Rolling...

[Eric]

The few times I've seen anything close to mantis, (usually in videogames or movies) they seem to be rolling on the ground for advance and retreat. Being that I've seen several references to mantis' "swift footwork" on a couple forums, I was hoping someone could clarify how exactly mantis handles moving around, rolling or stepping?

[shirkers1]

I study northern mantis and the only rolling that I've seen is in the drunken set. Now that doesn't mean there isn't any more but that's all I've seen. The footwork is taken from the monkey footwork. It's kind of like a shuffling movement. The front leg is bent, and the back leg is close to 90 degrees bent with the heel up, the back leg is a spring shooting forward. If you are shooting back the front leg is the spring so on and so on. It's very mobile and ambidextrous.

When I train footwork I use these patterns, forward, back right, left, angle right, angle left, jump forward, jump back and switching the feet from right front to left front. The basic is just the x pattern. forward, back, left and right. I mix it up so it's not routine I call out the movement and everyone reacts without thinking about it. That way in a combat situation when the opening happens you move without thought.

hope this helps. :)

[Eric]

Thanks, that answers the rolling question, I'm going to have to look for some photos online to figure out exactly what you meant with the footwork, cause I'm 100% positive that what I'm pictureing is not how it actually works.

Thanks again!

[shirkers1]

I'm hoping to get some videos up soon. I'll post the link on here when I do.

[Shanghai_kid]

We don't do a lot of rolling either ;) The clue is that it was seen mainly in video games and movies.

The drunken form? Interesting. We don't have that, but I'm fairly confident in saying that 7 star mantis clubs with Wong Hon Fun in their lineage will have it.

It's all good.

Talking of movies with rolling ... has anyone seen the Shaw Brothers movie called Hung Fist and Wing Chun - English release title "Martial Arts of Shaolin"?

The heroes have to take out two Manchurian steel skin expert and Gordon Liu (On his debut role) has to learn "Rolling Claw" in order to fight the bad guys?

Nothing to do with Praying Mantis though ;)

[Savi]

Do you find that it gets difficult to maintain such agility to do this kind of footwork as you get older; wear and tear on the knees and/or lower back issues?

If I am correct, in order to keep up with your body maintenance, you should have some type of system like Chi Gung / other internal/soft exercises to balance out the "physical" external training methods. Does Praying Mantis have something akin to this?

In HFYWCK, there are various chi development exercises symbiotic to its body mechanics exercises. I understand this to be a trait of primarily Shaolin-based arts, though HFY is not as acrobatic as what we see today in Shaolin and Wu Shu.

[Ba Bu]

This is one of the main reasons 8 step mantis was created. The masters found that as they got older it was hard to preform the footwork of Preying Mantis. The footwork also takes a lot of energy. so Grandmaster Jiang Hualong created Eight Step which has lighter footwork and more 'hopping'

[Eric]

Hey Shirkers1, any progress on those videos?

[shirkers1]

No I suck. I will do it though, I just need to get someone to come over on the weekend and help me film. Our practices usually run around 3 hours so by the time we are done no one can stay after to help film. Sorry it's taking so long. But those are just excuses. :)

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