The sound effects make it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xln35zVxl4s

Four Roads Fighting Form

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcLKCKSMcf8

Grandmaster Wong Hon Fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbq2YiwbnuU

Mantis Catches the Cicada on YouTube

Experimenting with posting videos on YouTube. In the clip below, I demonstrate some refinements I learned today about the move "Mantis Catches the Cicada." Three things are of note: first, the hands spin around eachother as if they are rotating around a cylinder; second, the right hand, when it forms the OU, just barely grazes the inside of the left shoulder; third, the right elbow is up, as if the OU is about to pull an incoming attack out and away from the body.

(I removed the video)

A couple details I don't show so well here because I just learned the refinement are that the wrist on the right hand OU should be bent as much as possible and probably rotated in the same axis at the elbow, not flat like I'm doing it. Also the index and middle fingers of the OU should be straight out, as if you were making a little walking person with your hand.

Boxing4Free

I found this and it's related videos on YouTube while searching for videos on slipping techniques for boxing. This guy has done the admirable job of posting a bunch of basic training videos online for novices to learn from. I'm not super excited by the way he puches -- I have slightly different mechanics in what I do -- but it's a good place to go if you are learning or to go review some basics. I learned that a certain kind of uppercut I do is called a "shovel punch" there.


http://www.boxing4free.com

Sifu Steve Cottrell

"Sifu Steve Cottrell began studying Kung-Fu in 1966. He has trained in several styles of Chuantong (traditional) Gongfu but reserves teaching to three fighting arts: Wing Chun Kuen (Everlasting Spring Boxing) in the Yip Man tradition, Bei Tanglang (Northern Mantis Boxing) in the Wong Hon Fun tradition and Taiji Quan in the Yang Banhou tradition."

http://www.authentickungfu.com/about_sifu.html

Weirdest thing ever. I met this guy at a Wing Chun competition in Ohio or Maryland years back. I had no idea he did Seven Star. He's a pretty good Wing Chun guy and has made some videos for WC. I wonder if he has Seven Star videos as well...?

Here is a video of various Mantis masters. Steve is the second guy.
http://www.mantisquarterly.com/preview.mpg

Here is their Mantis magazine.
http://www.mantisquarterly.com/

Looks like the sell some books at their ecommerce site. I ordered a book and the DVD.
http://mantisquarterly.com/shop/catalog/

Seven Star Praying Mantis - Bung Bo

This weekend we're going to be practicing Bung Bo, one of the base forms of Seven Star Praying Mantis. Here are videos of Bendan Lai doing the form. Master Lai passed in 2002, but he leaves behind a sprinking of videos that are possibly the best representations of Seven Star on the web.

Brendan Lai - Bung Bo Form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1OuZDo-s20

Mantis Applications
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M7M7rLxcYg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8nmSZxIxd0