Shaolin Five Animal Kung Fu

The Chinese martial art of Fung Fu is famous around the world for its animal imitation styles, and perhaps the most famous of all is the Shaolin five animal style, which includes the snake, leopard, tiger, crane and dragon.

As with all imitation styles of kung fu the animals are used for inspiration, which their general personality being drawn upon, as well as their characteristic patterns of movement for fighting and hunting being copied. Each animal has different strength and weaknesses, and so is best suited to different situations and different people. See below for a description of each of the 5 animals.

As you may imagine the snake stays close to the ground, and so there are plenty of low stances which require strong legs to hold. A person fighting in the snake style will generally keep out of the way of their opponent until they see the perfect opportunity, and will then go in with a 'venomous' attack that will finish the fight in one move. The snake is very good at fighting dirty and will not hesitate to strike to the eyes, groin and other soft target; he is a master of pressure point fighting and often strikes with the fingers using an open hand. This style is often favoured by smaller fighters when fighting someone with a longer reach.

The tiger is a powerful and aggressive animal, and this style of kung fu follows after these traits. It is often favoured by larger more powerful fighters who wish to make to most of any strength advantage that they may have over a smaller opponent. It is full of large powerful knockout punches and kicks. The specialist hanform of this style is the tiger claw, which can be used both for grabbing an opponents limbs and for clawing attacks. A typical claw attack would be to strike to the head with the palm of the hand and then claw the face with the fingers to bring them down.

The crane is the most graceful of all the animals, and is very beautiful to watch. It is well suited to tall slim people wih long limbs, and uses swinging and whipping movements of the arms to strike. The specialist hand-form here is the crane beak, which involves holding the thumb against the other four digit for a focussed attack. The crane is very good as a 'short range' style for when two fighters are right on top of each other, and has a unique defensive style which involves hooking attacks away and trapping them using the crane beak hand-form.

 The leopard is the most athletic of the animals. You have to be very fit to excel in this method of fighting, as it requires constant movement. It is known for its devastating speed, particularly in delivering combinations of strike in quick succession. The leopard hand-form strikes using the middle set of knuckles, rather than the bottom ones which are used in an ordinary fist, which is primarily to fascilitate the fast combination punches, but is also good for focussed attacks against soft targets.

This most mysterious of beast also has the most elusive style. On the face of it this style will sometimes seem slow and gentle, almost lazy, but just like the similar movements of tai chi this masks an awesome power. The dragon teaches you about internal 'chi' energy, and how to focus the mind in combat. The dragon is good for fighting multiple opponents, as it can change direction quickly and unpredicatably without losing any momentum. The dragon is a very efficient style, which does not require great strength, speed or fitness, and so it is often favoured by old masters who are well past their physical peak, but who know that through the dragon their knowledge and wisdom will more than make up for this.