effective stances?

[ninjanurse]

Stance training develops strength, balance, and flexibility. Having recently begun to train in kung fu I am finding that their stances offer a lot more to this training than one may realize.

 

[JerryLove]

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.

Conversely, I see it a lot in upriht grappling or as a transition when movign weight for leg to leg.

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.

 

Correct... the general tendancy is toward 100/0 weight.

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.

 

I disagree.. I can think of many instances where you would end up in a posture from a stance.

[delta1]

Jerry,

 

Quote #1: " "A fighting horse stance ..." Conversely, I see it a lot in upriht grappling or as a transition when movign weight for leg to leg."

 

I think we are in agreement here. I could have said that better as I don't use it much as a primary fighting stance. It is a good transitional stance, which I alluded to. The term better could have been btter said another way as well- maybe a more solid stance, or one with better allignment for power. But clearly in my example the horse would be, for the moment, the better stance. And you are correct about its use in upright grappling. Again, in my example, one common continuation of that technique is to grasp the weapon arm with the front hand and roll into an arm bar as you step into a stronger stance with correct allignment. I've seen this in several styles, including my own. Good call.

 

Quote#3: This did not concern one of my posts, but I'll comment on it. I agree with you here. I don't know about all arts, but in the CMA's I've been exposed to these are all very effective fighting stances. They are also used to build strength, especially of the small muscles close to the bones. But they are a lot like punching a heavy bag in this respect. You do it to build speed, power, technique, etc. The same strike is just as effective on an opponent.

[delta1]

Sansoouser, you talked about being "cross legged." There are a lot of possible reasons for this. One is as a foot maneuver. You can cross over step forward or back, front or rear to adjust distance and angle to your opponent.

 

There are also several types of twist stances. Some can give extremely good stability in one direction, though the trade off is instability in more directions than most stances. A full twist stance is a very powerful and deceptive stance, though inherently more unstable compared to other stances due to its narrow base. On the other hand, it isn't as unstable as you might think. You can torque into and out of the twist and simultaneously attack in many directions. You can move to several direction changes from it in order to maneuver. And, if done correctly, half a crossover is a twist, which can be used as a deception. And as others have said here, the stances themselves can be used as weapons. The twist can be used to attack his base, rolling up on his knee. It is tricky, as you are in close with a verry narrow stance. But I've seen it done. It is one of the things I've been working on and it is really giving me fits. But if I can get it down I figure it will be worth the effort.