I always hear about the KSW animal techniques when I read the textbooks and visit web pages. What exactly are these techniques, are there forms? What level are they taught at, are they part of the official curriculum, and are they a staple to our advanced learning? Also, are our animal techniques incoporated in lower level teaching, just not necessarily always pointed out as "Animal Techniques"? Thank You
I don't have the article, but CKJN In Ju Suh wrote one about this very question a while back. The gist of the article is that animal techniques are everywhere in Kuk Sool, pretty much at every level. I believe he wrote the article for Tae Kwon Do Times. He gave good examples from techniques and forms. Anybody have that article?
check out http://www.geocities.com/mstr_suh/animals.html http://www.kswnaustin.com/kswarticles/article_tiger_eagle.htm After rereading I'm not sure if the first one is the article you are referring to...
When I visited KJN Butler's school last fall, I learned some animal techniques. I have some rather shoddy notes that I typed up a few days later, if anyone's interested. I don't know how comprehensible they are. I was already starting to forget things at that point.
A good question! I can't give a complete answer, but it seems like I may have read an article or so. Here's a few you probably know: beginner: palm strike (a.k.a. Tiger palm), cat stance, maybe cat roll (koyangi nak bub) intermediate: soh ma gi covers (praying mantis, in both Joong Geup Hyung and Mak Chi Gi), soh ma gi strikes, dragon stance Seems like I remember one of the really high-level forms being called "white cloud crane" or something like.
Videos of two different masters performing the crane on white cloud form can be found on Cambridge KSW's site at: http://www.kswcbl.co.uk/videos2.htm
Now that I know the name of this form it makes much sense. I have seen it performed before, but never made the connections. Thank you.
Oops, my library is bigger than I thought. The article is the Nov 96 edition of Tae Kwon Do times. It might be put onto the official Kuk Sool site soon, who knows? They just started putting articles up. A few highlights, most of the forms examples are from black belt forms, but Go Guep and Gum Moo Hyung show up. In techniques it has Sohn Mohk Soo 6 described as a preying mantis technique. So animal techniques are in the syllabus pretty much from the start.
Unless I'm mistaken, part of Baek Pahl Ki Hyung (1st degree form) has some bear techniques. Other BB correct me if I'm wrong on that interpretation.
check out the kuk sool roots thead, i posted an article on animal styles in kuk sool on there a while ago.
That's a cool site, thanks! Another thing I didn't think of yesterday, is Eue Bok Soo #6. I don't know if it is meant to be an animal technique, but my cats will do it. I was holding one's collar, and he did the exact head & shoulders move.
I remember KJN Barry Harmon demoing a set of animal techniques, which were high level master techniques and very impressive. They looked painfull. Apart from those I only know the ones mentioned, eg. praying mantis strike/block, tiger claw, various stances. There was an article that mentioned that you can specialise in animal techniques at master level (i think it was written by KJN Harmon)...i'll try and dig it out!
just came across this link which was quite interesting http://korea.cfw2.com/article.asp?content_id=2019&s=korean
My point of starting this thread wasn't for us to give a generic answer and move on, it was to provoke Kuk Soolers to start talking about something that is publiciczed but never spoken of. Lets start sharing what we know about the animal technqiues with each other, lower level tehcniques that are directly animalisitic, what you have individually been taught, or what you have observed. I will post what I have been taught, so far, about animal techniques soon. If you don't have anything to say directly about these tehcniques and forms, speculate on why we are'nt taught them earlier.
meak chi ki contains snake and tiger strikes, go geup hyung contains snake movements, jmmkbs contains praying mantis, snake and tiger, jgsms contains snake, debs contains eagle. ect most sets of techniques in kuk sool and black belt hyungs will contain an animal styles somewhere, you just have to know what to look for. unlike kung fu, kuk sool intergrates all animal techniques into 1 style, so you might start off attacking the front of your opponent agressively with palm strikes (tiger) then have to switch to a more defencive style (snake) while trowing in the occaisonal dragon or eagle technique. its more to do with the way you are fighting and the techniques used, rather than the imitation of animal movements.
Most, if not all weapons have/or are based on animal movements. Spear, all bongs---have snake, dragon, and some crane movements swords -- i believe are based on dragon and tiger techniques though not taught/ or informed to the student, have animal movements or principles. Just because your instructor/master hasn't told you they are in there, doesn't mean they are not.remember we first have to just memorize them, then we add precision at BB, maybe at master they are explained more, give me 6-7 yrs and I'll tell ya,LOL. Or if you have a master at your school they usually don't mind if you pick their brain about it. They might not know you are interested in learning this stuff. take the first step and ask them, dont just assume that they don't know or do not want to teach you.
At the KJN level each Master individually picks an animal based on their body types: Snake-flexible slender Crane-tall Bear-Larger stature. Then Kuk Sa Nim Himself teaches the student the forms and techniques involved with their animal. Once that animal is mastered they are then taught another animal.
