The importance of having a good stance

Every movement in the martial arts is supported by some kind of stance.  Some of these have really cool names, like Dragon Takes Flight, while others… less so (like Squat). Regardless of the creativity and color behind the name, these all essentially boil down to how you’re standing.  Some are on one leg, while others look like you’re just… well, standing.  Regardless of the precise physical form it takes, however, every martial arts movement has one.  The stance provides a foundation for movement, and they mainly providing support for the rest of the body to do something (punch, kick, dodge an attack). In addition to setting you up for success, stances also help train the body to become stronger and more flexible, making the rest of training easier.

It doesn’t take years of martial arts training to see when someone is not using a stance.  Something just looks…. Off.  Or maybe someone stumbles and falls. Or maybe there’s a hesitation before the next movement. This is especially true when you put two practitioners next to each other with one in a proper stance and the other not.  Watching someone without a good stance attempt to perform various moves also highlights the importance of having a good stance.  This individual will be less stable, stumble more, and appear to be less powerful (because they are). You can see these things even without direct experience of what it should look like (being an instructor makes me incredibly thankful for the patience of MY instructors).

Devil in the details

Understanding the importance of proper stances is something that takes time, sweat and experience to fully understand. You can easily tell someone that having a good stance is important, but it’s something entirely different to realize that concept.  Despite multiple instructors drilling it into me, it still took me ages to fully realize WHY they kept yelling “hit your stance” and other adjustments as I trained. Here the devil is truly in the details as a small adjustment to knee placement, or minor hip movement can drastically change how the foundation supports the rest of your body.

Real world stability

The concept of having a solid stance is something that can be applied across many areas of our lives.  At work, failing to have an underlying process that tells us what to do will result in shaky execution.  If the foundation of what is being done (the stance) isn’t understood team members won’t know what we’re doing, and will make mistakes (such as not communicating effectively, failing to take specific actions, etc).  Personal finances are in a similar boat - if you have a solid foundation of disciplined saving/etc.  At best you’ll deliver sub-standard results… at worst you’ll collapse completely.

The good news is you don’t have to be a super expert to improve your foundations. In the same way you can see someone’s physical stance be stronger or weaker, you can also see when your foundation in other areas is off. Be on the lookout for poor communication, missing information or confusion. Many times these can be (realtively) easily improved, but at the very least you will get a better idea of where improvements need to be made.