Standing in Motion
Many systems teach stancework within their syllabi; stancework consists of teaching the student how to stand during a fight. These can be loosely defined, such as a boxer’s stance, to formal fighting positions like the neko ashi dachi, or Cat-Foot Stance, of some Karate styles. These can be simple in nature, as the Wing Chun stance, to the exotic Tiger/Crane stances of Shaolin.
Attention is usually paid to how to balance the weight, hold the hands, position the shoulders, and so on. As a result, students often think that a stance is itself the way to fight: in training, note how often the students will set themselves in their stance at the start of a training scenario.
The reality is that good stancework is not about standing at all, but about motion. Inherent to all good fighting systems is the science of footwork, and stance training is a perfect opportunity to train this. In other words, what stance to use in a given situation is not as essential as knowing how to move from one stance to another.
This makes sense because fighting is ultimately all about transition. Controlling the flow of the transition controls the fight. Rather than “lock into” a stance, and hope that this provides you the arsenal of techniques you need, the better approach is to keep moving and keep the opponent off balance. Locking yourself into a fighting position does not reflect the fluid, violent nature of attacks, but provides opponents a stationary target they will, ultimately, exploit.
Instructors should focus on keeping their students moving, in all directions. While some stances might be useful for conducting certain drills, students should be wary of training that involves standing for long periods in a given stance: this is only training the students to stand still in a fight, rather than move fast out of the way.
Moving fast out of the way is not as instinctive as it first sounds: the student sets himself up for defeat when he stops moving, or is caught between techniques. Good footwork is itself a tactic that helps smooth transitions and prevents that awkward pause.
Sport fighters learn this principle fairly quickly, and dispense with nearly all formal stances. Rather, stances can be spotted for brief periods during the moment of actual contact. Evaluate your own stancework, and discover for yourself why good stancework is really all about good footwork.