Mantis fight distance

[rox]

I'm looking forward to train mantis or wing chun next year, when I move to a bigger city. I see my style pretty useful on mid to long distance, but a little limited at close distances, so I would like a inside fighting style. I've never seen a mantis stylist sparring or something, but from what I read it seems like it fights close. Does it?

If someone could send me a link of a sparring clip or something, it would be of great help

 

[Autocrat]

I'm not a hundred percent certain, yet I believe it is primarily an "in close" system, lots of short range fast attacks, grabs etc. I think it is also High/Low as well, and utilises solid stances. Then again, I could be wrong.
I think there are also several variants on Mantis... Northen and Southern sort of thing, so it may depend on the origin of the style to how it works.

Best of luck!

 

[7starmantis]

Yes, mantis utilizes very close fighting. One of the main principles being to stay in contact with your opponent at all times. A good mantis fighter will allways be moving in and moving closer. It also uses different angles and a mantis fighter will step around and even behind you while staying in very close. I posted a clip of some mantis drills I found online in the video exchange thread......
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=340825#post340825
Its pretty good at showing some of the close fighting techniques.

7sm

 

[rox]

The video is great, 7*!
I think both wing chun or mantis would be suitable for me, then.
Thanks!

 

[AC_Pilot]

Both can be close in fighting but Mantis has two branches: Northern and Southern. The Northern stress weapons and some other longer range tools, while Southern is more close in, with trapping and wrist locks, including weapons as well. Savvy Jeet Kune Do folks extract techniques and concepts from both arts, (WC and PM) but most neglect some techniques in praying Mantis that can be very helpful.. certain traps and locks, that come incidentally during a fight, including leg traps (trapping kicks) that can finish an attack very quickly indeed. I have a complete set of 7 Star Southern Praying Mantis training tapes from Sifu Raul Ortiz, including sparring and self defense tapes, and I have extracted several mostly unknown techniques and concepts for my version of JKD.

 

[clfsean]

7 Star is Northern in origin, but became popular in the south due in large part to the Chin Woo (Jing Wu).

Southern Praying Mantis is Hakka in origin & nothing like Nothern anything.

 

[AC_Pilot]

It does get a bit confusing since the Southern style is apparently an offshoot, and seems to be heavily influenced by other Southern Gung Fu arts, but in the West (America) at least, they are promoted as two distinct branches of the same art. Most Americans would not be interested in Northern PM high flying kicks and such for self defense.. since we have few Mongol horsemen to deal with at this time :asian: If you have links to prove they are not related, please post them, I would be happy to learn any accurate history.

 

[7starmantis]

Both can be close in fighting but Mantis has two branches: Northern and Southern. The Northern stress weapons and some other longer range tools, while Southern is more close in, with trapping and wrist locks, including weapons as well.

Thats more of a stereotype or generalization than fact. Northern doesn't neccessarily stress weapons. Many northern PM system do use a bit more long fist techniques, but 7* in particular uses the least. What many see and label as long fist or long range techniques are often misunderstood techniques that are really used for much closer fighting.

7sm

 

[7starmantis]

Most Americans would not be interested in Northern PM high flying kicks and such for self defense.. since we have few Mongol horsemen to deal with at this time :asian:

Again, this is a generalization made usually from people who do not practice NPM. Most NPM (Northern Praying Mantis) does not include high flying kicks or anything of the like.

7sm

 

[clfsean]

Again, this is a generalization made usually from people who do not practice NPM. Most NPM (Northern Praying Mantis) does not include high flying kicks or anything of the like.

7sm

True... I've got a version Lan Jie & I've only got 1 kick in it & it's a knee kick.

 

[rox]

How do you PM guys defend muay-thay style kicks to the front leg? The stance seems to be a little more based on mobility, but it doesn't look easy to lift your leg or trap the low kicks.

 

[7starmantis]

How do you PM guys defend muay-thay style kicks to the front leg? The stance seems to be a little more based on mobility, but it doesn't look easy to lift your leg or trap the low kicks.

What stance are you refering to? We do alot of work on learning to lift the legs when needed. Thats probably the most common defense, is raising the leg to block. We do ALOT of conditioning as well on the legs.

7sm

 

[RHD]

I may be completely wrong with this, but isn't mantis particularly good at nailing an opponent in the process of them closing in?

Mike

 

[7starmantis]

Actually thats one of the main fighting principles in mantis. We will lure you in and then attack. Some of the mantis footwork gives a false distance feel as well to help in this principle.

7sm

 

[Trainwreck]

You mentioned the main fighting principles of Mantis, 7*. Please enlighten me - I'm supposed to learn the Shaolin variation of it soon and I'd like to get a head start.

 

[rox]

7star, I mean the stance adopted in the video, with the body low and the lags wide apart.

 

[7starmantis]

7star, I mean the stance adopted in the video, with the body low and the lags wide apart.

I'm guessing your talking about horse stance. For all the stance training we do in mantis, we do probably do double on transitioning stances. The most probable defense to what your talking about is either moving in closer and attacking thus shutting down the kick, or lifting the leg to block, or even shifting into the kick and attacking the leg as it kicks.There are so many different possibilities though, these are just a few.

7sm

 

[7starmantis]

You mentioned the main fighting principles of Mantis, 7*. Please enlighten me - I'm supposed to learn the Shaolin variation of it soon and I'd like to get a head start.

I'm not really sure what your asking. Your going to study the shaolin variation of what?

7sm

 

[rox]

I'm guessing your talking about horse stance. For all the stance training we do in mantis, we do probably do double on transitioning stances. The most probable defense to what your talking about is either moving in closer and attacking thus shutting down the kick, or lifting the leg to block, or even shifting into the kick and attacking the leg as it kicks.There are so many different possibilities though, these are just a few.

7sm

I don't mean a horse stance, I mean that one that is almos like it, but with legs wider. Something like this(sorry for the problematic communication, english's my second language):

Horse stance: |****|
The stance I mean: /****\

BTW, you very much answered the question, thanks.

 

[Trainwreck]

I'm not really sure what your asking. Your going to study the shaolin variation of what?

7sm

Sorry about the confusion. The Shaolin long form of Mantis.