Puyot Combat Systems

I thought his was very good and in line with my teaching. Techniques are not the same but principles are.

Please tell me your thoughts about the quality of this sparring?

Nice set, practical, I learned this system from my Mantis teacher.

I was just talking to someone about the lack of ground fighting in Kung Fu. I explained that I had two main theories about this. One was that once someone had knocked you to the ground you have lost and not need to continue. The second and the way I was taught was when you throw someone, you do it in such a way that their head hits the ground and if you can, you prevent them from using their hands to brace the fall. The ground is the weapon and it is quite effective. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie twins, "The ground never misses". Today I finally got to see a great example of this in the movie " The Old Guard" the good guy used what I was taught as kneeling throw. Judo has the same throw but I forget the name. This method of throwing is becoming a lost art.

Lineage I remember back in the early 80’s, I was with my teacher learning Mantis boxing. I was learning the form Beng Bu at various points in the form my teacher would say Sifu Chiu Luen does it this way, Lee Kam Wing does it this way, Bobby Jeung does it like this. He would then explain why each teacher did it differently and how it modified the application in some way. They all made sense and they were all from respected teacher’s, but they were a different. The one I... thought was the most practical was the version from Bobby Jeung but it was the one that deviated the most. I don’t know much about Jeung Sifu other than he was in a special branch of Law Enforcement and used his art in numerous street encounters. My teacher also told me he would hit the inside walls of elevators with a two-finger strike and it would shake the entire elevator. Does it matter what line you follow? Yes and no, if you want to learn forms and your teacher only teaches a few, you have the wrong teacher. If you want to learn fighting and your teacher has little fighting experience or does not have a method of teaching fighting, then you have the wrong teacher. If you want culture and tradition and your teacher does not know it you get the idea. My advice Seek the teacher that does what you are looking for. If you do not learn what you are looking for after three years, it’s time to find a new teacher. Don’t delay, life is short, time is short. The name of your teacher does not matter, nor the gender, race, ethnicity. What the right teacher can show you in a short time is major. Travel do what you need to get the knowledge The only thing that matters to me is what they can teach me.

Sparring in Mantis Kung Fu Rant of the day win a prize Lately I have been watching a number of videos of people sparring. They state they are practitioners of Mantis Kung fu yet I see no mantis in the sparring. What do I see? I see side kicks, rear leg round kicks, Jabs, right cross with the non-striking hand doing nothing. I see the use of boxing gloves and shin pads. This is all contrary to my understanding of mantis and how it is applied. If you want to learn... to fight with mantis, you need to understand how the techniques are used. What techniques are used to open, what to follow up with, what are the transitions to throwing. It is important to understand the difference between sparring for sport or sparring for fighting. In sport there is some thought to the number of strikes. The strikes add up, they score points. In fighting the objective is to end things fast and effectively. The sparring for fighting should always include groin shots, the neck is a valid target for light contact, sparring with eye shots can be done with a face shield. There is no jab, every punch can end the fight when gloves are not used. Stop throwing multiples. There is no rear leg round kick in mantis, it turns the body in a way that is not consistent with the movements and strategies. There is only one side kick and it is only done to the knee and only when the hands are engaged. Question In the form Beng Bu, where is the side kick? Be the first to respond and win a free Puyot Combat systems t-shirt.

I like this one for the most part.

Things that make you think. Notice this is not an issue with mantis.

Training with the right mindset is essential. And drilling with proven techniques is the difference between life and death. Finding a true master is the most important step. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

7 Stars Praying Mantis Yu Tianlu Yu Tianlu, from Yantai, Shandong. Seventh-generation heir of Qixing Tanglang Boxing, Chinese martial art Qiduan. At ag...e 7 he went under the tutelage of Qixing (7 Stars) Tanglang boxing master Lin Jingshan. In 1960, Yu Tianlu joined the martial arts team of the Sports Department of Shandong Institute of Physical Education as a professional athlete, where he stayed for eight years. After his retirement in 1999, Yu Tianlu's enthusiasm for martial arts remained unabated. In 2004, he was elected to the Yantai Martial Arts Association. Master Yu passed in 2014.

Finally a Tai Ji teacher keeping it real. I follow this teacher, it's called the Practical method. They believe in sparring not just push hands.

