7 Star Mantis

[Skarbromantis]

Lets talk PM, training theories, and form work...

How do you train your forms?

What are the favorite methods for closing the gab (advancing) using PM techniques from the forms?

What forms do you think address what situation?

Skard1

 

[7starmantis]

I've found that if I don't take at least one or two days to go over every form I know I will forget them rather quickly. I normally use friday morning to go over all my forms. I normally go through a form slow but smoothly, then take it and hold each stance/kick/punch ect, then I go through it full speed. SO three times on each form, thats my review day.
I'm at work so I'll come back and write about my "closing the gap" favorites.


7sm

 

[arnisador]

I always thought mantis was more of a let-them-come-to-you type of system.

 

[Skarbromantis]

Originally posted by arnisador

I always thought mantis was more of a let-them-come-to-you type of system.

Yes and no, depends on the situation, and the player, myself I like to strike first.

7star- I practice my forms each night, and also write them down, plus I draw little stick men, look forward to your post on advancing.

PS If you do your forms 3 times a day, you have done it over 1000 times, after one year.

Skard1

 

[7starmantis]

Originally posted by arnisador

I always thought mantis was more of a let-them-come-to-you type of system.

I think that is more in the philosophy of the system. You don't want to be the attacker normally, and my personjal opinion, I don't want to be the one to throw the first punch, but when in a situation where you are forced to fight, you want to be straight forward, very precise and end the confrontation as quickly as possible to save yourself from harm. "closing the gap" is a very good technique to go from first blow to inside fighting where our system is most effective. If your going to fight, if the situation warrents it, win.

JMHO

7sm

 

[7starmantis]

Originally posted by Skarbromantis

7star- I practice my forms each night, and also write them down, plus I draw little stick men, look forward to your post on advancing.

PS If you do your forms 3 times a day, you have done it over 1000 times, after one year.

Skard1

I wish I had the time to practice all of my forms every night. I get a few of the most recent ones in, but mostly at night I'm doing abs, and pushups with tension sets per hung gar. Thats awesoem about doign it three times makes it 1000, thats impressive, makes me want to do them everynight now!!
As far as closing the gap, we train with chi sao, I know most mantis schools do not, but it is great sensitivity building. For some reason I'm a natural at Chin Na, so I usually use some type of that to close the gap. What I'm working on the most is my plucking skills, I want to be able to pluck into a chin na wrist move and mantis step inside. Thats my ideal technique. I use it probably a little too much in sticky hands, but I want to get it down. There is just so much you can do, I also like to pluck the punch, feint an au lau choi, get the mto go up for a block and pull a little variant to black tiger steals the heart. I know that our termanology is probably goign to be very different, but does that make any sense?

7sm

 

[Skarbromantis]

Yes I do understand, we do use diffrent terms, but slowly I am teaching myself some of the more traditional names, I like the 3rd move in Crushing Steps the left hand block, to right forward punch, also the1st move in 18 Old Men, the left hand pluck, to right hand downward chop, I like to use alot of palms and shin/knee kicks.

Yeah its hard to find the time to go over them, but every little min counts.

What form are you practing now? Maybe we can have some talks on that that form.

Skard1

 

[7starmantis]

Originally posted by Skarbromantis

Yes I do understand, we do use diffrent terms, but slowly I am teaching myself some of the more traditional names, I like the 3rd move in Crushing Steps the left hand block, to right forward punch, also the1st move in 18 Old Men, the left hand pluck, to right hand downward chop, I like to use alot of palms and shin/knee kicks.

Yeah its hard to find the time to go over them, but every little min counts.

What form are you practing now? Maybe we can have some talks on that that form.

Skard1

Yes, I love the plucking techniques. I like to use plucking with chin na locks and breaks. The 1st move of 18 old men is cool, I use alot of plucking with Cha Chui type strikes.
I'm working on a Wah Lum form actually right now, called Seven Kicks, it starts with a grab-punch, two wipe-push kicks, reverse lady horse, chinaman sit to cat stance, sidekick, jump inside crescent kick, take down to snake in the grass, half sweep, full sweep, up kick, tam tui into jumping outside crescent kick, to black tiger steals the heart, then repeat backwards!!!!

I hope that made sense, I love talking about my forms and all, so please forgive my rambling!! The last 7* form I was workign on was Little Tiger. My speed and fluitity is terrible on it though.

7sm

 

[Skarbromantis]

Wow can’t say I know that form, but it sounds awesome!

Then repeat backwards

I just finished the 1st set of Important Fundamentals its such a long form, over 40 moves.

Little Tiger, I have never heard of that form?

What other name does it go by, is it an advanced form?

Skard1

 

[7starmantis]

Originally posted by Skarbromantis

Wow can’t say I know that form, but it sounds awesome!

Then repeat backwards

I just finished the 1st set of Important Fundamentals its such a long form, over 40 moves.

Little Tiger, I have never heard of that form?

What other name does it go by, is it an advanced form?

