Snakes, Lizards and Dragons.

[KYUechi]

The other morning, I was brushing up on my reptile info. and looking for new tidbits of knowledge prior to teaching a session at a science camp. It was during this search for new info, that I read something of interest to me. Under Serpent Symbolism- Wiki said in many ancient cultures, that the word Dragon, may have been referring to snakes or serpents.

I find that particularly interesting because, one of the things I occassionally talk about during reptile programs (depending on the audience), is how well rounded snakes are in the martial arts. They do not telegraph their strikes, then after a successful strike, they go straight to their ground game! Game over.

Of course, I know that there are seperate arts based on Snake movement. However, I've sometimes wondered how our art could be partially based on the movements of a mythical creature. If they were referring to a snake, that would explain where they had observed the movements. The long, flowing, and spiraling movements and grabs could just as easily be attributed to snakes, as they could be to the mythical beasts that we assume the original martial artists were speaking of.

It's just a thought, that gave me something to ponder on for the day.

Any thoughts on this?

[Stryke]

I think snake and dragon its very similar, remembering the Chinese dragon is very fluid.

The dragon strikes and dissspears at will.

The hakka dragon styles seem to have the uechi direct strikes ,and things like ving tsun which reference the snake sometimes have good crossover to uechi

But I guess you find what you look for in some respect

[KYUechi]

I guess you find what you look for in some respect

Very true.