AceHBK said:
WOW!! Thank you so much for the information!
Now what is the deifference between hard/soft styles? Does it represent how forceful or soft the style looks?
With sooo mant different CMS styles but all coming from one place (meaning china) can they really be all distinctively different?Wont many look like each other?
Hard styles are also called external styles; soft styles are also called internal styles. And there are other differences between them but the main difference is how they manifest power/energy aka Qi.
External styles tend to build Qi in the limbs, arms and legs (this is an extreme over simplifications - basically focus is there) and then use it for martial purposes. They also develop Qi in the arms and legs and bring it in to center, the Dan tian. This is considered an easier root and you are generally able to develop martial skill quicker (when I say quicker I am still talking a year or more). But mastery takes much much longer.
Internal styles tend to build Qi in the center and send it to the limbs. This is considered harder to do and if can take longer to develop martial skill in a soft style. Xingyi although very powerful takes on average 5 years to understand for martial use, if you are truly following the internal root.
(These numbers are not set in stone by the way; they are averages some take less time some take more)
Does it represent how forceful or soft a style looks? Good question, best answer, yes and no. Tai Chi can look very soft until you see the fast form. Xingyi can look very hard, but it is a soft/hard style. Bagua can look hard and soft it is a soft style and if you watch Wing Chun Chi Sau it can appear soft, but Wing Chun is a decidedly hard style. Monkey styles…well you would have to see it, suffice to say it is a hard style. It is mainly the differences in the way they use energy.
However it is also said that hard goes to soft and soft goes to hard. Basically the belief was that you cannot practice hard styles for your entire life without possibly causing damage and therefore they start working on the internal as they progress and get older.
Soft goes to hard. Once you develop internal Qi and make it use full you can easily develop external to use as well. Also it has been said you can practice soft style well into old age. Example the 80 year old Tai Chi master, I once saw a 90 year old Tai Chi guy and an 86 year old tai chi guy doing push hands that put me to shame 10 years ago.
As for what I believe, they are both difficult and take a lot of training.
As for similarities, yup there are lots. There are many styles of CMA that share animal forms. But there are also big differences. Xingyiquan is soft/hard and is very powerful in attack and tends towards the linear. Baguazshang is soft and also powerful but circular.
I have seen Southern mantis and although it is similar to what I have seen in Northern mantis, they have differences too. Southern tends to have a higher stance and Northern tends to be lower for one. And as a side note, if a Southern mantis stylist gets knocked to the ground, do yourself a favor and stand back and let him get up, the kicks and punches that come from them on the ground are a real pain, literally.
Wing Chun is Southern and very different form other CMAs such as Eagle claw, Shaolin, Dragon, or Xingyi, to name a few. And although there are animal forms in styles Xingyi 12 animal, San Da, Tai Chi and other CMAs. They are not the same as a form that is entirely an animal style. Tai Chi for example has cranes beak and white crane spreads its wings. This is very different from Crane style Kung Fu.
San Da/San Shou has Xingyi and Bagua in it, it is considered a hard style and it does over all look distinctively different than Xingyi and Bagua.
But you also have differences in strategies between systems as well that also make one distinctive from another, even if they look similar in some areas. White crane attack and defense strategies can be different from Tiger and both can be very different from Tai Chi, actually attack and Tai Chi do not go together. Tai Chi does not initiate or attack. Where Shaolin may meet force with force Tai Chi and bagua can absorbed and redirect that force.
You can see Yang Style Tai Chi and compare it to Chen Style Tai chi and see major differences and similarities.
As I said you asked a big question and I Know there are many others on MAT that can give you more insight than I, particularly in individual CMA styles.
I do mainly internal styles; I have dabbled in external and recently started training an external. But that does not mean I know jack about how Hung Gar of Wing Chun, etc. really work. I can at best give you an over view.
