Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu

Original Name: 

螳螂拳 - tánglángquán / meaning: "praying mantis fist"

Founded By: 

Wang Lang (王朗)

Country of Origin: 

China

 

Introduction: 

 

It should firstly be noted that Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu is a completely unrelated martial arts style to Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu.

 

As the name suggests, the Praying Mantis Kung Fu Style is a school of Kung Fu that has taken inspiration from the unique fighting technique of the Praying Mantis insect. Amongst all the animal Kung Fu styles, this is the most widely followed and the most ruthless of them all. It is one of the many Kung Fu forms, which had the Shaolin Temple act as a catalyst for their origin and promotion. The founder of this innovative form of martial art was a master named Wang Lang, who invented this form, while China was under the Ming Dynasty.

 

The art of Praying Mantis Kung Fu, which was designed by Wang Lang, is known as the Seven Stars School. It remains the most popular style even in today’s times, in spite of the introduction of various other forms like Six Harmonies, Eight Step, Tai Chi and Closed Door. These new forms of Kung Fu came into existence, when a few of Lang’s disciples claimed to have formulated strategies that were better than his. These disciples were allowed to come up with their own individual versions of this style of Kung Fu, but none of them managed to get the same kind of recognition as the Seven Stars School.

 

More information about style: 

 

The Praying Mantis Kung Fu Style was developed mainly for self defense purposes. The students learning this martial art form are taught some extraordinary kicking and grabbing movements. All the hand movements that are incorporated in this style of Kung Fu resemble the tactics of a Praying Mantis, but the foot movements of the insect are slow and weak, which could pose a threat to the safety of the person practicing this style of Kung Fu. Hence, the footwork is inspired by the monkey. The swift, quick and strong movements of a monkey are ideal for self defense as well as attack. This incredible combination of the aggressiveness of the praying mantis and the monkey justify the efficiency of this martial art form.

 

The Praying Mantis form of Kung Fu constitutes of the hard as well as the soft theories of martial art accompanied by a lot of variations in trapping, throwing, locking, striking, kicking and ground techniques. Some of the common moves that are extensively used are the triple pluck, chokehold technique, spear hand and the mantis hook. The variations in the hand and foot actions involved in the Praying Mantis Kung Fu Style ensure that the student does not entirely depend on the use of power alone. The practitioners of this Kung Fu form try their level best to defend themselves from any kind of attack. In a situation that the attack does happen, they use their swift movements to take charge over their opponent and overpower him.

 

In order to be a practitioner of the Praying Mantis Kung Fu Style, one has to have extremely strong body – mind coordination. The body, mind and spirit of the student have to work in tandem with each other or the consequences could prove to be fatal. Hence, this martial art will demand a lot of exercise and discipline on the mental, spiritual as well as physical grounds.