Snake Kung Fu

There are several Chinese martial arts known as Snake Boxing or Snake Style (Chinese:pinyin: shéquán; literally "snake fist") which imitate the movements of snakes.Proponents claim that adopting the fluidity of snakes allows them to entwine with theiropponents in defense and strike them from angles they wouldn't expect in offense.

Snake style is said to especially lend itself to applications with the Chinese straight sword. BothWing Chun and T'ai Chi Ch'uan are said to be based on a combination of the Snake and Cranestyles. The snake is also one of the animals imitated in Baguazhang and Xingyiquan. Thesinuous, fluid motion of the snake lends itself to the practical theory that underlies the"soft" martial arts.

Different snake styles imitate different movements of snakes. Some, for example, imitate theCobra, while others imitate the python, while some schools imitate both for differentapplications. There are two unrelated, Northern and Southern snake styles.

Northern Style

Snake is one of the archetypal Five Animals of Chinese martial arts; the other four being Crane,Tiger, Leopard, and Dragon. These five animals originally represented the five classicalChinese elements before developing into their own styles. Snake is usually Earth, Tiger is Fire,Crane is Metal, Dragon is Water, and Leopard is Wood. Since they were derived from the FiveElements, they are kept in this pattern. At this point many styles delve into more advancedanimal training or actual element training. The Taoist temples of the Wudang Mountains wereknown to have produced many snake stylists.

Snake style is based on whipping power which travels up the spine to the fingers. The ability tosinuously move, essentially by compressing one's stomach/abdominal muscles, is veryimportant. Footing is quite grounded. The stancework is fluid in order to maximize the whippingpotential of any movement. This necessitates building a strong spine to contain the power andstrong fingers to convey the strike. Since breath is important to any movement of the spine and

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Snake Kung Fu

ribs, snake style is considered one of the main styles which eventually led to internal training.Snake style is also known as an approach to weapons training, the Chinese straight sword andspear in particular. There are even specialty varieties of sword blades and spear points thatcurve back and forth down the length of the blade in imitation of the snake's body known as snake swordand snake spear.

Snake Style generally aims for weak points of the human body, such as eyes, groin, and joints,meaning a snake stylist must always try to avoid conflict, as taking part in combat may causegreat physical damage to an opponent, making anyone who is skilled in this style verydangerous.

Southern Style

There is also an obscure Southern Snake Style (Chinese:) whose grand master was Leung TinChu who was born in the late 1800's and became well known as he ranked 4th in one ofNanking's Martial Art examination in late 1920. His style was an amalgamation of SouthernShaolin style (which he learned from a Shaolin monk) and Choy Gar style learned from a Choyfamily member. He had two main disciples, his nephew Master Leung Gar Fong of Honk Kongand the late Master Wong Tin Yuen who taught this style at his studio on Sacramento Street inSan Francisco for forty years since late 1930. The pugilistic style is best described as amid-distance fighting style using, by coincidence, some Wing Chun-like techniques in HungGar-like forms. That attests to the Southern Shaolin origin of this style and its close relationshipto other styles originating from Southern Shaolin. Force and techniques are softer thantraditional southern styles. Besides straight punches and bong shou as Wing Chun, the use ofsouthern style techniques of butterfly-budha palms, the hook, upper cut, and gui quen (back fist)are central techniques to this style. Biu tze (thrusting fingers) techniques resembling snakeattacks are the secrets, and hence, the name of this style. There are multiple kickingtechniques, as varied as typical northern styles with high kicks, but also typical below the kneekicks seen in southern styles. There are six fist sets, two stick sets, single sword, short doubleswords, and other traditional weapons.

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