Try to never mirror your opponent’s stance.

[JPinAZ]

In the past with my TWC training, I preferred the mirrored position over the cross arm. I have fast hands and footwork so I was usually able to get to the blindside and land a few blows before they could re face. Maintaining that position is impossible, if someone wants to turn and face you they will. Plus you have to be ready for the spinning techniques and the fact that the guy might just step into you and take your space.

With the method I train in now, when I end up mirrored position with my lead foot on the outside of his, I'm alot tighter in now than I used to be and am more able to affect their structure and balance due to the different body mechanics that I use now, and when people start to retreat I step forward with the rear foot to get inside there footwork and eat their space to control their centers, rather than maintaining the outside foot position.

Gaining entry is hard to explain on a forum like this, since so many things can happen in the process, too many variables going on at once. Basically for me at my stage of development, I prefer not to use WC structure outside of punching range at all, but more of a natural almost side on stance. WC is range specific when at it's most effective. I have good kicks, and long reach, so I can use jabs, and kicking techniques when out there, but my goal is to get inside their space and use my engine where it works best. If I want to, I can go back to my TWC training and use that stuff as well for outside fighting, which entails using a side neutral stance with Man/wu sau outstretched to face an opponent.

Right now I more interested in learning the inside stuff that this method teaches and developing my engine and hitting to a high level. We will see what my coach wants to do after that. I have lots to learn still, and that is a good feeling

James

Thanks for sharing, it's good to hear how others view things. And I totally understand/agree with the part I bolded in your quote.

Jonathan