Leopard Kung Fu

[Oily Dragon]

Ok I get what you mean, but how can you train for real and get to the point of teaching and not know if you can do it?

Ego is a hell of a drug.

Again it comes down to that Teddy Roosevelt quote. Lots of people are afraid to fail, especially in certain...societies.

Where some believe trying and failing is still honorableb(hence the quote), someplaces it is seen as weakness.

Xu Xiaodong WON, and is made to suffer for it. He is being conditioned (like all people under that regime) to Believe it would have been better to tow the party line.

Never forget, they purged most of the actual kung fu fighters after the revolution.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Ego is a hell of a drug.

Again it comes down to that Teddy Roosevelt quote. Lots of people are afraid to fail, especially in certain...societies.

Where some believe trying and failing is still honorableb(hence the quote), someplaces it is seen as weakness.

Xu Xiaodong WON, and is made to suffer for it. He is being conditioned (like all people under that regime) to Believe it would have been better to tow the party line.

Never forget, they purged most of the actual kung fu fighters after the revolution.

Good points, all of them.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Never forget, they purged most of the actual kung fu fighters after the revolution.

Stupid things governments have done because of their fear always amazes me. There's a long list and it always backfires in a major way. In the case of purging fighters, it's better to give fighters an outlet to express their fighting spirit instead of trying to get rid of it.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Ok I get what you mean, but how can you train for real and get to the point of teaching and not know if you can do it?

This happens more often than we would think about. If you only train Spar System A vs System A then you'll be at a higher risk of slipping into that mentality. The one thing that is common about famous martial artists is that there are a lot of stories about them getting into street fights which is not a System A vs System A scenario. It's the opposite of how many martial artists train.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Ok I get what you mean, but how can you train for real and get to the point of teaching and not know if you can do it?

I like to use kick shield to test the basic tools.

- A holds shield next to his head. B uses hook punch to hit on the shield to make B off balance.
- A holds shield and runs toward B. B uses front kick to stop the forward momentum.

Test those drill 20 times and record the successful/failure ratio - off balance and stop forward momentum.

 

[JowGaWolf]

But back to leopard fist.

I would probably think of the animal styles as visualization. It's more of a mental state in how you apply your energy into your attacks. For example, I used to run cross country races "races where you run 3 miles through woods and on various types of terrain. My visual animal that I became was a gazelle. I picked it because it reminded me of the relaxation that the animal runs with. Then I mentally try to picture that relaxation within my own running.

I think of animal Kung Fu the same way.
This tiger. It has some BJJ in it too lol

This is leopard.

You can clearly see the difference between speed and power.

This may explain where there are any full-on leopard forms and the fact that going full on speed for an entire form would give you a heart attack lol. Kung fu forms are tiring. It takes a special type of endurance to really go at a form to display speed and power. Full on speed? yeah even the leopards get tired.

Now keep in mind that my thoughts on this could be far off the mark, but for me personally I don't think so. What is the purpose of naming the techniques after animals if there was no visualization going on.

Now back to my running. I used to try to help my fellow runners with it. I asked them to pick an animal to help them make running easier. I asked them to choose an animal that they could see themselves as. One of the guys said Bear and the other said hawk. lol. They totally missed the point. lol. So don't miss the point. If you have never seen a Tiger in Action or a Leopard in action, then you won't be able to get the visualization down correct. You won't be able to make the power of the tiger your power, or the speed and agility of the leopard your speed, without knowing the level that you are striving for.

If you are running a cross country race. then don't visualize a bear or a hawk lol

 

[CMyers0323]

But back to leopard fist.

I would probably think of the animal styles as visualization. It's more of a mental state in how you apply your energy into your attacks. For example, I used to run cross country races "races where you run 3 miles through woods and on various types of terrain. My visual animal that I became was a gazelle. I picked it because it reminded me of the relaxation that the animal runs with. Then I mentally try to picture that relaxation within my own running.

I think of animal Kung Fu the same way.
This tiger. It has some BJJ in it too lol

This is leopard.

You can clearly see the difference between speed and power.

This may explain where there are any full-on leopard forms and the fact that going full on speed for an entire form would give you a heart attack lol. Kung fu forms are tiring. It takes a special type of endurance to really go at a form to display speed and power. Full on speed? yeah even the leopards get tired.

Now keep in mind that my thoughts on this could be far off the mark, but for me personally I don't think so. What is the purpose of naming the techniques after animals if there was no visualization going on.

Now back to my running. I used to try to help my fellow runners with it. I asked them to pick an animal to help them make running easier. I asked them to choose an animal that they could see themselves as. One of the guys said Bear and the other said hawk. lol. They totally missed the point. lol. So don't miss the point. If you have never seen a Tiger in Action or a Leopard in action, then you won't be able to get the visualization down correct. You won't be able to make the power of the tiger your power, or the speed and agility of the leopard your speed, without knowing the level that you are striving for.

