| Defining the best Shaolin Kung Fu is a tough | | | | There are two types of Praying Mantis styles, the |
| question, considering the high quality of this martial | | | | north and the south, and these can further be |
| art. I mean, people don't teach it just to make | | | | broken down into styles. The main feature of this |
| money, they teach it for passion and love of art. | | | | style is the hooking and clawing movements, |
| Still, we should be able to focus in on how to | | | | which enable one to keep an opponent trapped |
| isolate the best gung fu. | | | | long enough to dispatch him. This is a strong |
| First, even thought they be interesting, we can | | | | contender, but tends to be a bit specialized. |
| usually dismiss such arts as Lohan Quan. The | | | | There are also many styles of Wing Chun, which |
| reason for this is because they are a different | | | | is the art made famous by Bruce Lee, and which |
| kind of kung fu. Wushu is actually a martial art | | | | features the close in handwork of the Sticky |
| that has been largely developed by the | | | | Hands exercise. Sticky Hands has possibly the |
| communist government of China, and one does | | | | best method for developing 'closed eye' intuition. It |
| not feel like learning something which has politically | | | | does have several weakness, such as immobile |
| correct overtones, and from which the self | | | | stances, workability concentrated in on specific |
| defense techniques have been removed. | | | | distance, and so on. |
| So we stick with the old styles of Chinese Gung | | | | A very strong martial art, but lacking some of |
| Fu, the styles that leaked out of China before the | | | | the close quarter work of the previous arts |
| great cultural revolution. These were the arts | | | | considered, is Hung Gar. Hung Gar is very simliar |
| taught through the generations, passed from | | | | to Choy Li Fut and Fut Ga, and other arts, and it |
| family member to family member in order to | | | | is considered to be the most true shaolin style in |
| develop a true martial arts lineage. These are the | | | | China. For all it's strength, however, it does reveal |
| Kung Fu styles in which the fires of true self | | | | certain weaknesses, the main one being that the |
| defense techniques were considered as holy. | | | | techniques don't always fit real life situations. |
| Many of these old Gung Fu schools claim they are | | | | Now, of the three arts, I believe Praying Mantis |
| descended from the Shaolin Temple, but there is | | | | Gung Fu may have the upper hand. However, this |
| no real proof that can be verified. Still, people | | | | is a personal opinion, and one should really study all |
| accept certain martial arts styles as the real deal | | | | three arts and concentrate on the points which |
| when it comes to these claims. Thus we end up | | | | interest one the most. Really, in the final analysis, |
| with three specific martial arts which have good | | | | the best Shaolin Kung fu is going to be that art |
| lineage, and present such high quality of Shaolin | | | | which has been made personal, and which fits the |
| technique that they can be looked to as a | | | | the mind and frame of the student. |
| possible answer to our question. | | | | |