Quote Originally Posted by MightyB View Post
The range where strength is developed is probably the key to stance training. It's not about over all strength development like doing squats - it's about developing the ability to hold that low stance comfortably for long periods of time. This skill is particularly useful for the throwing arts where it's better for you to be in that low posture to both get under your opponent's center of gravity and to keep them from getting below yours. The main benefit of this type of stance training is that as you gain the ability to hold these postures, you'll find that you exert less strength to do them, this allows you to "free up your hips" and relax - again this is very important to the throwing arts, but it's also useful for the striking arts. My teacher amazes everyone he meets with his ability to apply mantis. When showing the applications and trying to teach us to do what he does, he always says to relax the hips - something that students never really can do thus they can't achieve his results with the technique. I observed that this ability actually comes from his ability to maintain low postures comfortably - ie leg strength from stance training - something that westerners just don't want to do.
and yet wrestlers seem to be able to throw people just fine, not to metion get under their hips