[QUOTE=rett;1143982]If you control an arm with a hook you have the flexibility to pop up into a strike without having to disentangle your thumb, plus you don’t risk spraining your thumb as much. It’s flexible. Just call it a hook and forget the animal name. It’s a good move, but it’s not intuitive. It has to be learned.[/QUOTE]
I understand but mantis did not invent that. After picking up the tree(with my mantis hooks) that I cut down my neighbor started talking to me. How convenient for him to make contact AFTER I was done working. We were talking over my fence and we both had our hands over the fence leaning on it. Our wrists were bent hooking the fence and the thumbs were not intertwined with the bar. Wow! We were mantis hooking my fence! It is intuitive. It is not special or necessarily effective. But as you can see we were both hooking and he has never done the deadly Kung fu.
[QUOTE=RWilson;1143997]I understand but mantis did not invent that. … We were mantis hooking my fence! It is intuitive. [/QUOTE]
It’s not intuitive to use it as part of an approach to fighting. It needs to be practised. And the point of a fighting approach is not that it invented every bodily posture, just that it sews them together into… an approach.
wow since your neighbor, and everyone else, can move their arms and legs and throw shatty punches and weak kicks and tackle like a 4 year old they must all be world champion fighters. Just because the body may instinctively do certain things and make certain shapes under certain circumstances has no bearing whether an individual is going to be able to instinctively utilize well defined combat methods ‘just cuz’ their body might make an abstract movement under completely unrelated scenario
[QUOTE=bawang;1143880]i cant believe no one figured out after 10 years on this forums.
animal means lack of remorse or conscience. predator. this is the spirit of animal styles.[/QUOTE]
right-to.. each animal has a different spirit/emotion/mindset associated with it, cold-blooded, cunning, maniacal, etc..and we’ve had discussions on that in other threads, but…
it’s like trying to teach pigs to sing.
One, it’s a waste of time,
and Two, it annoys the pigs.
Though Wing Chun works for me and it is what I do now I would say one would want a style with long and short bridge plus grappling with a good teacher who teaches realistic fighting and it is practiced in a realistic mannor while also working on conditioning etc.
There is also developmental and application so are we looking for instant results?
Some styles/ teaching methods have longer learning curves than others and some have better end results within less time where as some may give you a better final product though it may take longer to make…
See, this is why I no longer bother participating in the forums. Call it a ‘half-grab’ and it’s ok but call it a ‘mantis hook’ and suddenly it stops working? Give me a break. ‘Pre-arranged drills’ are ok but ‘forms’ will suck the skill from your body?
And 5 pages are spent trying to enlighten a dummy that doesn’t to hear the truth.
I’ve seen the ‘headkicks are useless you’ll just get taken down easier’ (ask Mirko Crocop if they work), ‘eye gouges don’t work and you’ll just **** the guy off and he’ll break your arm’ (can’t find the reference but I watched a UFC fight that was stopped because of unintentional eye-pokes, fighter had a hand injury and poked when he jabbed), swinging punches don’t work (Chuck Lidell taught the swinging overhand right when he was a coach on TUF).
Then after all the TCMA bashing you see MMA guys amazed at the flexability of BJ Penn in his takedown defense and it’s no better than what you can find in almost any Karate/Kung Fu school. Machida gets props for using basic Karate in the UFC. Karo Parisian successfully applies throws I learned as a yellow belt in Kenpo.
So you want to know what Kung Fu styles teach real fighting and don’t rely on a bunch of forms then look at the styles that were taught hundeds of years ago in China and Japan when their lives depended on their skills. It only got forms crazy in the modern days of lawsuits and gullable gwai lo. And ‘twin dragons to eyes’ hurts just as much as an open hand jab.
