Few images have grown as firmly into Kung Fu as the animals: tiger, crane, snake. Cinema turned them into folklore, so it is worth saying what the animal styles really are - not costume and not theatre, but one of the oldest teaching devices in the history of physical training.
Where the animals came from: a physician before any fighter
The first systematic “animal practice” in China was not martial at all. In the second century the physician Hua Tuo composed the Five Animal Frolics (Wuqinxi) - health exercises modelled on the tiger, deer, bear, monkey and bird. His logic was simple: each animal embodies a different way of moving, and the body stays healthy when it knows them all.
Martial schools later borrowed the same device for their own purpose. In the Shaolin tradition the five we know today took shape: tiger, crane, leopard, snake and dragon; southern and northern schools added others - most famously the praying mantis, whose style master Wang Lang is said to have created in the seventeenth century after watching the insect hunt.
What each animal teaches
The key point: an animal is not a technique but a quality of movement. Same hand, same step - different energy.
- The tiger teaches direct power: a low centre of gravity, a strong grip, the courage to go straight in. It builds bone, back and resolve.
- The crane teaches balance and distance: standing on one leg, lightness, precision. It develops calm in an unstable position.
- The leopard teaches speed: shorter, springier movements, explosiveness out of relaxation. Power without bulk.
- The snake teaches softness and continuous flow: movement that does not strike so much as penetrate; sensitivity instead of force.
- The mantis teaches patience and timing: to wait, to bind, to seize the moment - the greatest lesson for the impatient.
A student asks: “Which animal is the strongest?” The teacher: “The one you need right now and do not have.”
Why the animals are good pedagogy
Before written manuals and video, an animal image was the best way for a quality of movement to be remembered and passed on. You can say “lower your centre of gravity, bind the fingers into a strong grip and go straight in” - or you can say “tiger”, and the body understands faster. The image does the work of a long explanation; that is why the animal styles survived centuries in which much else was lost.
The second value is psychological. Everyone gets one animal “for free” - a quality that comes naturally - and avoids at least one other. The strong student hides in the tiger and flees the snake; the agile one hides in the snake and flees the tiger. Working on your weakest animal is one of the oldest descriptions of what we would now call leaving your comfort zone.
The animals in training in Ljubljana
At Body.Mind we do not teach animal styles as separate programmes and we do not stage performances. The qualities of the five animals are woven into the basics and forms we practise: low stances carry the tiger, balancing postures the crane, quick transitions the leopard, soft connecting movements the snake. Children meet them by name and image, adults more by feel - but the goal is the same for everyone: a body that can be strong, fast, soft, calm and patient. All five - not just one.
