Benefits of kung fu (praying mantis)?

Question

What are the benefits of doing kung fu praying mantis style? i realy wnt to try monkey or dragon style, but praying mantis is all that's available for now. is it worth it?

Answer 1

Here is the story regarding praying mantis Kung Fu.

Once upon a time in the Shaolin temple, a man with a really huge ego stepped in, and said that the Shaolin monks were full of it, and that their martial arts did not work.  Meaning..... even in China, even back then, that accusation was thrown, its nothing new.  So anyway; the man insisted in challenging them to fight, and over and over, legend has it a total of 1,000 times, the Shaolin abbot tried to dissade him.  Realizing the only way the man would leave was if Shaolin Kung Fu's strength was shown, a "junior student" one of the young disciples, was instructed to fight the man.

Needless to say, the young disciple made short work of him.  Thus with his tail between his legs, he retreated into a mountain, lived as a hermit, and trained fanatically for about a year.  He then returned to the temple, and issued the challenge again.  This time, he actually worked his way up one of the older students, a young man in his 20's but, he also made short work of him.

He kept training fanatically, and over a period of 10 years, each and every time, the same Shaolin monks at precisely that level, kept handing him defeat, after defeat, after defeat, meaning, the man had not progressed at all in his Kung Fu.  Dejected, and being defeated for the 12th time I believe it was, by someone who had not even completed the training at Shaolin, he finally gave up.  He retreated to his mountain home when, one day, chance came, on his window sill he spied upon two praying mantises fighting.  Actually more precisely, I believe it was a praying mantis fighting a much larger and stronger insect, can't remember if it was a king dung beetle, or one of those nasty looking ultra huge scarabs.  The story goes the mantis was attacked by a very large, and very powerful insect, poised in devouring it.

Nevertheless the matis successfully protected itself against the scarab, or large beetle, or whatever the h**l it was.  Inspired and more obsessed than ever before, he set about catching countless praying mantisses, and large scarabs.  He had the insects fight one another, and even had mantis against mantis, and modifying their movements for human use, using his knowledge of Kung Fu, combined with the modified Mantis movements, Praying Mantis Kung Fu was born.  He trained, harder than ever before, and returned to the temple once more, this time, with a less arrogant attitude.

Since the challenge had become somewhat routine the test of strength began but this time to the abbot's surprise, the man won.  In fact, pretty soon, he worked his way up all the way to one of the head priests.  Before he knew it, the man had defeated the entire Shaolin temple.  Having proven his strength, he was satisfied, and he left but one of the monks stopped him and asked him to teach his form of Kung Fu.

Ever since then, the Mantis Style has formed a part of the Shaolin curriculum.  At least, in the southern temple, not sure about the northern.

Praying mantis is all that's available but...................... you really should not care that much, reason being, it is a style that once defeated the Shaolin temple.

Its all that is available, true enough, but........on its own its effective enough.

good luck.

Answer 2

i do northern praying mantis and its great. its a soft-hard style so you get the best of both worlds there and it doesnt require raw strength to be successful.

probably not your choice if you want to be the guy that breaks bricks with his head but otherwise go for it!

Answer 3

I just began studying Jook Lum - Southern Praying Mantis and my first class was awesome.

It is totally the opposite of the Northern Style(?)/Seven Star which I know nothing about it.

Jook Lum training consists of lots of sparring in every class.

It's not easy to find a certified Jook Lum teacher and I was lucky to find someone who trained with Gin Foon Mark from back in the day.