I had a question about sparring, I thought it would be good to share with everyone. How should we spar? Good question, It depends on what you want to get out of it. No matter what the objective, 80% of the time it should be done easy. (You’re in it for the long run) Don’t get hurt but make contact on everything. 15% of the time it should be at a medium speed with medium contact. 5% or less should be fast and hard. This can be at full contact tournament, challenge or stre...et fight. This teaches you a bunch. Once you have experience you can do less of this or not at all. Here is the test. If you fight differently when you turn it up, then something is wrong. If we add speed and power and you start looking like kickboxing, then you are not training properly or your training the wrong things at slower speed. I see this in other arts like Wing Chun guys doing only Chi Sao. When they spar free style the chi sao range part might be 5 % of the interaction so this is a lot of waisted time. Tai Chi guys do push hands but no sparring, when free fighting, what do you do if the enemy will not engage in stand-up grappling. These are all good training method’s, but they are all just parts of a fight. There are several categories you should train. They include but not limited to, bridging and long range striking, middle range striking, stand-up grappling, throwing or counter throwing, ground fighting or ground proofing. Then there is sparing for speed, timing, technique and power. These can be done at the same time, but it is much harder if you try to work on everything at one time. Work the parts then work it all together. What gear is best to use? I like the idea of using Headgear with face shield, mouthpiece, cup and no gloves or just something to cover your knuckles from the face shield plastic. There is a time and a place for gloves but when you use gloves then people only use the hand as a fist. When increasing contact, I like the MMA style gloves. Remember, if your fighting is not looking like your forms than change one of them. Note: I don't use headgear most of the time but until students get accustomed to head contact it is a better transition. Head contact can be difficult for some students. It's also safer if you are running a public school. Hope this helps some of you.

I was recently watching a kung fu instructor demonstrating application to his students and it was astonishing how clueless this instructor was. I searched throu...gh his media posts and they were filled with fanciful poses from his forms and applications trying to justify these movements as having some self defense value. This lead me to reflect on the difference in Function vs. Application training. This a key difference between real and imitation fighting. Its too easy to create an application from a form that has no bearing on reality. When you see a practitioner fight or spar vastly different than their training drills or taining forms, this is because their training is empty except for performance value. This is an example of application over function and is sadly very common with many kung fu or karate systems. My QiXing Tanglang instructor, Tony Puyot, calls this fighting against a one armed man. There is nothing wrong with this if your focus is performance dance. Dancing and performing are fun! However, it has no place in self defense & combat training. When you are learning to defend yourself, ensure you are learning functional training that has value against a non compliant opponent vs staged application. See more

If you want your students to use the art you are teaching then teach them to spar and fight with it. Don't teach to spar with kickboxing and expect them to be able to use mantis. This is something that bothers me to no end. Teacher teaching traditional Martial arts, yet training like this. I guess if your training students for tournaments. Just because you know some martial arts does not mean you know how to train students for this kind of fighting. i have also seen him tr...y some ground submissions and it was clear he was not qualified. If your a Nascar driver it does not mean you can drive Formula 1, off road or drag race. some things might be similar but in no way does that make you qualified. I do not want to disrespect this teacher but to use this video as an example of teaching in an incorrect method or outside of their expertise.

Great for training explosive power through a range of motion. Make your Kung Fu strong again.

Why! those of you who have studied form me know that I want you to ask "Why" about everything I teach. This is not a lack of respecting the teacher but the most respect by wanting to fully understand.

Puyot Combat systems in Tennessee. Sad for me and my local students but great opportunity for those in the midwest. My senior student Sifu Mark Melton has moved to Knoxville, Tn. He hopes to be setting up classes in the future once he is a bit more settled. Sifu Mark knows my system and more importantly my teaching method.

