Stances

Within the martial arts among the most misunderstood and grossly perverted concepts are stances.

The problem with misunderstanding stances and their purposes begins for the most part in the very beginning of their introduction. Westerners in general have a tendency to misinterpret everything foreign that comes to our culture. 

As a student of the martial ways for the better part of three decades it had been beaten into my head that the purpose of stances were for nothing more than cultivating balance, leg strength and developing a strong but low center of gravity. There was no use for them from a tactical or combative standpoint. As such, my stances were practiced for years with nothing other than these elements in mind. This being the case I felt that there had to be something missing from the equation, as there are far better and more effective exercises for the enhancement of strength, and balance. 

In all of the styles of martial arts I have studied and trained, the horse stance was said to require the femur to be parallel to the deck. While esthetically pleasing to the eye and providing a good base it offers very little practical application in combat.The correct way to perform stances is not so much important as the understanding of how they are utilized and transitioned into and from. 

Iain Abernethy once said, “We don’t get into a stance to do techniques; we do techniques by moving into stances.” 

I interpret that as to say that martial stances unlike the dictionary definition are not static.

The function I see stances having is the development of effective movement.This is to say that the key component to learning the stance is not in the static fixed position but in the transition from one position to another. This means the focus has to be on learning the shifting of the center of gravity. Understanding how to shift center of gravity requires that you get the correct feeling for doing so. When the lower grade student shifts through stances what they are doing is learning to effectively move their center of gravity.

Kiba Dachi is also known as the horse stance

It will take a lot of consistent practice to attain the correct feel for the center of gravity and eventually shifting it will gradually become more natural and intuitive.  Gichin Funakoshi’s seventeenth precept of karate covers this by saying, “Stances are for beginners; advanced students will use natural body positions”. Don't read too deep into this. It does not mean that as novice karateka we practice stances with intensity and then as advanced students discard them in preference of something else. It insinuates the “stances” of the novice become the “natural body positions” of the more advanced student. 

Through the practice of stances the beginning student learns to shift their weight such that they will eventually do this intuitively and naturally. All the same postures will be there, although for the beginner they are perceived as fixed postures; whereas for the advanced student they will be positions they move through quite naturally and with little to no conscious thought.  Genwa Nakasone said in his clarification of Funakoshi’s seventeenth precept, “Karate has many stances; it also has none.” 

If you were to take a snapshot of the transition of center of gravity from one position to another you’ll have a “stance”. So in theory at lower grade practice karate does have many stances, but the reality is that the application of karate has no stances for all movement will be natural and fluid. 

It must always be remembered that when we fight we do so with the information within kata; we don’t fight with kata.The stances are in kata so we can see how the center of gravity should shift and the positions we should move through. In bunkai training (practical application of kata) we need to flow through these postures and not freeze in position. Doing so causes you to be hit a lot. 

There are some who feel that we could skip the “stance stage” and move straight to natural motion. However, that’s a bit like building the rooms of a house before laying down the foundation. If we skip or short change the “learning to move our center through defined postures” stage then we never really get to the point where we can intuitively move effectively. You simply can’t jump to the optimum stage without going through the basic stages first. Crawl before you walk. Walk before you run. 

A significant problem in the martial arts today is students attempting to rush progress, and seeking shortcuts. They never get the basics to a solid level and, just like a building with a poor foundation; they limit heights to which they can reach.  A desire to get functional quickly can lead to people not spending enough time on the foundations and hence they never reach high skill levels. Many traditional martial artists have the opposite problem however. It’s not so much running before they can walk, but never moving beyond walking, and then wondering why they can’t win races. 

There are absolutely no fixed or static positions in combat. People who assume fixed or static positions do so because they are unconscious.  

It is the motion into stances that ensures we have weight behind whatever technique we are applying. A punch is powerful because the weight is going forward. If we go forward (i.e. assume the stance)… and then punch, it will be very weak because the bodyweight finished moving before the punch started. Such a practice will also mean we are static and that causes major defensive problems as well as offensive ones.The damage is done to the enemy through the assuming of the stance; we don’t assume the stance first and then try to do damage. The bodyweight must be moving as the technique is being applied. Moving the body before or after the technique means it will be devoid of bodyweight and consequently ineffective. Remember that stances show us where we should move to or through; they do not represent a mandatory start position and the instance a stance is assumed and a technique applied it will seamlessly move on to the next position that the situation requires. The technique can be started from any position from sitting in a chair to recovering from a stagger after being punched in the face.

In combat, however, situations are constantly changing and thus the stances should also be in a state of flux. The allocation of the bodyweight should be constantly changing depending upon the technique being employed. Stances will be assumed as required, before immediately shifting the center of gravity to the next appropriate position. 

So when looking at the stances within kata we must always look for a combative function and never accept non-combative rationalizations of the stance. 

Stances are not something fixed, static,or assumed before a technique is executed. They represent positions we flow to, through and from during the execution of a technique. By freeze framing and isolating these positions for the less experienced students we give them the opportunity to learn the otherwise intangible idea of efficiently shifting our center of gravity in an optimum way. Learn to walk, then to run and internalize the stances so they are there but not there. It is then that we can employ our techniques in the optimal way. 

Again in the words of Genwa Nakasone, “Karate has many stances; it also has none.”