History of Southern Shaolin Style Kung Fu Fighting

Series Summary

Kung Fu, which began as a Chinese form of boxing, has over 800 styles. Shaolin kung fu refers to a style of the martial art that originated at the Shaolin Monastery in China. However, the term has evolved, encompassing fighting styles and forms that are not necessarily associated with the monastery. The Southern Shaolin style of kung fu fighting features low body stances and emphasizes hand-to-hand, close-quarter combat. Southern kung fu masters focus on building body strength and teaching effective self-defense techniques.

In this video clip series, our expert explains the differences between northern and southern styles of kung fu fighting and demonstrates basic stances, blocks, punches and kicks associated with Southern Shaolin fighters. This kung fu Master presents free how-to video clips of Southern kung fu techniques such as the cat stance, the front kick, the reverse backfist punch and the continuous fist.

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Julio Anta from Anta’s Fitness & Self Defense in Miami, Florida. My website is www.antakungfu.com and on behalf of Expertvillage.com, I want to welcome you to southern kung fu. Let me tell you a little bit about kung fu. In Kung Fu, there are possibly 400-800 styles. They are all different. Southern styles are usually pretty close. All Asian martial arts at one point branched out from Kung Fu because China was the mainland. From there it slowly started going. Some schools were more into punching, others higher kicks, others more grappling. Kung Fu has a little bit of it all, it’s a complete system. Now, the differences between the southern styles, the northern styles, and the internal and the external. Southern styles are very, very low stances. Southern styles is more hands, close quarter fighting, builds extremely strong bodies, great for self defence because most of our kicks are from the waist down, we kick low. The northern styles, in general, are more long-range striking, higher kicks and are depended on the terrain. It had a lot to do with the way they fought. The internal/external, most southern styles are external which means not as soft, hard powerful styles of kung fu."