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Fighting Postures to Create Power, Flexibility and Movement

I remember what it was like learning Karate. I had a sensei who barked orders, and had us stand in stances for what felt like eternities, until our legs ached, our knees cramped and we walked funny. Now that Im teaching beginning Karate at the dojo, Im finding that Im falling back on the way I was taught, and in some ways, thats not good. My sensei wasnt real big on explaining the whys behind the four stances, and how they worked from a kinematics perspective; it was all Do it this way, because.

For my students, I want them to know a little bit more about it, and the way that it works. In some ways, this came from watching Mythbusters, where they explained the physics behind the board breaking tricks. While Qi and Ki-Yaas are important, theres also some pretty interesting stuff going on.

Anyway, there are four basic stances in Karate: Ready, Forward, Horse and Fighting stance.

The Ready stance puts your feet at shoulder width apart, your shoulders relaxed, and your hands held apart about 6 inches in front of your body. From this stance, the amount of motion needed to get to the other stances is minimal, and, in my classes, I have my students stare straight ahead, and tell them to pay attention to their peripheral vision.

The Forward stance is the basic walking stance you see it a lot in martial arts movies, Move your back foot (left for a right handed fighter) forward, keeping the back leg straight this allows the back leg to act like a coiled spring for directing power from the ground, through the hips, and forward. Take a step forward by moving your back leg up, keeping the same rooted stance as you move; the focus of this stance is movement in a fight, without making yourself vulnerable. From here, all your blocks should be available, and you should be hard to leg sweep. I have my students practice this one with a blind fold on from time to time, or with something balanced on their head, because it helps them focus on balance while moving.