Choy Gar
蔡家拳One of the five family styles of southern China. It joins rat and snake: short steps, low stances and swift direct strikes.
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About Choy Gar
Choy gar is one of the five main family styles of southern Chinese martial arts. It was founded by Choy Gau-lee (蔡九儀), also known as Choy Tsing-hung, in the seventeenth century; he was taught by a monk named Yi Guan. The year that previously stood here was a full century too late and the founder's name was garbled, so the entry has been corrected and the year field left empty — no exact date is documented. A common confusion needs to be avoided. Choy Fook, who appears in connection with this name, was the teacher of Chan Heung and belongs to the story of Choy Li Fut, not to the founding of Choy gar. The technical core is the joining of two animal patterns. From the rat comes the footwork — short, quick steps that change position before the opponent can orient himself. From the snake comes the work of the arms: body and hands are to imitate a swift direct thrust that travels the shortest line and does not return in an arc. The stances are low and the movements short, and this is no accident. The style arose in the densely settled south of China and is built for narrow alleys and crowded streets, where sweeping northern techniques have no room. This is one reason southern Chinese styles generally work differently from northern ones — it is not a difference of taste but of terrain. Choy gar stands alongside Hung Gar, Lau Gar, Li Gar and Mok Gar in the group that tradition calls the five families of southern Shaolin.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.