SPIDER STYLE KUNG FU

SPIDER STYLE:

One of the more rare styles of Chinese martial arts is Spider style kung fu...in my teacher's Shaolin Five Form Fist system there are a variety of animal styles and sub-styles, from the famous Shaolin 5 Animals- Tiger, Leopard, Snake, Crane, Dragon- to various others, such as Monkey and Butterfly.

The Spider is integrated into our General Curriculum as a set of specialized basics, beginning with learning a special type of ground footwork known as the Spider Walk. Others may know this as crab walking, both in kung fu styles and as in "crab soccer." Namely one learns to move in all directions while on the back, lifting oneself up on the hands and feet. The first exercise is to learn to fall back into the Spider Walk position safely, then ambulate like a 4 legged spider forward, backwards, sideways, and in a circle. Over and over one practices this challenging exercise. Next one may learn to fall into the Spider Walk position by being pushed by a partner, or even swept and taken down.

Next, while in the Spider Walk position the student learns to kick- head high Front Kicks, Side Kicks, and Back Kicks to begin with...for the Side and Back Kicks the Spider Walk position is modified so one may kick sideways and turn over to deliver a back heel kick.

The Spider Walk position is also an ideal position to learn various leg maneuvers employed vs. an opponents legs, scissoring and leg chin-na like techniques.

Of course there are many kinds of spiders and much more Spider Technique than just ground spider maneuvers...Spiders have webs, fangs, some even poison, and various other special features and aspects- think of how the spider spins his web then "listens" for the slightest vibration before pouncing...they are very agile and aggressive hunters...all of this translates into various armed and unarmed Spider Applications, making Spider Style an unusual but deadly internal style.