Customer Reviews

Shaolin Five Animals

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

 

 

I have trained in Five Animals for 15 years and taught the art for five. I consider this book to be a good basic introduction to this style of kungfu, but it needs a LOT more info to be considered a martial arts masterpeice. #1. To get very much out of this book, you really need a good bit of prior martial arts experience, preferably a kung fu style. #2. The book really needs more explanation. The transitions to each move are not descibed in enough detail and a whole lot more self defense is needed. In fact, much of the self defense shown in the book is a cover up for the real moves that the Chinese masters intended. Overall, it is a great intro to 5 animals, but it needs much much more to be considered a great work. As far as an overview of the five animal essences, well, it rates a B- with me.

This book is a treasured piece. For one this is rare " NORTHERN " temple stlye. To master this form requires dedication, and kung fu which means time and effort. First one must learn the form only, if one remains humble and ponder the movements the form will manifest. If one still has trouble there is a corresponding video tape at esptv.com . Third since this is a northern form it is trained differently, for example when performing in the slow stage it must be done 1000 times literally. Then the external stage must be 1000 literally. Lastly, the proper power and animal manifestation must be done 1000 times at the minimum. If you want to make it a fighting form, then must run a mile then do the form in its last stage immediately afterwards, the run 800 meters do the form, then sprint 400 meters and do the form. When you have acheived this it will be complete your form and all. But as americans everybody wants the easy way or the highway, if one spends time diligently and researches other information on northern kung and their power development this will enhance your 5 animal form even more. This is a excellent book for northern stylist. One may also what to get a tan tui or chinease springy legs book...

I am a black belt in Kempo, and TKD with an Instructor Sash in Kung Fu who learned the whole form as best as I could from just using the book. I found it clear and easy to follow. It took a couple of months to learn, after which I ordered Doc-Fai Wong's instructional video on the same 5 animal form later. I found that I'd done a fairly decent job on learning the form by book. I'd missed about 10% of it, which were mostly circling movements transitioning from one step to the other. One problem I had, which eventually led me to discontinue practicing the form is that it's seriously unbalanced. If you practice it regularly, you will have very uneven muscle development, especially in your legs. There is a big stress on jumps and standing on one leg using your right only. To alleviate this problem, you'd have to learn how to do the whole form with the opposite side and if you are just starting, it could easily take you half a year to learn this extremely long form both ways. Once you do learn it, it'll take you about 12-14 minutes to practice it just once on each side. To become really proficient at learning a martial art form, you should practice it several times each session. For a form such as this one, you would need a significant time committment to practice enough to do it justice. If you like to train in other ways such as running, weights, other martial arts, etc., be prepared to commit a lot of time.

The book begins by giving a brief history of the animal styles, and then describes the differences between the five styles and the intent on which you should attack. Although I found this information very interesting, I found the same information on the internet shortly after purchasing the book.

In addition, it is safe to assume that the author believed in the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" because they included very vague details on how the form should be executed. I am used to books that give very good instruction on how each movement should be performed and at times provides pictures showing the same move but from various angles. This book does not! Moreover, I prefer books that go into detail on the direction in which your internal energy should flow as well as when to breathe (there are some books that give you this information). I was very disappointed that they did not even attempt this considering that some of the animal styles are supposedly internal styles. Furthermore, the book does not give detail on the applications of all the techniques.

This might have been a very good book, but they tried to fit too much into a small amount of space; thereby, omitting much needed detail.

Many books do not display this set. As a martial artist, you have to use your imagination along with your basic training to gain some understanding of this specific set. As indicated in the first chapter of the book, each animal has different characteristic in which the martial artist must tap into (the essence). Once that is understood and you incorporate the proper training for each animal, then you start to study the set. Though the descriptions are very brief and shallow, the martial artist must get a feel for the set. To achieve that you must practice the set by breaking it down section by section and memorizing it (along with proper training). Only then you can become successful.

One the book, the author needed to give an example and an in-depth description after each section. But what do you expect for the price.

I hate to do this in a space dedicated to review the book, but I have to disagree with the author of the comment titled "Covers The Form, Not The Art". The author points out the "fact" that "the greater the number of techniques that are introduced to the neural network, the central nervous system, the slower the response will be to external stimuli". That seems to me like a comparison of the human brain with the computer... the more applications you open, the slower the computer gets.

Although in many ways the human brain and the computer are similar, in this aspect humans differ because they have the ability to selectively retrieve information, rather than randomly giving priorities to different operations. For instance, I am fluent in both Spanish and English, and currently learning Chinese... that does not slow my speech. Over the years I have increased my vocabulary, that does not slow my conversation either. Furthermore, the author advocates not having different techniques for the same attacks since that would slow down the response. I would like to ask him or her, if there was only a few techniques available against an attack, wouldn't it be easy to defeat that person... after all, I know what he/she is up to.

One of the beauties of kung fu is the variety and sophistication of its techniques. Each animal in the five animal kung fu has a different spirit, one is fast, other one strong, flexible, etc. Sometimes a strong technique is preferable, other times you have to be soft. Many practitioners of other martial arts argue that animal mimicry is wasteful, inefficient, and prefer a more to-the-point approach. For the individual who is only interested in a quick-to-learn self defense method, that statement might be true. But for the individuals dedicated to mastering the intricate movements of kung fu, animal mimicry has a very powerful, devastating self-defense purpose.

Having said that, I would have to agree with other reviews that state the need for better explanation of the movements and more demonstrations of applications.

This book seemed more geared towards learning a form, and introducing the "Five Animals" principles, than presenting an entire art. However, the form itself is fairly complex, as it is in essence five different forms strung togeather in a logical manner. The first chapter is just a couple of pages long, giving a brief history on developement of Chinese fighting specific to the animals style. The following five chapters detail the five animals one by one: the dragon, tiger, snake, crane, and leopard, with no apparent order. Those chapters cover the physical and mental/spiritual/psychological characteristics of the different styles. Then there is a short chapter on the stages of learning the form, and finally a chapter showing the complete form. I'd say that this part was pretty easy to follow, with the main problems being that some possitions were only shown from behind. Each photo has text describing it's actions underneath it. It is an eye-opening and physically challenging form, and is great at least for developing ballance and endurence. The last chapter shows applications of some of the movements. All in all, I'd say that someone with a background in most striking arts ought to be able to grasp what's going on. The chapter on the form itself is the meat of the text, with the rest of the book being a good intro into the Five Animals form, but nothing extrordinary stands out to me.

It is a good ntroduction to 5 Animal Shaolin Kung Fu. The Authors look at it more from the logical and practicle side.

The book describes the Five Animals in Shaolin Choy Li Fut Kung Fu in concise, easily understood writing for both with background knowledge, and practitioners, interested readers without knowledge of Chinese culture/history or Martial Arts knowledge.

Not much of assistance with the form in the pictures but it is an excellent training aid when Mr. Wong describes the various aspects and the training needed with the strength for each animal.
A must for any 5 Animal student