Have any of you in the UK trained any Chow Gar praying mantis kung fu? I got the chance to train a little of it years ago, and didn't get too far before my instructor moved out of the area, but I liked what I saw. My instructor trained with Paul Whitrod sifu in London. Here are some clips of this style, they're from a school in Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0wRqR9J8WA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlInJFHw5mQ&feature=related

Video from a school in Essex:
http://www.chowgarprayingmantis.com/Chow%20Gar%20Basic%20Breaks%20and%20Takedowns.htm

Let me know what you guys think.

Always liked those entries.

cool work ethic and style--for the two way conditioning [1st two clips].
i liked the absense of kicks personally, and the quick in head work and head-controls.
does anyone know if it has non-stationary applications, i wondered how much forward
drive they incorporate. my first thought was being stuck in a closed area and having to
use all the range weapons available in a sticky hands sort of fluid way to include head butting
[which i love more than i should for the few brain cells still sparking within].

okay, off to my knife training--on route from my other short blast combatives class. it's going
to be an ibuprofen night

Never trained it. Used to be a Steel Wire Praying Mantis here in Exeter, Under Tony Leung. Mix of Chow Gar Praying Mantis & Hung Gar. People who did it seemed to like it.

Those vids were interesting, not sure why they were striking to the thickest part of the head though & as Rus said would be nice to see it against an opponent who is moving. Rarely see headbutts in CMA, occasionally see it in chop socky films, makes me think of the fight scene in the toilet in Jet Lee's Unleashed.

It looked impressive.

To be honest, I trained in 5 pattern Hung Kuen for 5 years & it has coloured CMA irrevocably for me.

I always feel that the obsession with stylisation in certain CMA ruins its effectiveness as does flawed technical understanding of body mechanics.

But thats just me.

Incidentally you may like to read this.

http://www.yiquan-academy.eu/readarticle.php?article_id=22

A good friend and old training partner of mine trains with Paul Whitrod in Mantis and Xingyi and rates the training very highly. This is a guy who has paid his dues and trained with some top guys so I value his opinion.

Another buddy of mine is a private student of Siukee Wong. Wong is very skilled and is keen on breaking down the practical applications by understanding the principles that hide within the forms. His website is here:

http://www.shaolinancestors.com/

The forms I was didn't have any deep stances, just a plain old walking stance. Russ, we were told in applications to apply forward pressure, keeping your partner off balance with shoves and strikes. Punches were usually done with the phoenix eye fist, which I didn't care for, I don't think I'll have time to hunt for the right acupuncture points to hit in a real situation. One of the forms shows a nifty forearm strike to the side of the neck, I was told this can be dangerous because if you do it right, the muscle spasms and constricts the carotid. What I really liked were the hammerfist strikes because the movements were similar to the double stick siniwali drills in kali. Put a palm stick of marker pen in your hand and it's pretty effective. I couldn't get the hang of combining speed with the short range power like the good Chow Gar people do, though.

Some of the more exotic aspects of the art:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyNmV2Y43ko&feature=related

I take it all back. Check out grandad. Parry & kick to the balls.