Let's talk about the horse stance

[Canadian]

Hey there,

I would like to hear from other people about the horse stance. I have a friend who wants to join my kung fu school, but he is worried about his knees. I used to get quite a bit of knee pain, and I still do from time to time. It seems to me that the key is keeping your thighs nice and spread out, and conditioning your leg muscles with weights etc. A good warm up seems to help. I went to a phyisiotherapist, and she simply said "don't do the stance, there is too much torque on your knees." I notice in some kung fu books that the horse stance is shown with the feet pointing 45 degrees outwards, while my school asks me to point my toes directly forward. The physiotherapist said if you must do it, them point your toes outwards, to lessen the torque.

Overall, I feel ok about my horse stance, and the knee problems seem to be going away, but I would like to hear others experiences with it.

[bluebar]

Our school has always done the 45 deg out point with the feet. Stupid idiot that I am, I started listening to a guy whom I considered more knowledgeable because he was one of my heroes. (He's a hell of a fighter, but on this one thing I believe he's wrong with a capital W) He had learned our way, but went to the straight foot forward stance since he said it provided better balance. I tried it on his say so and immediately beginning noticing not only knee pain but pain in the arch of my feet. I continued because I figured it was me and not the method, but it got so bad I went back to my instructor's and his instructor's and so on back about three hundred years method. Guess what. The pain is going away and my techniques are back to full speed. It's nice to know my body agrees with your physiotherapist.

[Paul Skrypichayko]

Martial arts training should make your whole body healthy. This is even true with your knees and horse stance.

Some people train the horse stance with the knees out, some train with them in. Some people train the stance with feet splayed outwards, and some train with them parallel and pointing forwards.

Get your friend to do lots of warmup, take care of his joints, and do horse stance, duck walk, squat jumping, and any other safe exercises. Make sure he watches out for any potential injuries. After 3 months of good training, his knees and legs should be much stronger.

[Canadian]

Thanks for the info... I have found, however, that I can build enough strength in my thighs to do the stance with my toes pointing forward, so I use that method. I do point them slightly outwards, and I make sure that I spread my legs as wide as possible.

The fellow who teaches me my forms says that in Hong Kong, they used to make all the students stand in the horse stance for fifteen minutes, and if they moved, they would get whipped in the back of the leg with a stick.

We only do the stance for 5 minutes in class, and I try to do it for 10 minutes myself at home.

How long does your class do the horse stance?

At the beginning of just about every class, we have 30-45 min. of stancework, but we are not just in horse stance. We have stancework in gung bo and back stance as well. It at least makes it seem like you're getting a break, but in reality, it's working different muscle groups. And uhh yeah sifu is carrying around a bamboo rod that he smacks you with if you're trying to get away with breaking stance while his back is turned [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] I had a lot of trouble with my knees the first year with hung gar,but as I have grown stronger, I don't seem to have as many problems. I keep my toes either pointed forward or slightly turned in. And practice stance in little ways, like when watching tv or whatever.

[Bastet]

To pass our gradings we must finish with 1/2 an hour of horse stance. In my first lesson I had to show that I could hold it for 10 minutes (it nearly killed me [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]) From what I have read, I dont think that our stance is as low as others.... What is the angle of your thighs to the floor?

Blessed Be,
A.

[Bastet]

oops
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]




[This message has been edited by Bastet (edited 08-11-2000).]

[Canadian]

In answer to your question: Our class does the horse stance so that the thighs are almost parallel to the ground. One of our teachers used to place a staff across everybody's lap, so that if they stood up a bit, it would roll off. We do other stances as well -- ten basic ones.

[LION]

....

[This message has been edited by LION (edited 08-14-2000).]

[MaFuYee]

.

[This message has been edited by MaFuYee (edited 08-14-2000).]

[LION]

.....

[This message has been edited by LION (edited 08-14-2000).]

[MaFuYee]

?

[This message has been edited by MaFuYee (edited 08-14-2000).]

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
that was funny

[J.L.BLACKSTONE]

I CAN DO HORSE STANCE NOW FOR FIVE MINUTES AND HAVE MADE A ENQUIRY ABOUT IT ON THE LINE, IT IS A STANCE AND THE STANCES ARE NOT CEROMONIAL JUNK BUT VERY PROFOUND AND BUILD A POWERFUL BASE WHICH IS WHY SOME TEACHERS DONT TEACH FORMS AND LEAVE IT TO THE STUDENT TO BREAK DOWN TO POSTURES BUT TEACH POSTURES
AND LEAVE IT TO THE STUDENT TO CREATE THERE OWNN FORMS WHICH ARE ONLY FOR CONDOTIONING.
GOOD LUCK.

[Canadian]

Ion Swamp,

Yes, I agree that the stance is more than ceremonial. It helps to build strength, endurance, flexibility, and protects you knees by strengthing them. It's funny, I was playing frisbee a while ago, and I found the horse stance allowed me to do some incredible jumps for the disk, because I could land with perfect balance. I can accomplish way more in daily life as a result of training it.

Somebody on the main board suggested that all fights end up on the ground, and the whole thing turned into a huge debate. I am not sure about the statistics on this matter, but I know that if I keep working on a low horse stance, I will be harder and harder to take down.

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]