Studying your opponent's stance for possible weakness....

[monkey man]

Someone mentioned to me the act of studying your opponent's stance for weakness, or to understand their particular fighting style, before commencing battle. I'd never considered this before but thought it made alot of sense.
For example; seeing if they favour to place more weight on one leg than another, if they tend to lean forward (as a grappler might), if they lean back (to possibly maximise their kicking potential?) and basic positioning.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you pay particular attention to such things in order to assess your opponent and consequently form a 'game plan'? What particular things do you look out for? Would you disagree with such a practice?

Cheers..





:)

[Ish]

during training and sparing i can certainly see why you might want to do that but if your talking about an apponent in the street whos about to attack you i don't think you really have the time to do it.

[Sho]

That's how Jet Li (Chen Zhen) does it in Jing Mou Ying Hong. :D

[apoweyn]

i think there's some value to doing that within the context of a given situation. if a guy is leaning backward and taking the weight off of his front foot, i'm fairly comfortable supposing that he's going to try and kick me. or, at the very least, i know he has a shorter list of menu items that he can choose from that position. obviously, he's not guaranteed to kick, but his position does offer clues as to what he intends to do, what he can do well from that position, etc. and if he shifts to another position, i might be able to read that too.

all that said, i'd avoid extrapolating too much. if i said, "all the weight on the back foot --> kicker --> taekwondo --> won't want to grapple, then he turned out to be a championship wrestler in college, joke's on me.

know what i mean?


stuart b.

[Former castleva]

Go for the unprotected points in his structure,any stance will leave some.

[Dark Knight]

Im a sweeper. I look to open with a sweep. How you stand will dictate wether or not Im going to do it, or how I will.

[Water Dragon]

Originally posted by Dark Knight
Im a sweeper. I look to open with a sweep. How you stand will dictate wether or not Im going to do it, or how I will.

hee hee hee ;)

[Daredevil]

This is gonna be one of those ambigious yes/no answers. :)

Yeah, of course you should be mindful of your opponent's stance. A stance may tell you something about his style. I believe this concept is even more important in at least Japanese swordplay and maybe fencing in general (any fencers/swordfighters care to voice opinions on this?). I assume same goes for a lot of weapon based fighting.

Then again .. I'd approach fighting with this mindset: I have my game plan, my drive, and I will force it on you. Not much more to it. :)

Speaking about stances, let's see what folks are using. I like what Baji is doing, which is almost exactly the stance from Bruce Lee's JKD. Maybe some differences in foot positions -- I'm not that familiar with what JKD does in that department. No bouncing, of course. We don't bounce -- we stomp. :)

[neptunesfall]

i don't use a stance.

[Chang Style Novice]

I find that hard to believe. Do you fight sitting down or something?

[apoweyn]

Originally posted by neptunesfall
i don't use a stance.

everybody uses a stance. perhaps not in the 'official' sense. i don't use 'ding bo' (cat stance) for instance. but i still stand. i still move. and the way i do either of those things can tell an opponent something.

[CD Lee]

Sure, if you have 'time', but I doubt you do normally. I would suggest being aware of where their centerline is more than their stance. I think you will notice a correlation between a persons centerline and their stance. Obviously a bi-pedal human has weakness in any stance they take if you can take advantage of it. It does not hurt to be aware of such things.

As far as weighting goes, be careful making assumptions. While not popular, backweighted stances are used by some styles almost exclusively and can issue devestating power from those stances with their hands.

[Kilik]

I would say that it is important to judge your opponents stance before fighting(if given the time). You can usually sum up whether he has the ability to generate power depending on his posture and how well he moves between those stances. I think added to which his center. If that center is well covered and he pivots well without losing posture, he can pretty much hit with some serious power. I like the fact that a stance could be deceiving as was previously mentioned depending on the practioner system. nice insight...something i never thought about..

[Merryprankster]

I don't gauge their stance. I gauge their MOVEMENT.

I've seen some funky stuff out there that works for some people, and some common stuff that people screw up constantly. Better indicator for me.

[straight blast]

None of you have mentioned the most powerful stance of all: The Olympic Tae Kwon Do stance! Bouncing up and down on the toes, arms dangling loosely by the waist...hands resting on the thighs...pure power .

That said, some styles have very distinctive stances. Wing Chun, Muay Thai, some forms of Mantis, etc.

The only stance I see as a bit weak (and this opinion is offered from using it and sparring against people who use it) is the stance where you stand almost side on to your opponent. Some people take it too far (like me when I trained it :( ) and it leaves the back of your knees really open to kicking, as well as your kidneys. It also leaves you wiiiiide open for takedowns that push you backwards.

But that is just my opinion, and I must admit that in real fights the main stance I've seen is the "windmill fist". :D