Practicality of Monkey Style

[Johnlogic121]

The essential theme of Monkey style is to use your upper body to attack the opponent's lower body. There are so many ways of doing this that there are at least five major branches of Monkey style, depending on what aspect of the method you are emphasizing, and hundreds of mixed hybrid styles incorporate some of these Monkey variations. A classic Monkey move is to duck at high speed as the opponent punches and then use your swinging arms to sweep out his leg so that he falls awkwardly. Many hybrid Chinese boxing styles will incorporate Monkey movements as a surprise mechanism, because that seems to be the optimal way to apply Monkey style in ordinary fighting. If the opponent knows you are using Monkey style, he will "repulse the Monkey," which essentially means he will kick you relentlessly as you hop around in low squating positions and never give you the chance to sweep out his legs from under him. Of all the styles of Kung Fu, Monkey requires high physical fitness, and the leg conditioning required for skillful performance is even higher than the leg conditioning required for Crane style kicking. The style of Kung Fu I studied incorporated nine Elements of which Monkey was one. However, I have heard a rumor that pure Monkey style stylists work really hard for their body conditioning but only win about 1% of their combats against other styles of Kung Fu and various Karate styles. Has anyone else heard about this? I have heard that the "repulse the Monkey" technique is very strong against a Monkey fighter, but if surprise is a factor, then the occassional Monkey technique can be applied very well in my opinion. Does anybody have some experience with Monkey style fighting, and if so, about how many of your sparring contests do you win? Would you agree that Monkey is most effective with a degree of surprise, and less effective without it? Do you have any tips about how to fight well with this animal style? If it only wins 1% of the time, wouldn't it be dying out? Is there a secret or set of secrets that make Monkey style boxing more effective? I have tried to describe a little bit about this style in this post so that people without exposure to it could make some replies. How well do each of you think your primary style would fight against a skilled Monkey stylist? -JL

[bushido_man96]

I would question any of the percentages that come up about the success of one style vs. others. How can these things be accurately documented? How do you know that the guys isn't a lousy fighter? There are just too many variables.

As far as Monkey style goes, I have heard that the style is not that popular, and hard to find. As you mention, it appears as an element in some styles, as opposed to its own style.

[sil lum fighter]

I would question any of the percentages that come up about the success of one style vs. others. How can these things be accurately documented? How do you know that the guys isn't a lousy fighter? There are just too many variables.

As far as Monkey style goes, I have heard that the style is not that popular, and hard to find. As you mention, it appears as an element in some styles, as opposed to its own style.

I agree that there are to many variables to say which style is better. The style doesn't make the fighter, its the person. A lot depends on the physical shape of the fighter as well as how often one trains, etc....

[Tiger1962]

I don't know monkey style but I sure as heck wouldn't mind learning it someday.

[joesteph]

The essential theme of Monkey style is to use your upper body to attack the opponent's lower body. . . .

If the opponent knows you are using Monkey style, he will "repulse the Monkey," which essentially means he will kick you relentlessly as you hop around in low squating positions and never give you the chance to sweep out his legs from under him. . . .

I have heard that the "repulse the Monkey" technique is very strong against a Monkey fighter, but if surprise is a factor, then the occassional Monkey technique can be applied very well in my opinion. (emphasis added)

John, "Repulse the Monkey" is from Taiji. You move backwards, your arms and legs in a pattern so that the arms appear to repulse with open hands, your legs are in motion like they are on railroad tracks, and no kicking is done while doing this Taiji move.

The following is a "combat" demo of Repulse the Monkey, rather than the more subtle Taiji form:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWhw26ypFAI

Here it's analyzed from Taiji, with power coming from the legs, through the hips, and into the arms:

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/123002_tai-chi-step-back-repulse-2.htm

[JusticeZero]

I don't do Monkey, I do another art that uses low positions like you mention; we have very good defenses against kicks, so I doubt that your mental image is quite accurate in that regard. Level changes to floor are not well understood by martial artists who do not practice arts well known for them, but the strategy can be very useful in an art built around the tactic. The main limitation is the significant amount of conditioning to build the mobility at that level, being as alien as it is.

[RichardZ]

I would question any of the percentages that come up about the success of one style vs. others. How can these things be accurately documented? How do you know that the guys isn't a lousy fighter? There are just too many variables.

As far as Monkey style goes, I have heard that the style is not that popular, and hard to find. As you mention, it appears as an element in some styles, as opposed to its own style.

I have to somewhat agree. Much of Gung Fu styles today have too much emphasis on "style" or look, rather than realistic, street application. They seem to loose Chuan Fa design. Although, I must say, that a particular Gung Fu method or so, are applicable in a few defense situations.