Is the Bow Stance Real or Fake ?

[Rover]

''Front leg like a bow,back leg like an arrow.'' is the stance i have some doubts,especially when its transformed from horse stance to bow stance for a hit.Reason for this is in many orthodox systems this stance is absent,not presented.And i belive that a poor momentum is created in a turn like this when compared with turns to narrower and more relaxed stances.
Look at these two posts of user Bawang from the topic 'How To Change From Horse Stance Into Bow Arrow Stance'.

yao bu (twist step) is from old orthodox footwork. gongbu is a useless modern wushu invention.

traditional kung fu categorizes footwork by usage. there is no such thing as mabu and gongbu.

there is no such thing as gong bu. there is yao si ping, or twisting flat stance.



gongbu and mabu are products of modern wushu. they are not traditional terms. they do not have anything to do with fighting.

I have come to think about static stances or posing are miss-understatements.

[Faux Newbie]

The equivalent is in many arts, it's the long stance that seems to be a more modern thing.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...art=12&ndsp=23

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...art=35&ndsp=24

Things like the long version can be found:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...tart=0&ndsp=19

I have yet to see an old kung fu manual where the illustrations show the stances to be all that wide on some stances.

[YouKnowWho]

The

- bow-arrow stance,
- horse stance, and
- golden rooster stand,

are the building blocks for the throwing art.

[Kellen Bassette]

Ma Bu, in it's various versions and names, is fundamental to many gong fu systems. This is not a new concept. The extremely low, flat, wushu version of the stance may be modern, but the "horse stance" is not a new concept.
Gong Bu has also been around a long time, with lots of different names and degrees of openness. IMO gong bu is nothing more than an exaggeration of the natural fighting stance.

[YouKnowWho]

Is the Bow Stance Real or Fake ?

We should not look at this just from the "striking art" point of view. TCMA is a integration of "striking art" and "throwing art".

All body rotation throw will require "bow-arrow" stance.



It's also used as the ending of most throws.

[SPJ]

There is the half bow arrow stance.

The rear leg is slightly bent and not straightened out.

It is easier to move about and transition to other stance.

Of course, it really depends on what you are doing or about to do.

[hskwarrior]

the stance is FAR from being absent in Choy Lee Fut. And utilized very effectively as well.