Customer Reviews

Seven-Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have only had this book for 2 weeks, and prior to this I have had about a month and a half of basic karate and tae kwon do training. The forms are difficult to learn in the sense that unlike the "hard" forms of karate, the forms illustrated consist of several movements one must learn and then connect them smoothly. Therefore it may take 8 or so moves to deliver just one punch, but in the process you are also blocking and grabbing and pulling with each move. I highly recommend this book for those who earnestly wish to learn the basics of Seven Star Mantis. If you are unsure of which martial art is best suited for your body and mindset, this style is primarliy based on agility and flexibility. Evading all attacks to quickly defeat an opponent as well as reading every movement they make and "feeling" where they will move is the guiding force for Seven Star Praying Mantis

The book here written by Leung Ting through collaberation with other mantis practitioners (specifically 7 stars style) is a good one. The work is readable and thorough enough for a basic overview of all the major techniques and powers of the 7 stars system. Of course there could be more depth but for a person trying to get the gist of Praying Mantis northern style it is a good reference. The techniques within the book are all easily learned and executable with a partner with some work. Since I learned some praying mantis from my sifu in a different style I was very pleased to see a book that actually had some knowledge within it rather than some fancy techniques and no base. This is not a flashy book or filled with forms, but has the good solid workings of martial arts. I would reccomend this book to anyone trying to get a look at some praying mantis kung fu, but remember unless you have a LOT of previous experience it is downright dangerous to try and learn your martial arts from a book, a starting point perhaps, and addition of knowledge of course, but to treat a text as your teacher is a very misconcieved notion.

This book gets three stars because the techniques are accurate and highly illustrated, but the book also has a number of frustrating aspects, which I'll talk about shortly. It has an old style charm, as it was written in a time when martial arts books were not well edited. There are numerous cases of broken English in the intros. It was never re-edited in later editions. In a way this adds to the allure of the book, but its also distracting. Thankfully, most of the book is pictures. :)

I get the feeling this book would be much better if they took all the photos and made a flip book. Seriously. It can be very difficult to follow the forms here, based on these static images, no matter how many there are. They need to be seen in motion. I'd rather see this on DVD, than in a book. As a book, its lacking, despite it's authenticity. A book is a training tool, and it gets three stars because it falls short of the many solid, modern texts on martial arts that exist today.

This book has a good overview of all the basic theories and techniques of the Mantis system (7*'s). The wooden man form is no good in the book though if you don't know a wooden man set this would be a very good beginner set to start with. All the keywords are translated and explained in detail as to what they refer to, this is a real treat as most martial arts books will not even mention the keywords that are present in almost every system. I would say it is a good book to start out your knowledge with, though it is not in depth enough to learn from alone. If you are stuck only learning from media be sure to cross reference with a few other books and videos. Look up Jon Funk for decent, quality videos on 7*'s Mantis. Between a few video sets and this book you should be able to attain some skill. Watch for another Mantis book coming out in early 2005 by Neil Ripski on the Eight Shadow Mantis Boxing, a different style of Mantis but with these basics it could be assimilated easily.

It appears to be an overview of the 7 star mantis style with pictures to detail a number of the style's techniques. I was able to become comfortable with several of the techniques without having any previous martial arts experience. Overall, I think this is a pretty good book even though there is a section that is very difficult to practice without a wooden dummy.

It is only introduction. Not much about Mantis itself. The book is actually teach wing Tsun because the author is expert in Wing Tsun.

Only buy if you want to learn Wing Tsun
Not worth if want real knowledge about Mantis kung fu