Shaolin kung fu techniques

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2000 | 9:31 a.m.

According to some teachers, Shaolin kung fu bases its techniques on "classical" and "nonclassical" animal styles, with each animal reflecting a range of strategies.

There are five classical animals:

Tiger: Strengthens the bones. Relies on frontal assault, aggression and power. Lots of breaking, ripping and tearing.

Leopard: Trains for muscle strength. More precise than the tiger. Relies on great muscular strength. The Leopard employs many crushing techniques and a lot of internal strikes with the hands. It gets in close to do its damage.

White Crane: Trains flexibility. Prefers to work at a distance from the opponent and at angles off-line from his attacks. Requires great flexibility for its attacking and evasion techniques. The Crane has excellent balance and is very good at disturbing the balance of others. It has strong wings and uses them often and effectively.

Dragon: Trains spirit. Uses simple, basic techniques with a challenging strategy of movement complementary to the opponent's (when he advances, I retreat; when he retreats, I advance). Prefers zigzagging motions. The Dragon has a lot of floating motion and a lot of swinging around and whipping.

Snake: The Snake goes for vital points. The eyes and throat being common targets.

The following is a partial list of nonclassical animal styles, which are more concerned with particular strategies and techniques, and not as much with an all-encompassing world view of combat.

Praying Mantis: A combination of a set of sophisticated deflections, counters and grappling movements. The fundamental strategy of Praying Mantis is to wait patiently for an opening, then tie the opponent's arms with a grappling technique and strike into soft areas and nerve centers.

Shaolin Bird: The strategic assumption in Shaolin Bird style is that the opponent is larger and stronger. The Bird stylist compensates by leaping in to deliver a flurry of strikes, and then leaping back out of range; or, by goading the opponent into a charge and sidestepping while striking. Bird style relies on quick transitions between low and high attacks and stances, sudden reversals of direction, long-range jumps to cover ground quickly and well-developed stamina. Bird forms emphasize elbows and finger thrusts to soft targets.

Monkey: Monkey style also assumes that the opponent is larger and stronger, and compensates by making it hard to reach or hold onto its practitioner. The Monkey stylist jumps, flips, rolls and climbs to avoid his attacker. He attacks from peculiar angles, and contorts his body to strike when the opponent believes himself safe. Monkey stylists like to tease their opponents into rash action and take advantage of their rashness.

Eagle Claw: Eagle claw relies on very powerful seizing, pinching, twisting and locking techniques to immobilize or punish an attacker. It employs leverage and joint manipulation to defeat an opponent.