If you are running a cross country race. then don't visualize a bear or a hawk lol

I agree there. While in sure there are some thing that are indeed classified as leopard a punch is still just a punch. All of these styles have techniques that cross over also. I read an article that speaks about these mindsets and some aspects so to speak that come with it. It's not a leopard article but a Mantis one. Although they speak about the animal styles in general the study was done with Mantis Kung Fu.

Acquiring “Dark Powers” in the Southern Mantis Tradition: D. S. Farrer Examines the role of animals in the Chinese martial arts.

Introduction: Becoming Invulnerable in Southern Mantis Kung Fu The traditional Chinese martial arts are rich in animal symbolism. Tigers, dragons, cranes, snakes and monkeys are common fixtures in…

chinesemartialstudies.com

Its funny you mention the tiger having some bjj. My sifu always would say cats are ground fighters haha. Throws and all.

My guess is the tiger while slower would be more killing blow power but the leopards are just the fast jabs.

That makes sense lol. I'm sure doing the forms help with the mental aspect. Not to bring the flowery wushu performances into it but while they have no combat application I could assume all the extra acting would aid with the mental part.

I agree with the visualization though. My instructor was fairly big on the visualization. I think it adds a depth to it that is usually lost. I always think if it's Elemental strikes or animal strikes they should "feel" different because of the alignment and mental aspects without them it's just a "punch"

Yeah I agree there right animal for the right circumstances in my opinion. There's that also. That could be why alot of that is missed since no one ever actually studies them just the surface part of the techniques.

 

[CMyers0323]

I had found this site some years ago. They seem to have info on various styles. I'm not sure how accurate all of their info or stuff is but it's cool to see some others cover these styles

 

[Oily Dragon]

I had found this site some years ago. They seem to have info on various styles. I'm not sure how accurate all of their info or stuff is but it's cool to see some others cover these styles

This website is very suspect and having looked at it a bit today, I think I can safely say this school is not legitimate, based on their ridiculous website.

This is one of those sites that has "deadly" plastered all over, but no sparring.

Worse, they are covered with hanzi and translations that don't add up.

"Wu dang" for instance doesn't mean martial training as they claim. It's taken from Wudang Shan, an epicter of Taoism.

And...they claim lineage to the Qing Dynasty Imperial Court...I think it's a hodgepodge of made up stuff taught by Sinophiles to people in Colorado who just dont know better

Imperial Wu Tang Ch'uan | Wudang Quan

Imperial Wu Tang Chuan or Wudang Quan, is a Chinese Mixed Martial Art taught at Imperial Combat Arts school in Denver Colorado. Wu Tang Chuan contains several legendary Taoist martial arts known for...

imperialcombatarts.com

 

[CMyers0323]

This website is very suspect and having looked at it a bit today, I think I can safely say this school is not legitimate, based on their ridiculous website.

ive been a bit skeptical myself but i figured there might be some good info mixed in. the Xing YI stuff on the elements doesnt seem all to bad

 

[Oily Dragon]

ive been a bit skeptical myself but i figured there might be some good info mixed in. the Xing YI stuff on the elements doesnt seem all to bad

There are a lot of shady places out there that claim to be progenitors or some ancient Chinese style. Even novice kung fu students can sniff these places out with a little legit training.

I'm not saying nobody at that place has some sort of verifiable lineage but I've never seen such an over the top kung fu school website (and I've seen a lot of over the top schools).

If anything this is a good opportunity to develop your kung fu BS detector. I'm pretty sure that school has shown up other places online as highly sus, can't recall where.

When I doubt, ask people who knows, and we've got a great crew of legit people here, imho.

I'll look more at the animal stuff on the site and pick out what doesn't pass the sniff test.

 

[Darksoul]

When I lived in Denver that school wasn't far from me, although they have since changed location. Earlier versions of their website looked less full of b.s. but still very suspect. Would drive by occasionally and see them outside training but never really had a good look at them. They could be legit but they are definitely selling themselves in the wrong way.

 

[Oily Dragon]

When I lived in Denver that school wasn't far from me, although they have since changed location. Earlier versions of their website looked less full of b.s. but still very suspect. Would drive by occasionally and see them outside training but never really had a good look at them. They could be legit but they are definitely selling themselves in the wrong way.

The oddest thing about them is that most modern kung fu styles claim Chinese origins...not Manchurian.

That school makes a big deal about having an ancient lineage going back to the Qing Dynasty Imperial court ...who were essentially foreign Manchu invaders who were not Chinese but took control of mainland China for about 300 years. All throughout that is a history of Chinese martial arts sects taking up arms against the Qing.

The previous Ming Dynasty is considered to be the golden era of Chinese martial arts. So this school just by way of marketing is alienating practically every Chinese school out there, especially those that claim a connection to Shaolinquan or Wudangquan.

Even today, the Ming-era arts that survived the Qing occupation as well as the nationalist and communist tumults of the 20th century are considered the gold standard. And I know what those schools would probably think of this one in Denver.