Stances
The root of the art.
I never understood when I started karate why I kept getting told stance no good. It took years for me to understand what this meant.
I would try to adjust my feet, bend my knees, but in the beginning to try and fix the issue. I could not seem to figure out what was wrong.
I find myself now telling students "stance no good" as the Sensei. Karate as art relies heavily on a strong competitive stance. For our purposes, a competitive stance is a martial art stance. We have seen these stances in martial arts movies all over the world. Stances like the hoarse stance, the chair stance, and of course the infamous Seisan dachi stance.
A good martial arts stance is the kind of stance that can absorb the pressure of an attack, and give back to the movement.
I try to imagine that with every stance, a person would be able to climb onto you and not affect the stance. Imagine a child climbing up your leg pulling on her arm. The power from karate starts and ends in the stance. This is why the stance is so important to master.
Yet while a stance, should be able to sustain a load, it should be like bamboo. The bamboo can withstand a hurricane but move with an easy breeze.
Let us get back to this giving back to the movement concept. With every movement in karate, you have to start in a stance. If we even start on the ground, you learn how to be in a stationary position first and then learn how to move. Every kick, punch, or block is rooted in the fundamental nature that the stance is where it starts. Think about this for a second every movement starts in a competitive stance.
One of the ways that Masters would test their students would be to pull on their arm or push on their leg as they walked by. Some would even climb onto the back of the student.
In most traditional schools of study, there are no jumping motions in karate, as it causes a loss of motion and contact with the ground. There is only one jump move in any kata that would cause a jump motion, and that is in Chinto. There is a jump movement in the bo kata series that is a defensive action, as opposed to an offensive. This is not to say that a jumping move can or will not be effective. Karate is grounded.
With this understanding that the ground is a part of karate, we should begin from the ground and work up. We should learn to become one with the ground first.
From the ground, when you go to stand up, most people ground themselves to push up. In our classes, I teach that you have to imagine someone is attacking you, and you have to keep your eyes forward and an arm free.
Once you manage to get to a standing position, one should focus on the art of the ground. If you take and turn your feet, and feel the ground with your toes, press down your toes into the ground, and feel the calm readiness of the stance through your feet then you will feel the connection. Know that you are strong in your stance, ready to act so quickly.
Maybe it is a fundamental flaw in the way that martial arts are taught in society today. Students want to learn to punch and kick before they even have a stance. If I started all new students with practicing only a stance for the first class, they would walk away thinking they did not learn anything. Impatience may be a microcosm for the change in society.
I challenge instructors to push for a better understanding from students on the importance of a good stance. Through our dedicated learning, we can build a foundation that is more solid, and strong for the art of karate.
Sensei M. Rodgers
Total 360 karate
04162021
