Stances over time

[Nidan Melbourne]

Read a post elsewhere regarding stances; they talked about height, depth and width of stances across the styles. 

Now when I first started out training, I never questioned why and how we did things. 

Then one of my instructors instructors mentioned to me this about stances: 

- Stances in Karate are only a snapshot of what they were when you look at the movements it came from in Kung Fu. 

- Stances should be adjusted to the person. 

      - Why? My 6 foot 8 (30 year old) friend would have different dimensions for all our stances in comparison to my 4 foot (10 year old) student who would have much smaller dimensions. 

 

But I got to thinking about how things came to be: 

- like how did Zenkutsu Dachi come to be so (in a way) different between Shotokan and Goju? 

        - Was the person being taught a lot taller than others?

        - Was the person sore that day? were they stretching out a bit and didn't know how to translate it? 

- In Suparinpei why does Shito-Ryu go one way (when u do the Gedan Ipponken) and Goju-Ryu go the other? 

 

But back to the point; how has your instructors explained why you do stances the way that you do? Or if you do a variation to what is considered the norm to the dojo? How to you explain it/teach the correct thing with variations? 

[crash]

we really only had right or left front fighting stances and side stance.... we did other stances for forms but not at the level in common training as most styles rely on. our instructor had a saying that when fighting, standing still was certain defeat. always be moving, we had constant drills of transitioning from one position to the next, forward, backwards, side to side, circular, left and right foot forward, etc.... never sink into a still stance once the fight begins. 

[bushido_man96]

I think the evolution of stances as the way we see them in forms/katas now has more to do with aesthetics than actual practicality when using techniques.  I agree that stances should be seen as the means for transitioning between techniques or generating power in techniques.  I see more and more applications of this as I train in Aikido, which is not concerned about static stances, but the movements required to get from point A to point B.

[crash]

10 hours ago, bushido_man96 said:

I think the evolution of stances as the way we see them in forms/katas now has more to do with aesthetics than actual practicality when using techniques.  I agree that stances should be seen as the means for transitioning between techniques or generating power in techniques.  I see more and more applications of this as I train in Aikido, which is not concerned about static stances, but the movements required to get from point A to point B.

i found the movements of aikido to fit very well with my core style. the couple years i studied, i loved the circular style of movement and found it could be easily incorporated or intertwined with my core training. very multi-directional, almost to the point of directional change without seeing it beforehand.... if that makes sense...lol 

[sensei8]

The beauty about stances is that in short order how one was taught any said stance changes to fit one’s fighting abilities. 

The other beauty is that one doesn’t always, if ever, see a textbook stance during sparring. We see that practitioner’s adaptation of said textbook stance. It’s so inevitable.

No one uses every taught stance when engaging as their preferences, which is another beauty of stances.

Textbook taught stances are great for Kata and that’s about it, imho.

”Use what is effective; discard the rest.”~Bruce Lee

 

[aurik]

In Uechi-Ryu, we have a saying, "All is in Sanchin", and as far as stances go, this is no exception.  Almost all of our kata and drills are performed in Sanchin stance, and this stance is pretty basic yet subtle.  You can tell someone "feet shoulder width apart, move one foot forward slightly, turn it in about 30-45 degrees."  However, that is the beginning of Sanchin.  There are quite a few subtleties that you only learn after practicing Sanchin kata for some time and having instructors test your stability.  We perform kata almost exclusively in Sanchin, we perform our drills in Sanchin, and to a certain degree, we are expected to fight/spar in Sanchin.  

The other stances we utilize are all derived from Sanchin, and are used in specific situations for a specific purpose.  We have a neko dachi (cat stance), which starts in Sanchin where you basically shift the weight to the back foot and lift the front foot up to rest on the toe (not the ball of the foot).  This is frequently used prior to or immediately following a crane (e.g. shin) block.  We also have a version of Zenkutsu dachi, where you start from Sanchin and use your rear leg to drive yourself forward, usually to do an elbow strike into an opponent's sternum.  Where your foot naturally lands -- that's a Zenkutsu dachi.  Finally, we have a low stance, nominally a shiko-dachi, which starts from a sanchin stance, and you slide your front foot forward and to the (out) side enough to drop your center of gravity such you're below your opponent's center of gravity, and an elbow strike will land right at your opponent's sternum.

Again, these 3 other stances are transitional stances, and used for specific brief sequences.  For the vast majority of our kata and drills, we live in Sanchin