structural alignment

[ninjaboy]

hello all.....

something to ponder

i have a question about a cat stance. more specifically, regarding the
relationship between the femur and the toes of what i will call 'the support
leg' (ie. the leg that bears most of the weight).

some stylists seem to prefer keeping the femur of the support leg 'in line'
with the toes, as in like how they line up when we walk....
on the other hand, however, some stylists seem to prefer turning the knee of
their support leg in towards their center so that, from a bird's eye view,
the knee is not 'in line' with the toes. the knee and the foot point in
distinctly different directions.

i am curious to hear what your opinions are regarding the pros and cons of
either way and the rationale behind it for stability, mobility, power
generation, etc...

i hope i'm painting a clear picture of what i'm asking about but if my
question is unclear in any way, please let me know and i'll either reword it
or provide pics to help illustrate my curiosity.

sincerely,
ninjaboy

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

i would say in line ... the other way you described seems like it would hurt your knees. i'm not sure why people would do this. does it corkscrew their root or something?

as a rule of thumb it's knees over ankles in most styles.

[SevenStar]

I too would say in line

[GLW]

A fundamental principle of all Chinese Martial Arts is NATURAL...

The natural structure of the body is the alignment of knee and toe. This applies to all styles. to violate this alignment is to put an unnecessary stress on a joint. Probably the WORST joint of the body to stress is the knee.

Align the knee and toe. To not do so is to invite knee surgery.

[Royal Dragon]

Keep it inline. The other way is purely an impropper way, and is most likely due to poor coaching.