish When You Can Have a Pet That Chews On It's Partner's Head Whilst Mating?



mantisuk 


im going to order an entire eggsack and try to hatch them, then they will devour eachother until only the strongest one survives!!!!!!!


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## 7starmantis (Oct 21, 2002)

Haha, man that is an awesome site! I'm going to show my sifu, maybe we'll get one to keep at the school, that would be cool.

7sm


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## ekkaia (Jan 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by sean_stonehart _
> *7* --- I don't think all of the styles are supposed to be "exact" imitations of the animals they're named after. I think some of the them are more about capturing the spirit or essance of that animal.
> 
> Besides... how could Lung Ying (Dragon Form boxing) come about? I missed the dragons myself!  Like you as well, I wouldn't wanna get caught watching a tiger too closely!!! I tabby cat that weighs several hundred pounds & has a paw bigger than my head with a bad attitude is not going put up with me doing something like that!  *



i know this thread is a little old but thought i'd reply to it anyway. lung ying (aka. dragon style) is usually accredited to a monk called tai yuk. he was the head abbot at wah so toi temple (on luo fo shan in guangdong province) and had learnt some of his kung fu from ng mui (yes of wing chun fame). ng mui specialised in dragon from 5 animals (before creating wing chun of course), so i guess that's where it all started from. however tai yuk refined what ng mui had taught him and passed it down to lam yiu gwai, who is now considered the grandmaster of the style.

if you research into shaolin dragon 5 animal history, it of course was not derived from watching any dragon, but the concept of internal movement is most important. it tries to capture the 'essence' of a dragon rather than it's imagined physical movements (though i would argue the coiling movement of a dragon is very much an important part of lung ying training). so whilst shaolin dragon and lung ying don't really look much alike anymore, the concepts are still somewhat similar.


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## arnisador (Jan 12, 2003)

> _Originally posted by ekkaia _
> *(though i would argue the coiling movement of a dragon is very much an important part of lung ying training*



Could you expand on this? I'm not familiar with dragon style.


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## ekkaia (Jan 12, 2003)

the dragon style i speak of is southern dragon of guangdong province. i know 'dragon style' is considered a generic term for *all* types of dragon styles, but lung ying literally translates to dragon style/shape/boxing in english...

anyway, what i meant by 'mimicking' the coiling dragon movement is the internal power generation of a lung ying practitioner.  the method of generating power is for the chi to generate from the ground, gather at the dan tien, and executed out through the arms or legs, then the energy gets 'pulled' back into the dan tien, then out again and repeats in a cycle until the opponent is defeated. it is like the energy of the dragon starting from the tail, coiling through the body, out through the mouth, back in again, etc. of course when a person does this is it not very obvious, but the concept of melding with an opponent is very important. the footwork of a practitioner uses the same concept or intent i should say of wanting to meld/overwhelm with an opponent. hence why alot of the techniques are circular so it is easy to meld.

i hope i made some sense, but i'm in a rush so i'll post a better response later on if it didn't.


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## yilisifu (Jan 12, 2003)

When tigers kill their prey, they usually hit on it's "blind side."  They aim to strike the neck with one of their forepaws and break it's neck in one blow, or take it down where they can finish it with a couple more powerful blows...tigers don't attack "head-on."  They keep a springy strength in their bodies just before they move and they hit the blind side.

   Once is usually enough.


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## theneuhauser (Jan 18, 2003)

its been awhile since i was on the boards here, hi everyone! since my departure, ive adopted a cat (sort of a christmas gift for the wife). the damn thing will not leave me alone! it attacks me every chance it gets, and its starting to really aggravate me. and its sneaky, like tiger style kung fu.


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## arnisador (Jan 18, 2003)

Our cat attacks me all the time--seems nonsensical to me but she obviously has a different opinion.


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## dogma173 (Apr 4, 2003)

You probably know how the mantis style was developed, and the other styles like the dragon and tiger, were not developed differently.  Since these styles are old, we are not sure how exactly how it happend but they were named these names because they resembled the way the animal fights.  (Like the " tiger claw")


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## thekuntawman (May 16, 2003)

my school is a philippine martial arts school, but i also "know kung fu". my philippine kuntaw does have some "animal" techniques, but not like kung fu, its the animal strategy.

the kung fu style i do is called jow gar. we are a tiger base five animals system. but because my sifu was also trained by other sifu, we have three eagle claw forms, two praying mantis forms (actually three, but i dont remember one of them) and tiger/dragon, from bak mei.

i have a list of some of the forms i teach at my website, you have to go to "dean chin's jow ga" to get the list.

in my kung fu class, we practice mostly the tiger claw for striking  and eagle claw for joint lock. in kuntaw, we use a lot of hooking, which is nothing to do with animal style, but one of my tung lung friends says it looks like his style of praying mantis.


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## Master of Blades (May 16, 2003)

> _Originally posted by theneuhauser _
> *heres a quote from the website:
> 
> 
> ...



Did that sound sick to anyone else......... 

And I was searching on the net and found all these Random Animal styles like 1000 Bees and 10 Ants or something.....anyone have any info on these ones? I thought it might be kinda hard to watch 100 Bees and imitate them 
:shrug:


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## king midas (Sep 18, 2009)

does anyone know a legitimate lung ying school or sifu in or near the rochester ny area?


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## TenTigers (Sep 19, 2009)

yilisifu said:


> When tigers kill their prey, they usually hit on it's "blind side." They aim to strike the neck with one of their forepaws and break it's neck in one blow, or take it down where they can finish it with a couple more powerful blows...tigers don't attack "head-on." They keep a springy strength in their bodies just before they move and they hit the blind side.
> 
> Once is usually enough.


too many generalizations.

Hung-Ga,(Siu Lum Hung Kuen) which although is a five animal style,also considered to be completely intact from Siu-Lum, has strong focus on Tiger. Jee Siem Sum-Si, the abbott who taught Hung Hei-Guen specialized in Tiger techniques. Wong Fei-Hung was heavily influeced by the Black Tiger Hak Fu Moon style of Su Hak-Fu. There are many attacks in Tiger that go head on-"right down Broadway", as well as angled to the blind side.
Seung Gung Fook Fu (Double Bows Subduing Tiger) is a head-on crash-Bik Kiu, which breaks the opponent's structure. Fierce Tiger Overpowers the Wolf is a head-on attack, as is Hungry Tiger Captures the Lamb. Corenered Fierce Tiger Strikes Back, and Tiger Pawing Sand are also straight line attacks. Fierce Tiger out of the Cave slips right through the attacker's defenses, right up the middle-but can also be played at an angle to the blindside.
The Tiger techniques in Siu-Lum have strong down yur throat characteristics, while the Leopard, a smaller agile cat, is known for its sneaky blind side attacks.

many of the techniques came from observation of these animals-especially while hunting them. That is how you can see up close, how a Tiger or a Leopard attacks and defends. In China, when hunting Tigers and Leopards, they would try to surround and corner the beast. The tiger would lunge at one man, while the leopard would shoot around, attacking all of them, going from person to person, swipping and ripping at each one. Although the Tiger was much stronger, they feared the agility and cunning of the Leopard.


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## clfsean (Nov 4, 2011)

nixsmartialarts said:


> Hi , Check out my website , NIXMARTIALARTS.COM



Hey... it doesn't work.

Hey... quit spamming the board. 

Hey... why don't you swing by the Meet & Greet section.


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## fangjian (Nov 4, 2011)

Hey guys...........I like broccoli.


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## Xue Sheng (Nov 4, 2011)

When in danger, When in doubt, Run in circles, Scream and shout!


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