bakxierboxer
Yellow Belt
I don't agree; Northern Mantis looks like exaggeratedly copied mantis hooking motions--look at how the hand is formed--while Southern Mantis is so similar to other Southern styles, esp. the Hakka Kuen styles and styles of the phoenix-eye fist variety.
I know a minority of Southern Manti styles maintain that it was mantis-influenced like, but separately from, Northern Mantis, but the probable opinion is that it was intentionally misnamed.
This has not been my experience.
Northern Mantis has nothing at all like Mantid movements.
Mantids grip their prey and pull it into the center to eat it.
Go study a Mantis for a while.... better yet get some actual experience in TCMA animal styles.