Chow Gar Southern Praying Mantis

[Edwardo]

Thanks again for the advice guys.......Andy S..ithought chow gar was an internal martial art? do you mind expanding on your point about uncomfortable stances? cheers!

Oh and it would be cool to hear some tales from the mantis wars lol...i heard about the wing chun wars but nothing on the mantis.

peace
Ed

[yusuf]

Yusuf:

I'm on the other side of the world,but I like the sound of Whitrod. He'll have no trouble getting bouts in Thailand on the local circuit if that is what he wants to do.

Do you/did you train with him?

Hey..no I train elsewhere because i'm a really just a hippy... I go along to get treatment for injuries.... usually sit around afterwards asking questions and he bashes me around. Mainly for 'being too old/stupid to keep fighting mma guys' ..

[Andy_S]

Edwardo:

Take a look at the various Southern Mantis styles, they, like many Hakka styles (Bakmei, White Crane, etc) all share the "sucked in" stances, and include dynamic tension, which I personally find veru uncomfortable, compared to the IMA, which is mah thang. OTOH, if I had started off in the Hakka stuff, maybe I would find the IMA shenfa uncomfortable. Just look at some clips of how these styles look.

Mantis war, IIRC, was a PR battle by Tony Leung against Paul Whitrod. Again, IIRC, Whitrod maintained a dignified silence, and at the end of it...he is the last man standing, and is, I believe (?) in the familiy lineage of Chow Gar, though has since added IMA and Indian MA to his repetoire. I don't think it ever came down to fisticuffs, unlike the WC war, where Emin stepped up and punched the world's self-proclaimed "world's best streetfigher' flat in around 20 seconds.

Still, if you have the opp to go and train under Ip and/or Whitrod, I'd take it up immediately. Check it out, and if you don't like it, you can drop it and do soemthing else. But if you don't take the opp....

[Andy_S]

Yusuf:

So what/where do "hippies who spar MMA guys" train in London these days?

[yusuf]

Yusuf:

So what/where do "hippies who spar MMA guys" train in London these days?

..I have to travel overseas to train with a teacher.. and then just visit different schools here to do some contact work.. three seconds with a good amateur MMA guys shows why most CMA practiced these days are bullshit...


being a hippy i try and minimise my humiliation but i have noticed the guys from Paul's school, the ones who train, can hold there own against MMA types...