A note that I brought up in a few of my recent classes is the mistake that students often make when trying to lower your stances. This directly relates to my last blog entry about improving the look of your forms. The mistake that is made is to lower the stances by widening them. This is not the correct way of lowering most stances. The lowering of stances should be done by further bending of the knees instead of widening the distance between your feet. Of course this all has to be done without allowing yourself to bend over (another habit that I notice in students trying to lower stances). This will help in further improving the look of your forms.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Isn't is also true that if one bends his knees beyond a certain point without also widening the stance, the knee bend will be such an acute angle that the stance is weakened. Should there be an optimal angle of the knee relative to the stance width, which should be a function of each person's physiologic parameters, such as leg length, etc.
Those that are training in our school know that we do not measure by absolute distance between feet but rather measure by stepping outward thereby measuring a distance that matches your body. Lower stances will help build your stance strength over time just like most training. We train in lower stances while practicing forms so that it is easier to be in a low stance in a combat situation because the natural tendency is to be a bit higher in execution than you are in practice. I do not recommend anyone fight in their lowest stance as this restricts maneuverability, especially if your style is like Fut Gar Kung Fu and focuses on maneuverability. At a certain point, your stance is no longer correct because you are too low and squatting instead of standing. Your instructor will be able to help you determine that.
Post a Comment