Old Skool Chow Gar Southern Praying Mantis · Crawley, West Sussex
Chow Gar does not begin with techniques. It begins with attributes. Seven of them — and every traditional training method in the system exists to build one or more of them into a body that did not have them when it walked through the door.
This is the difference between knowing a movement and being able to use it. Two people can perform the same technique. Only one of them has the conditioning, the reflex, the flow, the accuracy, the intent and the power behind it. That is what the seven skills are for.
You are not expected to arrive with any of them. Nobody does. They are built, in order, over time, with a partner and under supervision.
Don’t collect techniques. Build attributes.
Skill 01 of Seven
破硬功 · 鐵臂鐵身
Conditioning the natural weapons of the body.
Every part of you that makes contact has to be trained to take contact. Pads, sandbags — and each other. Progressive, supervised, never reckless. Over time the forearms, hands, ribs and body stop flinching from impact and start delivering it. This is where iron body skill comes from.
Two-man conditioning · bag and pad work · iron dragon jars
Skill 02 of Seven
感聽橋覺勁
Spontaneous reflexes for close quarter fighting.
At close range there is no time to look, decide and then respond. We touch and we react — without thinking. The reflex has to already be there before it is needed. Two-man training exercises are what put it there. You cannot develop this skill on your own.
Two-man exercises · bridge contact drills · partner reaction training
Skill 03 of Seven
尋尋蟲手
The hands learn where to strike.
Not simply how to strike — where. Searching Insect Hands teaches the dim mak points of the body and how to find the openings in an opponent’s guard. The hands search, feel and locate the gap. Accuracy and intelligent target selection, not mysticism.
Bridge searching · partner application · target and anatomy work
Skill 04 of Seven
游游龍手
Swimming Dragons means to flow.
Your techniques flow from one into the next instead of stopping and restarting. Tight muscles restrict your power — a loose, connected body lets it travel. Power is not generated by one limb. It is generated by the whole body working as one.
Forms · flow drills · continuous bridge changing
Skill 05 of Seven
意意到力到
The mindset in training and in combat.
Intent generates power — the same technique with it and without it are two different techniques. It is also what keeps you going when your body wants to give up. Where the mind goes, the body follows. Every other skill is built on top of it.
Chi gung · focused striking · hard training under fatigue
Skill 06 of Seven
沉沉橋落馬
Compressing, like a snake.
Weight drops, ribs close, the stance roots and the whole body gathers into one connected mass. The coil loads. Nothing has been released yet — and that is the point. Without the sink there is nothing stored to release.
Stance work · chi gung · heavy arms (dou chong)
Skill 07 of Seven
吐吐勁
Releasing the explosive power.
What the sink loaded, the spit releases — all at once. No wind-up, no warning, no distance required. Ribs, waist and spine fire together and the force arrives from inches away. This is the signature of Southern Praying Mantis.
Rib bone power · short-range striking · partner testing
Conditioning and reflex cannot be learned from a video, and they cannot be learned in a crowded hall. That is why we cap every class at nine students.
Every master was once a beginner
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