Beng Da The 12- word characters formula is said to be the theoretical foundation of the Northern Mantis System. What is not widely known in the mantis community is that the 12 characters formula has a significant amount of variation within the mantis system and within the seven-star mantis system itself. I have compiled a list of over 20 versions of the 12 Characters formula and found only one that contains the Character for Da to beat. The Lo Kwang Yu branch it the onl...y one containing Da. This leave us to speculate why Master Lo would have a different version of the 12 Characters formula than his senior school bothers. I will not speculate on this point but want to focus on what Beng Da is trying to teach us. I have seen that in the mantis community, most consider Beng Da to be a backfist attack. My issue with this is, How is one strike be a theory and what makes it so important to be one of the 12 key principles. When Backfist is listed in mantis documents it’s called Beng Choy collapsing fist. Beng is used to describe a backfist or the collapsing nature of the arm as a backfist is executed. Beng is also used to describe the Collapsing nature of a stepping maneuver called Beng Bu and the namesake of one of the original Forms. Lastly Beng is used to describe the collapse in stance. The Beng Da to me is not a technique but a principle. That being to collapse or recede from an attack and Da to strike after receding. The collapse can be a collapsing the stance to avoid an attack, collapse in footwork to move way, the Strike moving in to hit the enemy before he has had time to finish the attack and form a solid defense. Secret app: bridge with Beng to engage both hands and beat. In the future I hope to do a video explaining this principle in detail.

Forms training I had a friend long ago that enjoyed collecting swords. He loved them and would buy swords from all parts of the world including fantasy swords. He had Roman swords, Chinese swords, English swords and Japanese swords. He would swing them around in their tradition method. He asked me what I thought the best sword was and what method was best. I told him the best sword is the one in your hand when you need it, the best system is the one you have worked to a ...high level of skill and understanding. I went on to tell him that I only knew two sword forms, one was a single hand saber form and other was a two-handed chopper form. I had known and practiced both forms for over 30 years. I told him to get one of his best swords, I had him to block my attack and I let him know if he missed the attack I would not hit him. I also told him what the attack was going to be so there was no mystery on what he needed to do. I attacked, he blocked (well put his sword up) the sword went flying out of his hand and was badly bent. After that day, he got rid of all the swords, he saved his money and purchased one a real samurai sword and started training in Iaido and Kendo. I see people posting video after video of themselves doing forms and I just shake my head. I see someone doing a form with no power, maybe some speed (they confuse as power) poor footwork and terrible stances. Why would anyone post this? They don’t know any better and think because someone calls them sifu they believe they know what they are doing. I also see people doing form after form from various systems. They are all done with the same flavor and clearly the performer has no understanding of the movements or system. All they have done is collected a bunch of junk swords or good swords but with no edge that will never be sharpened. Here is the tip let’s start with just three months. Do only one form, do it all the time, in the grass in the dirt, on a hill, in a 4’ square, blindfolded, for speed, for power, on the opposite side, backwards and any other way you can think of including the applications. After three months you will see the techniques in your fighting, you will see the form becomes part of your natural movement. Now picture how good you would be after 20 years. Learn all the forms you want but master them one at a time.

If you develop artistry but fail to train skill, for your whole life you will have achieved nothing. I took this from a book by Wong Hon Fan. It is so true of those that practice mainly forms. At most, forms should be 20% of your training. In this way you will spend the time training skill not artistry.

Cool set, practical not flashy crap.

Is Kung Fu about fighting? It is very easy for people to say, Kung Fu is not about fighting when they do not have to fight. What if the threat of fighting was immanent? What if fighting was a regular occurrence in your life, would you then say Kung Fu is not about fighting. Kung Fu can be a lot of other things such as personal development, exercise entertainment, a hobby but ultimately it is about fighting and those that say otherwise more than likely cant fight. They fool themselves and others with this higher Idea. Let’s remember it was created for fighting and to gain higher meaning above fighting you must be able to fight at a high level. It’s the depth of your knowledge and skill not the amount.

You hire a fishing guild so you can catch fish, where, when, how. Would you ever hire a guild then do your own thing, use your own methods when it is clear he knows better? This is my frustration and rant. Martial artist come to me and want me to guild them so they can reach a high level of skill and understanding. Some study remotely making it more challenging. Most, if not all follow me on the path but constantly deviate and go back to doing their own thing part of the wa...y or don’t follow my directions. It normally takes a few years before they become frustrated and wonder why they cannot reach the level of my senior students in my school. Some are ok with this as now they are the big fish in a small pond. They believe they are highly skilled because they are better than the few they encounter. Others get frustrated and quit thinking they learned what they could, but it did not work as good as they thought it would. Follow the guild if you want to get to the top of the mountain in this lifetime or you can continue to go back and forth in the meadow.

