SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
JANUARY 2024 PART 2
An old picture of Grandmaster Wong and Ku Ahmad, and they wrote "Silat Melay", an old book on the Malay Art of Defence
Question 1
It is great to know you are in excellent health and happiness!
— Sifu Roeland Dijkema, Shaolin Wahnam Netherlands
Answer
Thank you for your kind concern, but it is always good to take precautions especially when the world lockdown is still on. I hope the lockdown will soon be over and the world will carry on as usual.
You are one of my proudest disciples and it won't be difficult to learn from my website. You may even be better than many genuine masters.
Question 2
This weekend I learned "Crushing Fist" from Praying Mantis from your website.
Answer
Crushing Fist of Praying Mantis Kungfu was introduced by a "sidai" (or junior classmate) of Uncle Righteousness' time. He showed me a slap hand followed immediately with a cup fist, similar to Taijiquan "Punch below Sleeves".
You can counter this with a number of techniques. It is a wonder that we have improved tremendously.
I refer to the patterns in https://shaolin.org/shaolin/kungfu-sets/crushing-fist/pictures.html. It will be easier if you refer to the patterns by numbers.
For example, the first pattern, "Ready Position", is number 1; and the second pattern, "Ride Tiger Slant Punch", is number 2. It helps you to be sure of the patterns you refer to.
"Ride Tiger Slant Punch", a pattern from Praying Mantis Kungfu
Question 3
Can the pattern "Single Leg Double Palm Hit" be used to avoid a low leg attack and at the same time catch an opponent's hand attack (similar to "Tiger Leans on Wooden Door"), followed by a pattern like "Hook Hand Reverse Claw"?
Answer
A better technique is to chop the leg using "Trim Bamboo with Branches" or "Squatting Down Hand Sweep", while guarding his raised leg with your hand.
"Tiger Leans on Wooden Door", which I learned from Uncle Righteousness, uses two tiger-claws. Do you know why two tiger-claws are used?
It is to distract the opponent. He does not know which tiger-claws you are going to use.
Question 4
Is the hand form in "Hook Hand Reverse Claw" a Mantis Claw dim-mak attack to, for instance, the throat point?
Answer
"Hook Hand Reverse Claw" can be used as a "dim-mark" attack to the throat. The left open hand is to catch an opponent's counter-attack.
"Hook Hand Reverse Claw". a pattern from Praying Mantis Kungfu
Question 5
Can "Single Leg Bottom Strike" be used to counter "Ride Tiger Slant Punch"?
Can the pattern "Slant Body Left/Right Wind Hit" be used in a similar way to "Black Tiger Guards Door"?
Answer
If you are skilful, any pattern can be used as a counter. In Combat Sequence 1, "Single Tiger" is used to counter "Black Tiger", but "Black Tiger" can also be used to counter "Single Tiger".
This applies to "Slant Body Left/Right Wind Hit" and "Black Tiger Guards Door".
In "Black Tiger Guards Door", waist-rotation is very important. It is futile to block with the forearm as the established pattern suggests.
You can also hit the opponent or grab his groin. Do you know how it is done?
Question 6
Is it right to say that the set, and Praying Mantis in general, is sophisticated compared to modern fighting arts, but not as advanced as Southern Shaolin? Would it be correct to say that if all things are equal, a Tiger practitioner would win from a Praying Mantis practitioner as it uses more advanced techniques like Chin-Na and special Tiger Claw force?
Answer
Praying Mantis Kungfu was an established art in the northern monastery in Henan, founded by a secular disciple and spread by Taoists. It was skills rather than techniques that were more important.
If all things were equal, Southern Shaolin is the best as it is the pinnacle of kungfu development. It has both internal force and combat application in a kungfu set.
"Dim mark" and "chin-na" are two of the three "ultimate arts" in kungfu. They are lost arts.
Interestingly, the third art of the three "ultimate arts" is normally called "external" because we can see the combat application, though much of the art, like how to train internal force, is internal.
A few years ago I taught "dim mark" in the Dragon Strength Course. The other two arts in the course I taught were dragon force and dragon speed. I demonstrated dragon force, where internal force was focused, and dragon speed, where the movements were so fast that one could not see them, a few times.
"Dragon Strength Chi Circulation" set. A pattern, "Embracing the Sun", in the course.
Question 7
I would also think that using Dim-Mak with Dragon patterns is more effective than using Dim-Mak with patterns like "Riding Tiger Catching Cicada". Would that also be right?
Answer
I cannot find "Riding Tiger Catching Cicada". Do you mean "Praying Mantis Catches Cicada" in numbers 3 and 46? You can break an opponent's arm as he punches.
Most people do not know its combat application. They merely perform the outward forms.
I did not know its combat application during my students' days though I learned from Uncle Righteousness, who was a very good fighter.
Even when my "sidai" used a slap hand and a punch, I was so impressed that I learned this set.
Generally "dim mark" is used with "One-Finger Zen", "dragon hand" or "phoenix-fist".
Question 8
You mentioned a Praying Mantis Cotton Palm set you learned in the 1960s. Could you tell me a bit about the patterns in that set and the force training method?
Answer
I learned a "Praying Mantis Cotton Palm" set in the 1960s, but I can't remember the set. There was no internal force and no Cotton Palm, and I did not know Praying Mantis Kungfu.
I learned internal force from my third sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, the third generation successor from the Venerable Jian Nan of the southern Shaolin Monastery at Quanzhou.
Hence, a typical Shaolin Wahnam student is 10 times better than I during my students' days. You are an instructor and understand kungfu philosophy. You are more than 10 times better than I during my students' days.
Editorial Note: Roeland's questions are continued in January 2024 Part 3.
LINKS
Selected Reading
- The Unbelievable Chi Kung Course
- Shaolin Eighteen Techniques
- Is Wushu the Same as Kungfu?
- The Tactics of Cover and Strike
- Flowing Characteristic of Taijiquan