Tricks to Stance training

[IronWeasel]

I measured the seconds by throwing VERY slow punches (I need to work on my punching form and I LOVE dynamic tension.) I can try adding in some of the harder upper body work that our style has, but I mainly tried this variant since I'm not sure what most of the other stances in the Temple Sequence are. I made sure to keep from coming up when twisting into or out of Horse Stance so that I was down the whole time. Any thoughts?

Well Green Dragon is the only source that I know that has a stance only Instructional video. Other Choy li Fut vids may have material that demonstrates the various stances as they may or may not occur in the particular form.


IronWeasel

[One Finger Zen]

When I was first taken to meet my master, Wu Shifu, he first talked to me for a while, I think he must have been trying to get to know me a little before he ordered me and my good gongfu xiongdi, Gwyn, to sit into Mabu.

Well, I can safely say that that day, thats the most horse stance induced pain I've ever felt to date. Even though I'd gotten to 15 minutes horse stance before I'd met him (having previously gone to a crappy commercial 'school' ), my horse stance just managed to get me to 10 minutes that day.

Me and my brother have a little saying too "In front of shifu, Mabu just falls to pieces"- mainly because of the pressure of him watching and the incredibly low stance. He laughs quite a bit when he notices our legs start to shake, he says because hes already been through it, even tougher training, back in Guangdong when he was younger.

Thighs parallel to the floor, fists in, back straight and absolutely no moving at all, not even to wipe our brows

So after that little milestone in my life, Wu Shifu accepted me as his indoor student. The other 3 indoor students are now grownup and in the chinese armed forces.

From time to time, say every 6 months, just to check that we still practice the stance at home, he'll make sure that have another little test (eg 2nd one was 15 minutes mabu and the 3rd one was 20 minutes etc etc).

As for feeling good in mabu, its totally possible. One time, I was enduring 30 minutes mabu and it was about 25 minutes. I closed my eyes and this weird vision came into my mind, it was like a war torn battle field and this flower popped out of the ground and bloomed after that, I found myself feeling really happy even though I was covered in sweat. There's a chinese saying that would describe sitting in mabu perfectly- 'Man Tou Da Han' which just means totally covered in sweat (well its good for me anyway).

I like to hear how other people deal with horse stance. Some good stories here, very inspirational.

Peace and Love

OFZ

[Wil-Hung]

I figured out a new technique to take the pain out of training (a lil' bit) let's say your wife, or spouse for those XX chromosome individuals, ****es you off, for any reason, it's a Monday. If you happen to have access to a light, hanging punching bag, instead of "bobbin/weavin' with it on your toes, sit in horse and ping choy it. Knuckles don't like it, slip in a leopard fist (I need major work w/that one-I can't do i whole leopard push up- that's sad) and suddenly you don't even realize you are in horse (90 degree) The 10 lb weight vest also helps. Thank God for Moo Duk.

[Wil-Hung]

In the last couple of weeks, I have been experiencing pain right below my left kneecap. It is not debilitating, but annoying and constant. I have been "jowwing" it every evening. The pain is similar in feeling to shin splints. I'm not sure if my structure is causing this or what the problem is. Its funny that is is only in the left knee. Any advice would be helpful. Has anyone experienced this?

[XiaoJieFu]

Things that helped me out during painful horse stances early on was, as someone already mentioned, doing something with your hands. I'd do all sorts of palm movements, little hook grabs (when nobody was looking of course). Now, I hold a briuck in each hand in front of me, and the arm pain actually decreases the pain in my legs! Strange but true.

[XinKuzi]

Me and my brother have a little saying too "In front of shifu, Mabu just falls to pieces"- mainly because of the pressure of him watching and the incredibly low stance. He laughs quite a bit when he notices our legs start to shake, he says because hes already been through it, even tougher training, back in Guangdong when he was younger.

I recently went to my first tournament and did much preparing in class, including in front of my Sifu. He knows if I'm short-cutting a move from across the room, and he can hear if my stances and roots are done right...so when he's got all his attention on me, I have to try extra hard to find that peaceful place in my mind.

He also trained much harder and longer back in the day...more added pressure when you just want to make Sifu proud!

[stainlesschi]

i used to do the horse stance while punching,,,illhave to start it again even though it aint much part of my wing chun now

[Pork Chop]

In the last couple of weeks, I have been experiencing pain right below my left kneecap. It is not debilitating, but annoying and constant. I have been "jowwing" it every evening. The pain is similar in feeling to shin splints. I'm not sure if my structure is causing this or what the problem is. Its funny that is is only in the left knee. Any advice would be helpful. Has anyone experienced this?

Yeah, it's tendonitis.

It was the bane of my existence back when i did kung fu full time and probably the biggest reason I'll never go back to training that way full time.

Glucosamine can help- i like those joint juice cans from sams.

i can honestly say, after a couple years of experimentation, that horse stance was counter-productive for me when I was doing sanshou.

I consider stance training the most overrated practise in the martial arts.
Most times those beautiful, low stances are ridiculously offbalanced and just plain harmful for your body- knees aren't made to take that kind of stress.

Shorter people tend to be able to skate much easier on stances than people with long legs. If you've got short, stubby legs you're going to look a lot lower than the guy with long legs eventhough the angle of the bend in your knee will probably be worse. The only tall people with great stances are usually paper thin.

Balance should be stressed more than depth, but depth looks prettier. Stance transitions have more functional carry-over than static stances.

The sad thing is that I love hung gar, but I'll never be able to finish learning it because it's just too much for my knees.

EDIT: I box out of a low crouch, so go figure...

[dougadam]

Focus on your chi coming out thru the top of your head