shirkers
part of the mind set is the process of your training. Look for an upcoming article in inside kung fu(in the works now), to help understand the process
Hey 18 hope all is well out there. I’ll keep my eye open for it, thanks.
let’s not forget that there is a difference between thought and anticipation…
Anticipation: When you react subconsciously to small details your active mind didn’t catch. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.
A big part of my early training in hung gar under my first teacher was making sure anticipation was more often good than bad.
a good point, Seven, what’s your definition?
pretty much the same as yours, but I dunno if it’s limited only to what the active mind didn’t catch. I would also add a second definition of getting too far ahead of your opponent - you anticipate he’s gonna throw one thing, and he ends up throwing another - which is what shirkers referred to, when he was talking about thinking too much.
I keep ‘anticipation’ strictly as a subconsciously derived motivation behind and action.
I would describe your second definition as ‘overthinking’.
To me, basic choice of positioning is what you use to limit the number of possible attacks. i.e. if I’m outside of his left arm and have some control over that arm and thus his body, then attacks from his right arm a more limited and I can spend less processor time on that arm.
agreed. we talk about that in class. I can slip to the inside - it’s easier - but I prefer to go outside, so that I can zone off the other side of his body.
different styles use different tactics. I can imagine mantis snatching at the arms and doing quick jabs and pressure point strikes when you’re advance. i won’t expect that from hung gar which is a far more solid style.
he’s not talking about tactics…
mindset
The tactics must fit the mindset. For example, mantis tactics would not work for the aikido mindset. If you think about the insect,the mindset is the classic “patience and speed”. The opponent can attack first, but you don’t care because your tactics can deal with that.The rapid changes in mantis techiques impart speed not to you but speed against your opponent.The other part of the mantis mindset will never work in friendly sparring, only in self defense combat.It is number one of the eight hard methods.The method is the mindset.
LOL you can’t actually train the practical applications in mantis.
then how do you know they work?
mantis has over 50 forms. you practice the forms until they become second nature.
You can train the forms all day long every single day, but that isn’t necessarily going to enable you to do all the applications from the forms. It’s going to make you good at your forms. Things change when you have to use the techniques on a person, especially one that is a resisting opponent. Forms are important, certainly. But expecting to be able to pull off all your techniques on a person solely because of forms work? Good luck.
sweet! then I can stop all this sparring that makes me sore as a muther.
thanks!
I think the characteristics of your form will direct you to the mindset of your given style. It is all in how you practice your forms. If you are just going through the motions then your not getting anything out of it. If you practice with the intensity of being in a fight then you should understand your techniques better. I have been beat up enough in the past to know what intensity feels like. Bottom line Mantis is a very intense style, attaching straight in or side to side, it should be very aggressive. The technique makes up the mindset that drives the intensity to attack in the Mantis manner, so to speak. The movements drive you through your opponent, shredding them. No doubt it has a lot more to do with the individual then the given style. With time, even someone who just practices forms all day will develop some sense of the mindset of their given style. IMO!!! Which counts for very little round here 
RibHit
fm
you just have to drill in hours of form work each day.
vasquez
forms are only a part of the training. there are hidding moves in the forms that u are not going to do by just learning a form. Also many more advanced usages from the individual move from a form. YOu have to be taught these and drill them.
You will not learn how to use your mantis techniques without applying them in a 2 person environmnet.
why does a boxer have a sparring partner??
why not just shadow box and then go fight?
lol
vasquez
I was going to leave this alone because I thought you were joking at first but your responses have shown that you weren’t joking at all. The other guys have covered pretty well what needs to be said. Your responses are the reason I started this thread. Part of the mindset is knowing how to fight, and doing just forms all day till they become second nature will make you look good in a forms comp. But when you step up to a “fighter” sorry about your luck. Perfect example rage in the cage last night a “kung fu master” from a local wongs school here in phoenix jumped in there with a sloppy freestyle fighter. Although the freestyle fighter wasn’t impressive the kung fu guy froze like a statue and just laid there while the other guy slapped him into submission. It was sad. This is what happens when you don’t spar and you “think” you can do what you are training.
If you are saying train the forms till they are second nature will help you be better fighter, then you better be saying “drilling” two man drills from the forms. On top of that drilling them in a free form situation. Then that statement will have merit.
Being from a boxing background 18elders made a great point. You have a guy who is a master at technique who hits the mits and bags for years and is perfect in how he looks and delivers his tactics but never spars or steps into the ring against another fighter. Then there is the guy who does little bag and mit work but spars 70% of the time… I guarantee the guy who spars will wipe the floor with the perfect technical fighter 99.9% of the time (anyone can get lucky that’s why the other .%). There is no fighting sensitivity trained into the other guy. He simply won’t know what to do because he doesn’t have fighting sensitivity.
you can’t actually spar with kung fu. going into a boxing match with kung fu is difficult because you have to think of what you can’t do because of the rules.