NaamKyun.com Discussion Forum

IMO the concept of animals in five-pattern hung kuen seems to depend entirely on handshape... If you look above, you will see the same stance referred to as "Dragon stance" then "tiger", then "tiger" same as "leopard"
", and again same for "snake" and "crane"! The only thing that changes here, apart from 2 practitionners with slightly different habits and one with a markedly "hollow back" habit is the hands shapes...

This is not at all how the Hung Gar I know views the animals. Animals to us are much more holistic and include whole different strategies and methodologies.

By the way - Phoenix-eye fist - Fung An Choy - is also a crane technique in HK/Canton Hung Gar, but also as you pointed out in shaolin (fukkien) crane.

As others have said, the Yuen Kik Kai Five-Pattern Hung-Kyun referred to in this series of books is very different from WFH/Canton HungGar.


While it's origins are based in Shaolin , it's much closer to hakka arts than WFH hung gar , and relies on extreme hand /finger conditioning for success.

As to the applications being "Hokey", they're not useless ... provided you have had insane hand / finger conditioning. One just has to look at the pictures provided by Yuen Kik Kai to see that it can be effective, if you have put in the time to condition hands and fingers.

Then again, If you had put in the conditioning, your WHF hung-gar would also be most powerful.

I'm not sure that most people today are willing to put in this much time on conditioning .

There is an old video I saw once with the last venerable abott doing one finger vertical pushups. I believ his name was something like abott Ho-Tang I think, of the northern Shaolin temple. This was when the temple had only five "gardeners" , before Jet-Li movies sparked a PRC renewal of the temple.

AnywaysThe man was clearly in his golden years, and He demonstrated vertical push-ups on his 2 index fingers alone, with no other support.
He was therefore able to put his fingers through heavy punching bags quite easily.

So if you put in the time for conditioning, all kinds of "Hokey- looking" things become useful, but then again so would less "hokey-looking" less inventive large-frame movements.

The "Hokey' looking applications only real shine through if you have knowledge of pressure points, which I don't and which also require extensive knowledge.

This seems to be a low ROI in an age where hardcore hand-to-hand fighting is much less frequent than it used to be. It made sense for monks though, who could dedicate a lifetime to learning.


Cheers.


Update:
Ok I found a video of the same abbot, but it's a different video then the one I saw a long time ago, He was in his 90's at the time this was shot. I also got his name wrong, but close enough.

He passed away, he was one of the "temple gardeners" after the cultural revolution , when the last few true monks ahd to hide their identities and their art, before Jet Li movies spurred on the PRC Shaolin revival . With him passed away One of the last great men of his generation, who had learned real Shaolin and not the new WuShu.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rODg8lRV8Cc&search=gongfu%20shaolin[/youtube]


Cheers.