17 Styles: Mandarin Duck legs

17 Styles: Mandarin Duck Legs

By Shifu Andrew Miles

Do not fear 10,000 kicks.  Fear the kick that has been trained 10,000 times.

Double kick (yin yang leg) in mantis stems back to the mandarin duck legs of the 17 styles of Shoalin that went into creating the original mantis system.  It was said to be founded by Zhou Tong and passed to Wang Lang through Lin Chong.

Incredibly this system has been preserved.  We can know this is a living system by looking at how they practice.  Forms are not done as much as training skills.  Medicine is also used as an integral part of the technique.

The intensity with which they train repeated single movements is lost in most martial arts.  This is an ancient system and one should consider these training methods to be fundamental to any martial art.  The training is done in line form with one movement repeated. What looks like a bone shattering kick, is actually far worse.

Every step is a kick.

Every step is footwork.

Every step is a throw.

If you somehow manage to jump in the air, the grinding mill strike will  bat you out of the air.

  In the poem of the 17 Styles Wang Lang countered all of his former masters using Mantis.  How did he do that?  As an ancestor system, mantis preserves the training principles of mandarin duck leg.  The achilles heal of this system is also a well guarded secret.  In guarding this secret, we thank Lin Chong for his contributions to the mantis system.  Whenever you see a double kick in a mantis form, remember that you are referencing an entire martial arts system, which you may draw from in order to further explore leg techniques.  Mantis was an amalgamation, a shorthand of ancient systems uploaded into Wang Lang.  As we practice, the secrets of these single movements will come pouring out, enriching our lives and creating a martial arts Renaissance.