7starmantis said:
Man, there is nothing to set aside. We may have disagreed in another thread, but everyone disagrees, no offense taken or anything. So dont even worry about it.

Thumbs up!
Yes, we have basically 12 Soft and 8 Hard principles. However, the key, and also the hardest thing to do, is make these principles work in harmony with each other. Sigung Fogg uses the analogy in his book that its like a doorway. The soft principles are inviting someone through a door and the hard principles are just when he thinks he gaining headway through the door, you slam it shut on him. The invitation is the soft principles while the slamming of the door are the hard principles. For example: Yielding to a punch, using the signature mantis grab to redirect the punch and allow their energy to pass by you and extend themselves is a soft principle. As you do that and you pluck theri punching hand causing them to lean or even fall forward, the fist of your other hand that their face runs into is the hard principle. Thats very understated, but does that make sense? He is going into the soft and hard in forms and application and how to achieve them in his second book. Its supposed to be out by mid august.
Sounds like you are referring to parrying then to controlling. If you are referring to "gates" I'm not that familiar with those specific terms. I also think you are referring to
what we call in our system divert, seize, control. There is a fourth but it is used in terms of weapons defense. We could also look into this further as weapon destruction. Parry, maybe
insert nerve strikes to the arm. Go further into contouring the arm then elbow striking against the elbow, pressing check the arm down and blast 'em in the chops.

I think I'm on the right track of what you are describing.
Well, while there is a list of the 12 Keyword formula, its important for us to understand that they are not neccessarily techniques, but rather methods of attack and defense. He breaks all 12 down and discusses them. The first is (ou) hooking. The technique of hooking has many purposes and can be done many ways in our system. So its not just the technique of hooking, but the principle behind hooking. The main reason is to bring the opponent into a "dangerous zone". It can be done with or without the "mantis hand". He has pictures for the different ways it can be done and such in the book. It can be done while adding pressure points to various spots of the body as well. He goes into all of them. The second is (Lou) grabbing, especially downward. So then you can see the you can combine (ou) and (lou) and hook and then grab. Then he goes into why grab, to hold and pull the opponent while striking them.
We're going to look at this slightly differently and that's just due to style preferences. I'm going to look at "hooking" in groups called methods of execution. The methods include roundhousing, hooking, hammering, thrusting, whipping, slicing, clawing, and lastly the specialized movements. I understand your combinations due to yieldling factors we just have different terms for our set arts. I would also put the grabbing into a checking category. How many ways can you check. That would be my question. Same thing different wording. :asian: Checks can include pressing, grabbing, skipping, contouring, pinning, leg, hugging, cross, open end triangle just to name a few.
Definitely what I had in mind. I just love discussing martial arts and especially mantis. I would be interested to hear your set principles, you have them online somewhere I could see them?
The 8 prepatory considerations are as follows
Acceptance, enviornmental awareness, range, positions, maneuvers, targets, natural weapons, natural defenses. As far as the 21 set principles, I know of them all. Unfortunately I don't recall them in order as they are outlined in our books. If you were to ask me about posture then yes it's one. Coordination is also one as well as the 3 power principles. Since I have switched computers I don't have all of my info. on this one yet.
Next set of questions. :uhyeah: