One of the first things a new karate student learns when he or she starts karate is proper stances and it’s also the one thing they will keep working on for as long as they study karate.
Stances may vary a little from style to style. Okinawan karate sometimes has higher, more natural stances whereas Japanese karate may have lower, more rigid, stances.
But the question many people ask is why do we practice stances at all? Nobody use them when they fight for real. Do they?
Well, actually they do and many people do so without knowing it! Even MMA fighters!
What then is the purpose of a stance in karate?
The purpose of a stance is to increase the effectiveness of a technique through proper weight distribution during technique application. Balance is a by-product of good stances, not the primary goal.
The one big mistake most novice karate students make is to think that a stance is a stationary position which they have to maintain during a confrontation. This thought process will get you hurt bad, if not killed!
During an actual confrontation you will be forced to shift your weight continuously in order to apply techniques and maintain balance at the same time. In other words, you will continuously move from one stance to another as required by the situation without even knowing it or thinking about it.
In the following example I’m defending against a collar grab followed by a possible head punch:
Photo 1: Standing in “yoi-dachi” (ready stance) as the attacker initiates his attack
Photo 2: Take a small step backwards into “shizentai-dachi” (natural stance) while at the same time striking down on the attacking arm. This will disrupt the attackers balance and create an opening for my counter attack
Photo 3: Shift forward into “zenkutsu-dachi” (long stance) to add more weight to my counter attack and strike with jodan-uke (age-uke).
As you can clearly see, not only do we use stances during real confrontations, but they are crucial to the proper execution of our techniques and serve many other important purposes as well.
Next time your Sensei tells you to stand in shuko-dachi (or kiba-dachi) for 15 minutes you will understand why and maybe one day you will thank him for it when it gets you out of a tight spot.
If you have any questions regarding karate, or any other martial art, please feel free to send me an email at frikw@hotmail.com
