Stances

What are the two categories of stances?
Inside tension and outside tension are two large categories that stances can be placed into. Inside tension stances are characterized by stances in which the knees are brought toward one another. Outside tension stances are constructed so that the knees point away from each other. The effect is that the shape of the stance, and the tensions in the muscles, should provide the stance with some stability to withstand an impact force when striking or when being struck. Stances also should provide a frame of reference for balanced footwork. Experts do not utilize these stances as fixed objects as beginners to, but more as transitional positions taken up temporarily during moving, dynamic techniques. There is also a third category of stances which have neither the outside nor inside tension qualities.

What are the outside tension stances?
The outside tension stances include the front stance (zenkutsu dachi), the back stance (kokutsu dachi), the horse riding stance (kiba dachi), the square stance (shikko dachi), and the unmoving stance (fudo dachi).

What are the inside tension stances?
The inside tension stances include the cat leg stance (nekoashi dachi), the three point stance (sanchin dachi), and the half moon stance (hangetsu dachi).

Which are the most common stances in Shotokan?
The most commonly used stances in Shotokan are the outside tension stances. The most popular is the front stance. The popularity of stances has changed as the years have passed. At one time the Fudo-dachi was the most popular stance, following it the Sanchin-dachi was very popular. Today, the Kokutsu-dachi is very popular for free sparring because it allows the body to hang back away from danger while the feet are brought close to the opponent. The front stance, however, has consistently been the most commonly used training stance.

Why is the front stance the most commonly used?
The front stance, Zenkutsu Dachi, is the most common stance used in Shotokan Karate for one very simple reason: it is a forward-backward stance, and it is best suited to human legs - which like to move forward and backward more than side-side. Experts do not assume this stance so much as a structure as much as they end up in this position after pushing off with the support foot to drive the hips forward to deliver a technique. Stretching out the rear leg to push forward puts the center of gravity so far in front of the rear leg that the front leg must be used to catch the body weight.

Why are some stances used more than others?
Whatever happened to shikko dachi? Why is it only a stance in Shito-Ryu and Goju-Ryu, but not Shotokan? The answer lies in the way that the kata are structured as a database. Shotokan's top level kata is Kanku Dai, and that kata contains the fundamentals of the system within it. The other kata in the system are either taken from Kanku Dai or are closely related to it somehow. Funakoshi's strong kata were the fundamental 15 kata found in Karatedo Kyohan. The other kata practiced in Shotokan today are largely ripped from other systems, and those are the kata that contain the nekoashi and sanchin stances. It just so happens that the JKA stopped adding other systems' kata into Shotokan in 1948, and no kata containing Shikko dachi had been added at that point. Some oral histories report that Funakoshi's son, Yoshitaka, is largely responsible for importing kata like Unsu and Sochin from Shito-Ryu into Shotokan simply to have fun with them. Upon his death, the ripping of kata from other systems largely ceased.

How do I make pressure into the floor?
You cannot do this. For some reason, the martial-arts mythology has come to include a Shotokan Myth about squeezing the feet against the floor, either inward or outward, to strengthen the structure. It is also claimed that this acts as a suction cup to make the body more solid on impact to resist any reaction force by using friction.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Friction is the interaction between two (or more) surfaces. It relates only to the type of materials, the finish (polish) and geometry. It is expressed as a coefficient of friction. As you are not changing the composition of your feet (are you?...you mutant!) or the floor you can only change your geometry. That is to say, you can only change the surface area of contact by maximizing your foot to floor contact ie. don't curl up toes, ride up on your balls (feet that is) or heel. Thus you can try to maximize your floor contact (area) but you can't change your coefficient of friction. (except for say washing the dirt off your feet every ten minutes). How you effectively you use that friction is the key.

Friction accounts for the feet sticking to the floor, but it does not account for the feet being pushed outward or inward against the friction of the foot-floor contact itself creating any pressure or extra force into the floor. This cannot happen simply because of gravity. The force of gravity is constant, and your mass is generally constant, provided that you do not go on a diet. If you exert a downward component of force greater than that used to support your body weight, you will rise up. Since you do not do this when squeezing your feet together or pushing apart, there is no vertical component of force. The squeezing is horizontal.

What effect does horizontal squeezing have on the structure of the stance? Probably none. There is an initial vibration set up in the body when the muscles are tensed, but after that, the squeezing does little more than to stiffen the legs and consume calories. Whether or not this actually strengthens the structure of the stance or provides stability is very debatable. Some would argue that the increased muscle tension creates a more stable structure. Other would argue that the tensions counter act each other in opposite directions and accomplish nothing. Others might argue that too stiff of a stance structure may actually weaken the stance, and that pushing against the friction of the floor contact continually is actually reducing the amount of force necessary to break that contact and destroy the connection to the floor. Until formal research is performed and replicated, no one will know for certain.

How can a stance weaken my technique?
Believe it or not, it can! When you are standing in place, your are pressing into the floor at a constant rate which is a component of both gravity and your mass. When you then begin to push into an object that is not easily moved - a wall, for example - you have added a third support for your body weight. Your feet and fist are acting as a kind of perverted tripod to hold you up. In other words, some of the body weight that you might wish to apply through your fist is actually being exerted through your feet. If you lift the front foot of a front stance while punching into a wall, you will notice the increased pressure on your punching arm. This is due to the removal of support #2: your front leg. Now, your body weight is only supported by your rear leg, your punch, and the connecting points in between. Not only will this exercise help you realize the proper path of punch support from rear foot to hand, it also demonstrates how a punch landed before the front foot connects with the floor can be timed to have a larger mass component than a punch thrown with both feet planted - even standing in place!

The drawback of raising the front foot is that the hips may raise up, thus encouraging the entire body to lift and be up-ended if a larger opponent is punched while charging in. Most experts should be able to keep the hips low even though they are in motion, however.

Does the front foot have to turn inward in the front stance?
No, it does not. For some reason, many Shotokan enthusiasts of late are turning their front foot inward at an angle of about 30 degrees. This causes stress on the front knee, and it causes the inside of the sole of the foot to rise up, so that only the outside edge of the front foot is supporting the weight of the body. This is totally unnecessary and probably does nothing at all to support technique. Advantages? I can think of none other than conformity.

Disadvantages? The front foot is more likely to turn before a step, giving away the step to the opponent. This may be bad for your knees. It may cause your front knee to point inward, instead of forward in the direction of movement. That may increase the likelihood of making an inside tension stance out of the front stance and rolling up on your instep on the rear foot. Most importantly, when striking with a punch, the front foot does little more than keep you from falling forward after the impact.