The Secret of How to Make Perfect Karate Stances

[I:https://healthclub90.com/storage/2011/07/AlCase20.jpg] First thing you’ll probably be taught, when you enter into a Martial Arts training gym, is how to make stances. This is because stancesbuild the foundations for the eastern fighting methods. How you stand has to do with how you connect the body to the ground, and how you make it into a class AAA machine.

Systems that don’t have weight dropping of this sort will not generate the massive amounts of energy that the classical martial arts develop. I am talking about such arts as Shaolin, Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Kenpo, and that type of art. The weird thing is that methods that don’t have stances could introduce stances into their teachings easily, and thus increase the energy they create tremendously.

To begin, the first stance is the natural stance, in which you simply stand with your feet shoulder width apart and feet angled to the front. Since this is natural, and takes no real instructions, we won’t go into it. Simply, this type of stance doesn’t generate power.

To build an Hourglass Stance, which does generate energy, start with your feet together. Keep the toes touching and swing the heels out, then keep the heels where they are and swing the toes out, then keep the toes fixed in place and swing the heels out again. Lower the stance slightly, push the knees together (stand pigeon toed) and breath to the tan tien (the one point located just below the navel).

To create a back stance, from the hour glass stance simply swing one toe all the way out and settle your weight on the other leg. You might have to move the foot turned out slightly to the side, as you want to be able to move without having to go around your own hips. This is an extremely useful stance for getting ready to fight, as you can crouch and launch with no discernible movement.

Next we will make a horse stance, which is also called Mabu in the Chinese martial disciplines, and Kiba Dachi in the Japanese systems. From a back stance simply fix the toes of the front foot in position and move the heel out, and let the weight settle evenly down the legs. This is a high horse stance, and you can spread the legs further and get lower, and thus make more power, just by moving the feet to the sides.

Finally, to create a front stance, simply turn the toes of one of the feet in the horse stance to the side and sink your weight on the front foot. You may want to move the front foot more to the side so that the feet are on parallel tracks shoulder width apart. This is a great stance when you want to rush forward and attack.

There are many other stances you can create, and it is simple to figure out a foot or leg motion to build these. These would include such stances as the one legged stance (crane), the kneeling stance, the dragon stance (kneeling with the knee behind the ankle), and so on. The main thing to remember is that you should be able to position yourself so that you can move through the various martial arts stances while conserving, and even building, more and more power

Go to Martial Arts Stances If you want to see graphics and a free video showing what you have learned here. This is a free lesson, so head on over to Learn Karate Online.