When looking at the Human anatomy it is plain to see one thing: It is very badly put together. Joints operate in opposite directions to adjacent joints; motor reflexes in all infants and many adults are poor; it is necessary to teach the body how to defend itself rather than relying on mere instinct like most animals; and the list goes on.
The thing is, primates (especially Humans) got a bad deal when they evolved. Tigers and lions and leopards grew to large sizes, filled with muscle and claws and razor-like fangs; snakes and spiders developed venom sacks and extremely fast and efficient reflex action; wolves became ferocious, agile beasts and primates? Primates got opposable thumbs.
The thing was that the early primates realised that however opposable the thumb was, it was not going to oppose a six-foot long jungle cat with paws like sledge-hammers with barbed wire wrapped around them and so they found it necessary to develop some other outstanding feature.
How a bunch of monkeys with no way of defending themselves in the World became the top of the food-chain is a marvel. The fact is that Human beings were able, because of their ingenuity, to develop tools with which to outsmart intellectually weaker animals. It is through mental processes that a Human being can kill a tiger or a shark, by snaring them and then destroying them� And this is where the Kung Fu comes into it. The Human intellect is designed, from birth, to mimic things around it. Babies copy their parents� speech patterns, children find role-models in adults, people study. It is this ability that taught Humans to snare animals to weaken them: mimicking the spider and its web; it taught them how to use sharp implements: mimicking a bird and its beak or a mantis and its claws; it taught them how to beat things to death: mimicking bears and big cats. It is the ability to mimic other animals and usurp their naturally defined characteristics that separates Human beings from the animal kingdom and yet unites them to it.
No-one, in �modern� Humanity, did this like the Chinese. The Shaolin animals: Leopard, Tiger, Crane, Snake and Dragon - Not to mention the Mantis and the Eagle, the Spider and the Crab � were based on the actions of animals that martial artists studied. They took the movements of animals and copied them in a way that Human beings could use to defend themselves. In this way they had the ferocity of the Tiger, the speed of the Snake, the agility of the Crane, the cunning of the Leopard and the wisdom of the Dragon � though this one is ambiguous as to how exactly they studied it�
And this vein still runs on in students of Kung Fu today who mimic their Sifu and what he tells them. Just as the old Seel Street adage goes: 'If you have to think about the technique, then it is too late," the only way to learn is to watch the situations others are put in and learn to react accordingly. This form of mental training will teach you to react without thinking if that situation ever should occur, because there is no possible way that anyone will ever be able to teach you how to defend yourself or others in every single situation in the World. It�s simply not possible.
So, learn from others who have been there and done that, practice in a safe environment to learn without risk of injury, but so that it is still practical in a real situation and condition yourself. The crux of Hung Gar Kung Fu � and many other styles, to be fair � is that you will be that much stronger, that much faster, that much tougher and that much more able to react to a situation when it arises. In this way you may defend yourself and you may defend others. This is the way of Kung Fu.