This is the only other non-mantis set I do. I learned it from Brian Kennedy the author of several great books. It was back in 1981 and I have been doing it ever since. If I understand correctly it was crated by Master Kai from Tai mantis as he's version of Gung Lik Kuen. Maybe someone knows more? It is a very good set for application

My Solo Training Training with my Masters, it was me and the master and the master’s would not do drills or spar with me. This left a huge void in my training program as I place a high value on sparring and drills. I started thinking of what the martial community is doing during this time of Pandemic and find some of the methods I used might be helpful. Forms practice This has been a bit controversial in the past and in some circles, still is. Here is what I see be...Continue reading

This is the Eight elbows I do now, it is from Lin Dong Shu

SIFU TEDDY LAI TRAINING FOR CHUK KAI TAICHI PRAYING MANTIS KUNGFU ~ [CANE] NORTHERN STYLE IN HONG KONG ~ [] -

I like this form.

Strike drill #2 Forgot strike #7

Striking drill #1

Sifu Tony Puyot performing Praying Mantis kung fu at our annual get together.

Good version of Chop Choy

Qin Na, fundamental grappling and locking. Inherent in all traditional (combat orientated) chinese martial arts are the integration of combat mechanisms including striking, grappling, throwing and so on. taipinginstitute.com - preserving the combat arts

Written by Wong Hon Fan - for those of you who think you need to stay with your teacher for 20 years to learn something real or get the secret stuff. You can get a bachelors degree in 4 years, a masters in another year or two. does it really take that long to master Kung Fu. The reality is, if you train an hour or two several times a week you will never learn anything, if you are part time than double what it will take you as a full time student. To know what you will get from a teacher, look to others he has taught. If your seniors skill is low then why would you get anything different. There are many that would much rather be a student of a famous sifu than a highly skill unknown one.

Our primary Jian form

This is the version of Luan Jie I first learned. Taiwan line, then Hong Kong and finally I learned a Mainland China version.

Application of Reaping leg throw, very common in mantis.

Seven Stars Change Moon - took only a few min. out of my life to make this one. Sorry for the rush and lack a detail. In the last one you see me kick the rear leg out of habit. This is more of the way I apply it.

Mantis Seven stars change moon

Hello followers of Puyot combat. I started posting videos in the hopes that it might stimulate some dialog, generate some questions and receive request for applications that others have not been able to figure out or did not work for some reason. My intent has been to share my knowledge openly. I have received some positive feedback however comments and questions have been few. I wonder if people are interested in really understanding Mantis forms, applications and training or if these videos might just be a novelty? I welcome questions, phone calls, private messages, not so good with carrier pigeons but I can try.

Waist chop throw

Waist chop throw, three stances

Teaching Kung Fu in the 21st Century by T. L. Puyot The current Chinese Martial pedagogy stems from historical and cultural events that have made it virtually ineffective for the purpose of training hand-to-hand combat. Much could be written about the reasons why, such as the modernization for the purpose of fitness and health and the practice of not teaching a student the true art until decades after the master fully trusted the student. Later, students become teachers and ...Continue reading

Lock and counters

Chin Na Small bind, locks and counters.

This is the wooden dummy form I created using Being Bu. I created this about 20 years ago and have taught it with some variations.

Beng Bu on the Wooden Dummy

Applications - Palm block, fill in punch in seven star stance. Dragging are throw

Dou Gong Quan (Avoiding Hardness Boxing) This is a very important yet often overlooked form. It is the key to the foundation of striking and kicking in Mantis Kung fu. It is unusual in that it does not transition to throwing. It is the first form I teach at my school.

I frequently gat calls from martial artist, asking how that can get better at fighting. Same as it has always been, strong understanding and proper application of the basics. The flashy videos of performance are just entertainment. Look for the fine details and gain understanding. Ask a lot of questions, good luck on the path.

In this video I cover the the fighting stance with the help of my son Theron. Fighting/Monkey stance, three way blocking and basic footwork are the core of defense.

Three way blocking solo, basic drill, random drill. Principles of guard hand, zone defense.

I like this one

Teaching today in Tucson, Az. at Boxers Rebellion Martial Arts.

Much the same in the streets, barking but when the gate is open they turn and walk away. Be careful of the dog that doesn't bark and just waits for the gate to open.

Nice throwing, very similar to mantis but the entry is a bit different.

Cool look of thinks back a ways.

Why I do Kung Fu.

I like this version.

Alex Tse sharing some material from Wong yu Sheng the founder of 7* mantis.