I currently hold a BB in Taekwondo and i still thouroughly enjoy training in it. I do however feel that TKD lacks hand defense and to a lesser extent hand attack. I was thinking of starting southern mantis kung fu to try and train my hands for both attack and defence and training my legs in TKD. I was just wondering if this could work because kung fu and TKD are so different in there footwork and movement where TKD is linear and Southern mantis is very circular. Has any1 ever cross trained these arts or if any1 could put there ideas forward it would be much appreciated, i just really want to know if it would work, or if it would just kind of mess me around. I hope i made my post clear

isn't Karate the linear one and TKD the circular one?? hah

I don't see a major problem with cross training the arts. The stance in Southern Praying Mantis (SPM) isn't something that is completely opposite to a stance taken in TKD. Though they do preach and train to have their feet firmly grounded and rooted to the ground unlike TKD (at least sport TKD) where you see guys bouncing around without too firm a grip on the ground (results in slippage and loss of power).

The stance is pretty natural and most likely won't interfere with your TKD training. But the best thing to do really is go take a class or two to get feel of how the movements are and if they suit you. Personally, the training in SPM has never really had any conflict with anything else that I've done, whether its kicking, punching or grappling. So I don't see why you can't cross train between TKD and SPM. Goodluck!

Thnx IExcalibui thats all i really wanted to know, now i just have to try and make my way to training using buses and those things god gave me called legs !