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There are several Chinese martial arts known as Snake Boxing or Fanged Snake Style, which imitate the movements of snakes. It is a style of Shaolin Boxing. Proponents claim that adopting the fluidity of snakes allows them to entwine with their opponents in defense and strike them from angles they wouldn't expect in the offense. The Snake style is said to lend itself to applications with the Chinese straight sword. The Snake is also one of the animals imitated in Yang family Taijiquan, Baguazhang, and Xingyiquan. The curved, fluid motion of the Snake lends itself to the practical theory that underlies the "soft" martial arts. The Snake develops temperance and endurance. Breathing improves through the techniques, and the movements appear flowing and rippling with emphasis on the fingers.

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Most Martial Arts styles, especially Chinese martial arts, have formal routines. These routines are the technique encyclopedia of Kung Fu. Forms contain all the basics, self-defense, and fighting strategies. Forms also teach you to move from one technique to another and improve flexibility, strength, concentration, and endurance.

Forms are style-specific. What I mean by that is that the techniques contained in each form are specific to that style and movement strategies. For example, Praying Mantis forms differ from Hung Gar (Tiger Crane Forms), which differ from Eagle Claw. Each style of Kung Fu uses different types of hand, foot, and blocking techniques. The forms exemplify the flavor of the method. Mantis forms are quick and fast, using the Mantis claw to trap and unbalance the opponent. Hung Gar forms use more stationary stances with lower kicks, and the hand forms emphasize the claw of the Tiger that the practitioner uses for striking and clawing an opponent. Eagle Claw uses long-range and flowering hand techniques to block and trap opponents with their claws for locking and pressure points.

The techniques found in the forms teach fighting and self-defense. By learning the techniques within the formal routines, you're also improving your fighting and self-defense skills. You're practicing and refining your methods: punching, blocking, kicking, etc. You develop speed, power, timing, concentration, strength, and flexibility.

Forms teach you to move fluidly from one move to another with many different stances and combination techniques. These routines prepare you to defend yourself against multiple opponents from various directions. You learn evasion, using postures to unbalance opponents, vital points, proper power points, and when to use kicks and punches depending on the Critical Distance Line.

Forms improve concentration by forcing your mind to remember a series of movements. However, this concentration involves more than just the mind. The body also takes part in muscle memory. Sometimes, when practicing a routine, the mind loses focus only to be continued by the body through muscle memory. I often urge students to do their stances or techniques better because when there is no specific stance or method associated with a movement, the body has trouble deciding what to do next. Thus, routines build mind and body harmony.

Coordination is another critical element developed through forms. Many students have excellent coordination doing specific techniques such as a punch or a block and punch but need help performing routines. Forms require a higher degree of coordination than individual movements. Coordination involves the hands, hips, and legs for stances and kicks. Coordination leads to smoother execution of techniques and more power generation because the muscles cooperate rather than against each other. The student must continually learn to coordinate different stances and techniques throughout the routine because of the multitude of different techniques and the continuous motion from one method to the next. Routines take years of practice to master. Each routine has its own specialized movements, so each form is unique in developing coordination skills.

Forms took years to develop, with each master incorporating new thoughts and ideas into the style. A simple explanation for development was that someone got attacked. He then produced a block and counter for that attack and practiced these two techniques. If he gets attacked again and someone counters the striking technique, he later develops another block and counter. A master could also take a specific principle from the system, such as evasion, and develop an entire routine emphasizing that characteristic.

Many forms of kung fu were also animal-specific. For example, the Eagle Claw has a Leopard form. This routine doesn't use the half-clenched fist but emphasizes the Leopard's speed. Eagle Claw's Tiger form emphasizes the Tiger's strength and power rather than the clawing hand techniques used in the Tiger claw system.

Ground Fighting involves a variety of techniques to defend yourself on the ground. Kung Fu teaches you to avoid getting knocked down to the ground. Kung Fu uses a variety of footwork, postures, angles, and critical distance. However, you can never predict when a confrontation might end on the ground. Kung Fu has many techniques to defend yourself on the ground.

This month's special Master's club class is ground fighting. The first two techniques you will learn in a ground fighting class are the Spider Run and Crab Walk. These two ground exercises allow you to move quickly away or even toward your opponent for an offense.

Next, you'll learn the fighting strategies from the ground. For example, we covered simple palm blocks, eagle claw grabs, and the flower leg technique in kung fu. You also learn several kicking techniques, including the Front Heel Kick and Side Cutting Kick.

Next, you explore how to sweep an opponent to the floor. Sweeps are used from the ground fighting position or just a standing position. Some of these sweeps include the Reverse Sweep, the Forward Sweep, the Iron Broom Sweep, and the full Circle Reverse Sweep; they are always a lot of fun! Once you get this arsenal of weapons down, you'll have more strategies and techniques from the ground, or you can sweep your opponent to the ground.

Suppose you get into a self-defense situation, and an attacker moves in quickly. You drop and sweep his legs from under him, and down he goes. That allows you to leave the area and avoid further conflict. More advanced strategies include using the third leg to unbalance the opponent to drive him to the ground. Once on the ground, you have opportunities for various locks.

Lucas Gomez
Lennon Stutzman
Prasanth Prabhakaran
Alejandro Pazos
Michael Waligora
Debbie Neely
Sarah Maynard-Murry
Janet Sapet
Chiara Signorelli
Jane Maynard-Murry
Piper Maynard-Murry
Vishaka Bharath
Kathy Vactor
Stephanie Stepanow
Alexandra Pappas
Arlene Smith
Dave Smith
Becky Pedersen
Rhys Ireland

Lucas Palladino
Sandy McKnight
Kaden Sturges
Troy Jindra
Stanley Grubjeric
Leslie Green Guilbault
Stephanie Hawkins
Linda Gagliardo
Matthew Yarbough-Hoskey
Nate Rossman
Cynthia Vale
Siobahn Rossman
Robert Rivera
Adam Henger
Andrea Noyes
George Klayko

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