Tiger

The Chinese admire the tiger for its powerful claws and great strength and agility. Tiger training produces strong bones, joints, and tendons. Many of the tiger form exercises are designed to strengthen the back and spine as well as the arms and forearms. The use of the hands in the tiger claw differs from the dragon claw because it will pull, rip, or tear at an opponent instead of holding him or her in place. The strength here comes from twisting the body and using the ground to execute powerful blows and kicks. The Tiger form is the most physically challenging of the five animal forms, and the practitioner also learns to mimic a tiger’s real-life methods of strength and attack. The Chinese believe this helps the practitioner anticipate an attacker’s blows, and more powerfully deliver his or her own strikes.