The human body can only move in so many ways, so you often have one thing with multiple different names. It’s still the same thing, just called by another name. Often this is due to context, culture, or copywrite. The three Cs of naming things.

          There are many stories in martial arts that deal with balance and duality, the Yin and Yang. One story is of a hawk fighting a serpent on a mountain. Another of the hand method and the torso method of martial arts training. Then there is the story of the tiger and the dragon. I believe these are all the same. Both the hawk and the tiger use strength and linear movements. Martial arts students are said to start as tigers using the hand method. They are aggression and strong. The serpent and the dragon are both said to use circular strikes, deception, and full body movements. The torso method also utilizes the entire body. This is what tigers are said to transition to at around age 45. The student begins using their body to do the same movements that they use to do when they were younger. I believe these stories do not describe an active choice, but rather, a result. Modern medicine tells us that at age 35 the human body starts slowing down. It can no longer produce the same quantity of hormones necessary for maintaining dense muscles. Its recovery rate is also slower. By age 45, this change becomes very noticeable. In order to do a movement that use to only involve a few muscles one has to use their whole body, their torso. They become the dragon. People use to do this out of necessity. Now, we can do this by choice. If you start as a dragon, a serpent, with the torso method and then add the tiger, the hawk, with the hand method, then you will be stronger, faster, and better at your martial art.