Skard1

Little Tiger is on our Black 1 or 2 level test. Let me see if I can find the traditional name for it. Wow, I don't think I know what the Important Fundamentals are, are they like the Sub Sei Lo's ? 40 moves is ALOT!! MAn I get all excited just talking about forms! 7 Kicks is so hard to do ccorrectly, its not really an advanced form but it encompases so much it is really hard to do. It takes a long time to learn correctly so we learn it pretty quickly. I'm going to go email my sifu now and get the name of Little Tiger.

7sm

 

[Skarbromantis]

Great I cant wait to hear what he has to say.

Yeah when you study PM you get to have a real passion for the
forms.

The First Set is listed in Won Hun Fun books as 1 Set of Route Essence

Are we the only PM guys on the Forum?

Skard1

 

[arnisador]

www.angelfire.com/empire/andremartin4

Yup, you may be the only two PM types on this site, regrettably. You'd find more mantis friends here but we'd hate to lose you!

 

[Skarbromantis]

That guy goes to my school, cool!

arnisador - Yeah I post there on the regular , but I like the vibe I get here also, so its like my Yin and Yang, KFO on one side MT on the other, nice balance.

Skard1

 

[theneuhauser]

ive tried posting on kfo, the feedback is generally pretty poor, so i dont bother. as a matter of fact, there are some wah lumers on there even, but whatever, i havent been training wah lum lately.

and someone mentioned 7 kicks? i think we had that in our system as well, does it have a lot of sweeps and some kicks with your hands planted on the ground?

 

[7starmantis]

Originally posted by theneuhauser

ive tried posting on kfo, the feedback is generally pretty poor, so i dont bother. as a matter of fact, there are some wah lumers on there even, but whatever, i havent been training wah lum lately.

and someone mentioned 7 kicks? i think we had that in our system as well, does it have a lot of sweeps and some kicks with your hands planted on the ground?

Yeah me too, I didn't like the "feel" of that forum either. I tried to post a bit, but no one seemed as knowledgable and serious as the people on this forum.
7 Kicks, yes its Wah Lum form I've been workign on, and yes it has several sweeps (4 to be exact) and some kicks with your hands on the ground, right before the tam tui's Its a beautiful form, but very tiring as well.

Skarbromantis, I'm sorry I assumed it was a 7* form but it as well is a wah lum form, its actually called "small tiger", is an open hand form. My mistake, Kune lik is my last 7* form. I'm a little confused now because Sifu started teaching me all these forms for a demo/commercial/tournament he put together and I suffered from not asking enough questions. Do you know Kune Lik ? Its nice and hard, very low the whole form!

7sm

 

[theneuhauser]

wah lum 5th form is bad a. you probably havent learned it, but maybe your instructor can show you. it has a power move were you side press with your right leg just a few inches off the ground. super loww, baby!
and if you like long and exhausting, there's a form called 36 hands, it was taught to me in two separate sections!!! im pretty sure its wahlum too. the advanced forms begin to get wacky with different animal fists and alot of tam tui.

 

[7starmantis]

Originally posted by theneuhauser

wah lum 5th form is bad a. you probably havent learned it, but maybe your instructor can show you. it has a power move were you side press with your right leg just a few inches off the ground. super loww, baby!
and if you like long and exhausting, there's a form called 36 hands, it was taught to me in two separate sections!!! im pretty sure its wahlum too. the advanced forms begin to get wacky with different animal fists and alot of tam tui.

Yes, I've seen Wah Lum 5th, I don't know it, but I have seen oen of our "cousin" sifu's demo it, look really beautiful, oh adn hard as hell too!! Yes, those wah lum guys just love their tam tui's don't they!! We did a demo this weekend and one of our younger students did tam tui's while we did forms, probably around 3 or 4 min straight!! He small though, not much to push up, like some of us!!

7sm

 

[theneuhauser]

when you say tam tui's are you talking about the squatted kicks that look like a moroccan wedding dance? or is it something else? i meant lot's of tam tui in general, double snap kicks and tornado kicks and all that other leg stuff. btw i think my number one favorite is the form saint hands.

 

[7starmantis]

Originally posted by theneuhauser

when you say tam tui's are you talking about the squatted kicks that look like a moroccan wedding dance? or is it something else? i meant lot's of tam tui in general, double snap kicks and tornado kicks and all that other leg stuff. btw i think my number one favorite is the form saint hands.

When I say tam tui I mean where you do a push kick, leave the leg straight out in front, go down with the other leg all the way down to like chinaman sit, with only the one leg, then back up completely, flat footed, with kick leg still extended.

7sm

 

[theneuhauser]

ok! yes. those are pretty hard on anyone, much less a larger person. the one in 5th form comes after youve done a whole lot of tiring stuff already and i can remember really trying hard to get up on that one. i bet i cant do one now, ill try tonight one way or another, though, i will be training in a new system starting next week, i just dont know what yet.

lets get back to 7 star-
some say its the most aggressive of all the CMAs.
do you agree?