Stances

[Hart]

For the longest time I've been wondering about the practicality of certain stances in competition and street situations. If an attacker is coming in at full force, would it be practical to lunge at him with an oi zuki locking into a zenkutsu dachi stance? I'm thinking the stance is more for show if anything else, but I could be wrong. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Killer Miller]

With traditional basic Lunge punch, perhaps. But with a more free-style of lunge punch, much more effective on the street. This would be more like how Oishi attacks in tournaments. Very devostating.

- Killer -

[Fairfax_Uechi]

For the longest time I've been wondering about the practicality of certain stances in competition and street situations. If an attacker is coming in at full force, would it be practical to lunge at him with an oi zuki locking into a zenkutsu dachi stance? I'm thinking the stance is more for show if anything else, but I could be wrong. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Well it really depends. Tenshin steps (stepping off to the side) are highly effective. On the street, things happen quick. The best choice is not to get into a bad situation where you need to use force. Barring that, I would say holding your ground and a low kick to the lower leg or knee is your best choice. Next would be a block/grab pull off balance sequence followed by a counter attack.

In competion, working on speed is probably your best friend. Learn to be patient. As soon as someone attacks they open themselves up with lots of nice points of attack. The key is waiting enough to get that opening, but being fast enough to get the strike first.

[Drithen]

I like to play with the idea that in order to learn power from short stances you first have to know how to develop power from long grounded stances, kinda like the walk before run thing

[karate kid 1]

im not sure i often find that kokusidachi works better for me im sure our techniques vary

[AngelaG]

Stances apply mass in a given direction. If force = mss x acceleration then front stance puts a higher percentage of your mass in a forward direction. A stance is a purely transitional position, and what some people fail to realise is that the impact/technique occurs halfway through the stance; it's that direction which drives the strike. I think that one of the main reasons that people confuse this is point kumite, where contact is made at the full extention of the technique and thus can build bad habits when reverted back to a real situation.

Anyway if you think of front stance as pushing, back stance as pulling and horse stance as dropping then you can see where the principles of some of the basic stances lie.

[stoneheart]

Anyway if you think of front stance as pushing, back stance as pulling and horse stance as dropping then you can see where the principles of some of the basic stances lie.

Angela, what an incredibly concise way to state it. My thanks. I will try to remember your words as I work on my kata.

[solar_kid]

Anyway if you think of front stance as pushing, back stance as pulling and horse stance as dropping then you can see where the principles of some of the basic stances lie.

Angela, what an incredibly concise way to state it. My thanks. I will try to remember your words as I work on my kata.

Yeah, I never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense. Thank you!

[RichardHangHong]

Personally, I find going into a locked zenkutsu dachi a little too rigid for kumite, tournament or othewise. I prefer hanmi(sp?) [zenkutsu dachi with the back leg bent slightly] as I like the feeling of being rooted when I'm sparring. Being of a smaller stature it comes in handy, especially when sparring with the bigger guys. LOL!

[RichardHangHong]

Anyway if you think of front stance as pushing, back stance as pulling and horse stance as dropping then you can see where the principles of some of the basic stances lie.

Hmmm, I have to agree on that one. Do you think that hangetsu dachi and/or fudo dachi amalgamate all three of those principles into one stance?