Chow Gar

[NightOwl]

So anyone here do Chow Gar AKA Mantis? I have a great interest in the style (especially seeing how a lot of places seem to actually go at it with the gloves), and was hoping if a practitioner or someone who has seen it in person could shed some more light on it.

[mantis.style]

What you want to know? I don't do much gloved sparring at my class though. What classes do you have near you? I can ask my sifu about them for you.

[bushido_man96]

Do they do their gloved sparring with thick gloves, or with the MMA style gloves that you can do grabs and locks with?

I don't know why, but I picture the latter.

[NightOwl]

none are near me really. There is one southern mantis school that I know of in Oregon, but it is 3+ hours away.

[Bajifan]

My classmates Hung Gar teacher also taught Southern Mantis, but I'm afraid I don't know much about it. I did see a Southern Mantis guy spar before in a competition, and he was probably the most impressive there, though he didn't win. He really stood out, fought with both arms turned over (inside of arms facing up) just like in the forms. I was really impressed with how much power he could generate from that position, as he knocked his opponent for a loop a few times. Came in second though, because he had a hard time defending against the sacrifice head bop You know how in point sparring sometimes the refs will give points for a tap on the top of the head despite leaving the rest of the body wide open... Anyway, couldn't see anything of sweeping, throwing, or chin na techniques of course because of the format.

[Bajifan]

Basically, it was kind of like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Permz2Uz6L0&mode=related&search=

Except he hit harder, got in closer, and didn't play around so much with the hands. It was kind of deflect, get inside, and BAM knock him down.

Clip of a form (from a movie... one of my favorite clips on the net ):

[NightOwl]

The first one looks kinda like a sticking hands exercise. Thanks for the clips!

[bushido_man96]

The first one looks kinda like a sticking hands exercise. Thanks for the clips!

That's what I thought as well. I kind of like they drill, though.

The forms were fun to watch as well. Thanks, again!

[RealWingChunKuen]

So anyone here do Chow Gar AKA Mantis? I have a great interest in the style (especially seeing how a lot of places seem to actually go at it with the gloves), and was hoping if a practitioner or someone who has seen it in person could shed some more light on it.

Check out https://www.londonkungfu.com. This site contains plenty of useful information about this style of kung fu, specifically the Chow Gar lineage. It also contains some interesting links. This is a style that I would recommend for anyone who is interested in studying kung fu seriously. I would study it myself, but I am learning another style of kung fu as well as Wing Chun. So I don't have the time

Ironically, here in London there seem to be a couple of good schools that teach this style, which is no where near as popular as Wing Chun, which seems to be a victim of its own popularity. Meaning, that it was easier for me to locate the good exotic Southern Mantis schools when searching for good Wing Chun schools, when there seems to be one of the latter in every corner of the city. Yet many of them are Mc Wing Chun, if you know what I mean.