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 The
Tiger is one of the Five Animals of Southern Chinese martial
arts. In many Chinese martial arts, both Northern and Southern are as
dissimilar as Hung Gar and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, the names of techniques
feature "tiger" imagery. Jee Sin is said to have taught the
tiger, or at least a very early version of it. The purpose of
imitating the tiger is to develop the very ´yang´ qualities of
fearlessness and aggression when faced with an opponent.The tiger
attacks in a staight line and rarely retreats, the tiger style relies
on external "jing" or mechanical and kinetic force generated
through the shifting of weight and rotation of the waist rather than
the internal qi from arts like tai chi and hsing i. Most of its
strikes are clubbing and claw strikes. The focus of this style is in
the hand posture, the "Tiger Claw", in which the wrist is
drawn back, the fingers spread as wide as possible and the fingertips
held forward to deliver a blow while grasping and twisting. When
delivered successfully, all five fingers should drive forcefully into
the opponent with the strength of a tiger's claw.
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