effective stances?

[sansoouser]

Now i see Kung fu guys doing stances that look like they have no effect in a fight can someone tell me why you do these stances? Like the Horse stance or bow, cross legged

 

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[JerryLove]

Strength training, energy work, sometimes fighting applications that are not obvious.

 

Also realize that just because something isn't really a good "guard" position, does not mean it's not a trasitory position involved in fighting.

[bigpopparob2000]

I believe Rick Tews gives a very good answer to this.

 

http://www.totalwarrior.com/kuji-kiri.html

[delta1]

Hard to say since you only gave one stance, the Horse. A fighting horse stance is, in my experience, very seldom used. When it is its' purpose is usually to position you to evade something while positioning you to immediately move into a better stance. An example in Kenpo would be applying a high cross block to an overhead club attack. A neutral bow or forward bow would put your body in line with the attack so that the club could hit you if he looses control and it swings down. A horse angles you just enough that the weapon will miss you, and you can immediately roll into any number of attacks or stances.

 

With more traditional Chinese arts, and particularly with internal arts, it is difficult to explain their stance and footwork. Most do not use a 50/50 weight distribution except in transition. And they are allways in motion. They consider arts like Karate and Kenpo to be static, even though all the Kenpo/Kempo styles I've seen are extremely dynamic and flowing. But we all stop our motion at some point to initiate another motion. Arts like Taiji never stop moving. One move doesn't just lead to the next, the next is begun before the last completes. (This is a bad way to say it, but...) They sort of roll from one stance to the next. They yeild, stick, redirect, and for the most part allow or help you destroy yourself (though they can be offensive if necessary). They never stop their motion, and to accomplish this they must continually move from weighting one foot to the other, and you see that in their stances. Most people watching a Taiji form can't immagine what about half of the moves could do. But every move has an infinite number of applications in combat.

 

I don't know if that helped or not. If this confused you, you can allways go back and read Jerry Love's post, which is a simpler way to say all this. But I hope I shed a little light on the question.

[cross]

Actually the bow is a stance used in some kung fu styles, looks basically the same has karate's forward stance(zenkutsu-dachi).

[G95champ]

Things are not always as the they seem.

 

Many want to look at traditional styles and say they don't have this or that. Esipically ground work. You take the Horse stance as taught in Shotokan. Put the guy on his back and person between his legs. Now you got what? The guard.... When we teach the horse stacne we teach to squeeze the legs and weight to be balanced on the outside edge of the foot. Basically the same way many grapplers teach to squeeze the person in the guard. The corss over step you see people work out of the horse stance in nothing more than the half guard. This is a more modren idea that has gotten a lot of play the last last 10 years.

 

However stance are stance and are used as a teaching tool. They are low to build strength. No one ever wanted you to fight from them. Think of working out of a low stance like learning to ride a bike. When you little you do things slow and your bike is not very high off the ground as you grow (learn to fight) you take the training wheels off get on a taller bike and learn to ride faster.

 

Everything starts from the ground up. Our feet are on the ground so you have to have a good stance before you can do anything in any MA. Your not just in them for the looks.

[jmd161]

Well let me answer this question.

 

Stances have their place in fighting.

 

To use the horse stance as an example.There are many uses for a horse stance in fighting.But i'm only going to explain one.The horse stance could be used for a take down.As the person attacks you with a punch.You sidestep the attack grab their attack with your back hand,and slide into a deep horse stance.This action forces the person face first into the ground.Using their own momentum to drive them into the ground.

 

You can also use the bow and arrow stance to take someone down or even break their leg.Once again as the person attacks you slide into a bow and arrow stance against their lead leg.At the sametime you slide the tip of your foot behind their heal.Then press into the bow and arrow stance either they go to the ground on their back.Or the force against their leg snaps the leg at a joint like the knee or breaks their shin bone.

 

jeff

[Kirves]

In the style I study, the "basic" stances are exaggerated versions of those used in real fight. Exaggerating them while training teaches you to keep the balance low and stance strong even when you are in the heat of an adrenaline rush and forget all such details. If you always went very low, chances are you'll go an inch or two down for balance (as you should) when the u-know-what hits the fan.

[sansoouser]

ok i had the wrong stance, it was the crossing leg stance and the one leg stance. Now I know some stances are used to strengthen muscles when you practice but not in a fight.

[StoneSkin]

yeah a lot of stances seem awkward, but they are very important keep very strict form and let you muscles ache and burn as they will grow stronger, you will be off balance but you will gain a better balance. Its all a part of training.

 

After hard rigorous years of training... you will not need the awkward stance you will use a comfertable natural stance, a stance you have good balance with. Then you will have a solid foundation and will be much less likely to be thrown off balance.