Horse Stance

[bawang]

modern mma uses correct principles of the horse stance.

[Kellen Bassette]

modern mma uses correct principles of the horse stance.

It amazes me that people don't recognize it...for some folks, if you don't pose with it, they never even saw it being applied.

[GoldenBrain]

Grand Master Arthur Lee once said on one of his instructor video that if you go to low in your horse stance you let the chi out or disrupt it can't exactly remember the exact quote. When I was training on my own I got in the habit of trying to go as low as I could in horse stance. Then I started ying jow pai for a little while and my sifu would tell me to bring horse stance up. Have any of you ever here of disrupting the chi in any way going to low in your horse stance?

I have heard this. My understand is that when you go too low you loose the power. I guess this is the same as loosing the chi. Not sure how it's lost but I think it's just another cultures way of describing said power loss. Try to perform a hip toss with too low or too high of a horse stance and I believe this will become instantly apparent. Also if you duck foot too much, which is my way of saying you are pointing your toes out and heels in, you are loosing the power that your dug in heels provide. Power comes from the earth through the heels, up the legs...to the opponent and back down the chain so if you are out of alignment you won't have the power. Well, that's my country bumpkin way of describing it.

[GoldenBrain]

modern mma uses correct principles of the horse stance.

It amazes me that people don't recognize it...for some folks, if you don't pose with it, they never even saw it being applied.

Ooooh, I like this multiple quote option in the new forum.

I agree with this. What do people think when they see a fighter throw somebody, or sprawl? They have to get into some level of a horse stance for these two examples as well as many others. The MMA fighter uses squats, lunges…many many many other exercises to develop their horse stance. Guess what, so does a good kung fu fighter!

[Graculus]

Originally Posted by dcrjradmonish
Grand Master Arthur Lee once said on one of his instructor video that if you go to low in your horse stance you let the chi out or disrupt it can't exactly remember the exact quote. When I was training on my own I got in the habit of trying to go as low as I could in horse stance. Then I started ying jow pai for a little while and my sifu would tell me to bring horse stance up. Have any of you ever here of disrupting the chi in any way going to low in your horse stance?

Yes, this is correct... it's not some mystical nonsense, but simple mechanics (something that is ignored by many).

If you have been taught how to use the legs to help power your strikes, it should be obvious – explaining it in writing is a bit more difficult. If the feet and legs are to provide any degree of support or strength to a strike, the 'line of force' should go down through the hips, down through the legs, and into the ground. If the stance is too low, the force will run parallel to the ground, or even upwards, from the hips to the knees.

If this is happening, you are losing potential power, and you are wasting some of that potential power by keeping yourself in an artificially low position.

Thus you are losing or disrupting the flow of chi – it helps to think of chi as structural mechanics rather than 'energy' or some kind of golden vapor floating around the body.

Graculus
http://www.ichijoji.blogspot.com