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Techniques -
Basics: Stances
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All martial arts (Budo) no matter the type, be it: Karatedo, Judo,
Kendo, Iaido, Taekwondo, all require a mastery of the basic stances or
postures. Posture and stances are the critical link that connects all
the movements and makes your combinations of techniques a concise
whole. Whether you’re studying fighting combinations or the more
traditional Kata forms you will be required to perform the basic
stances (postures) as correctly as possible. There are 10 basic stances
or postures.
| 1. Attention Stance |
6. Front Stance |
| 2. Hourglass Stance |
7. Back Stance |
| 3. Natural Stance |
8. Cat Stance |
| 4. Closed Defensive Stance |
9. Reverse Cat Stance |
| 5. Open Defensive Stance |
10. Crane Stance |
Some students think that these stances are simple and thus they pass
over them without too much thought. However, it would be a good idea to
try as best you can to pick up on even the slightest detail. Since the
stances are the foundation to your martial arts, learning them quickly
without too much thought is the same as a builder not putting the time
and effort into the construction of the foundation of a house.
Naturally, if the foundation isn’t strong then the house sits on shaky
footings. So, try your best to learn the stances well and create a
strong foundation for the rest of your Budo training. In fact, it is a
very good idea to return to this section every couple of months and
review your basic stances even once you have progressed beyond this
basics manual.
My own teacher, Shihan Wayne Donivan, 8th Dan, always instructed us to
return to our basic techniques and to review them in detail at least
every three months once we were black belts. This underscores the
importance of the basic techniques and Shihan Donivan was correct in
trying to impose upon us the importance of this review as he knew that
the basic techniques were the key to proper martial arts mastery. So as
we see, even black belt students must review the basics over and over
again. So try to make them your close friends and that way you will
never tire of them.
A further thought is that many martial arts practitioners of
the past only learned the basic techniques and perhaps one or two Kata
forms. Often, there did not exist the opportunity to learn many Kata
forms as they had to travel far distances to their dojo and thus could
only do so infrequently, or the demands of making a living during hard
times only allowed them limited time to follow the martial arts.
Nevertheless, it is possible to master martial arts with only the basic
techniques and one or two comprehensive Kata forms. It is like the
saying, “Which is better to read: one book a thousand times or a
thousand books one time.” The answer naturally is that it depends on
the book, and also on the reader. So, focus on all your basic
techniques for they are the building blocks of a true martial art and
even if you are able to master only one or two Kata forms afterwards
you can still be a very effective martial artist.
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