Fighting stance

[Jay]

alenero wrote:

Why don't you try naming the stances and say their disadvantages and advantages ?

I don't know what you mean. In our style, fighting stance is a distinct stance, just like zenkutsu dachi or shico dachi means a specific thing. Our fighting stance is pretty much how KarateGeorge describes the fighting stance in his style. It does vary a bit depending on the sparring match, but mostly I think the variety comes from rhythm and timing more than changing up the stance. Not that I'm a sparring expert, but it seems to me that if you change the leading leg using unpredictable timing and distancing, you are getting a lot of variation even with the basic form of the stance staying the same. I think of it as the more beginning students sparring with a "pop" music rhythm, predictable, whereas a good fighter spars with the timing of a jazz musician.

I refer to that as fighting "on the beat" or "off the beat"...that's kind of my own terminology though, so I highly doubt that's official lingo.

When working with a beginning student on sparring, a lot of times they'll fight at a predictable rhythm, as people get to be better fighters, they'll use a non-predictable rhythm, changing both the speed of techniques as well as the pattern of striking locations to keep their opponent guessing.

Your terminology is good. Bruce Lee used the same for when he used broken rhythm. We tend to use on the beat, and the half beat. You can also strike after or before full or half beats.

[joesteph]

I learned more today about my fighting stance and distancing through sparring against different opponents.

It's not just contact sparring, it's continuous instead of point-sparring. I'm much more careful starting off with a proper stance, and I've worked on not dropping my hands, but I have to watch that I don't leave my torso open between my arms as I'm fighting. No windows of opportunity for the opponent! To me, that's a stance matter.

I also discovered that when I infight, I have to remember that it's not an actual situation in which I'm going to use elbows and knees. There's also a no facial contact rule for safety, so I'm not going to uppercut to the jaw. To me, it means it should be a series of getting in and getting out; staying there does lock up the opponent to some degree, but it can become a slugfest of just trading blows.

[tallgeese]

Our fighting stance is a training method, really.

It's a core pattern where the feet are about shoulder width apart with the lead foot about a step out in front of the other. This will blade the body slightly to the lead side, not too much to the side, not square. Knees are bent slightly in an athletick posture.

The weight is about 50/50 and centered over the balls of the feet, some of our guys tend towards a 60/40 with more over the back.

Hands are up at face height, elbows to sides. The whole hting should be a bit loose and relaxed.

Chin is tucked, fornt shoulder rolls up a bit.

This is where we spar out of and do most of our pair work out of. Here's the thing that makes it a training modality more than anything else. If your training of street sd, there's rarely a "square off" moment with an attacker. You're going to be walking along and it's on. Training in this posture is a constant text book on where you should get yourself whne surprised or frightened. It's a relitively natural posture that puts your defense and offense in place.

This cuts down on the lag time between the point of aggression and your response and trains in good habits at the same time.

[Chitsu]

"Tadashii kamae" - as my sensei would bark at me.

Chitsu

[bushido_man96]

I echo tallgeeses sentiments on the fighting stance as well. The most important part is being in an athletic stance with some preparedness in mind. Also, tying to maintain a reactionary gap around people or in places you don't feel comfortable is a good habit to get into, as well. Its not always easy, but its an idea.

[grav3h3art]

I like the ichimonji no kamae