Snake Kung Fu - Definition and Overview

There are several styles of Chinese martial arts which imitate the motions of snakes as some part of their training system. Proponents claim that adopting the fluidity of snakes allows them to entwine with their opponents in defense and strike them from angles they wouldn't expect in offense. The snake is one of the original five animals of Shaolinquan, and there were many snake stylists known formerly from Wudangshan. Snake style is said to especially lend itself to applications with the Chinese straight sword. T'ai Chi Ch'uan is said by some of its schools to originally have been based on a combination of the Snake and White Crane styles, and the snake is also one of the animal styles emulated in the related arts of Baguazhang and Xingyiquan. The sinuous, fluid motion of the snake lends itself to the practical theory that underlies such soft style martial arts.

As there are different schools that train based on the motions of snakes, there are different snakes that are imitated; some imitate the Cobra, while others imitate the Python, while some schools will imitate both for different applications.

Snake style is one of the first five Shaolin animal styles; the other four being tiger, leopard, dragon, and crane.

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