question

[Cougar_v203]

I'm kinda intrested in this art but there aren't any dojos that around the areas I live in. So can someone give me a list of stances and maybe links. Man I hate MD.

[Brad Ellin]

Here ya go http://www.hapkido-info.net/html/maryland.html
Why hate Maryland?

[Cougar_v203]

I'm getting bored with this place.
Thanks for the link.
The other reason is because I my family hardly travels anywhere outside of MD.

[waya]

If you're anywhere close to Baltimore, there's a really good school there.

[Cougar_v203]

I'm not that close to baltimore.
my cousins live there and it takes me an hour or more to get down there.

oh what are the names of the stances you guys use in Hapkido.

[H@pkid0ist]

That realy depends on the school and its influence. There realy arnt that many in traditional hapkido. We use basically 4. The horse stance for setting certian techniques. At higher levels you set and follow through. Also, there is the cat stance which we use as a transitionary stance and at the higher levels it can be used as a fighting stance. Then the basic fighting stance which is the boxer's stance. Then the static or ready stance. It is just that, a ready stance. This is when weare just standing there relaxed with the hands folded over one another at the navel. Thats all we have.

[Cougar_v203]

is the cat stance similar to the one karate practioners use?

[HKD]

i think so.
most HKD styles don't use many stances

HKD

[Thomas]

I've noticed that we don't use a lot of different stances in hapkido when sparring or working techniques... although in Moo Moo Kwan Hapkido (IHF), we did use a deep back stance for sparring (as well as the shorter (ready-type) fighting stance). We used horse stance and front stances as well for techniques. We also used some very deep front stances for strikes and grabs. We also used the cat stance often.
However, in Moo Moo Kwan (I don't know about other styles), we have quite a few poomse (forms) or hyungs... these contain lots of different stances and circular motions... There are other stances out there in Hapkido, but I think that for self defence and sparring, we usually use fairly natural fighting stances.

[Cougar_v203]

and what are they?

[Jazman]

at my school we are required to learn cat, horse, cross, crane, front, line, back and a few more, most of them are used only minutely in the middle of techniques.

[Cougar_v203]

what you mean by "minutely" you mean like for a split second?

[Jazman]

yeah, not sure if that was the correct spelling for the word I wanted to use...

[Thomas]

Originally posted by Cougar_v203
and what are they?

In sparring, we always started in a deep backstance with our hands up and our forward wrist touching our opponent's, but... once we began sparring most of us would switch into a kind of walking stance (natural stance) with one leg slightly forward of the other and hands up, sometimes closed for punching and blocking and sometimes open for grabbing and throwing. in this walking stance, it was fairly mobile and we could throw kicks out pretty fast (and usually low).

I am not sure if that was the answer you were looking for...

[Sweeet]

If you'd like a detailed list of stances and diagrams and all of that - There is a book called 'Hapkido: Philosophy, Traditions, Technique' by Marc Tedischi I belive. It which goes a great job of outlining it all pretty well.

In my school specifically there is no great focus on stances - we have relaxed stance, sparring stance, boxing stance, horse stance, pattern stance... ect.

[Ancient Dragon]

Our Hapkido class is very open for any stance you want to use, but our favorite is a relaxed stance, neither foot forwand, looking relaxed, but ready to move either way, we use this satnce alto because it gives nothing away about our style, and its a great stance to go into "brush grabs". We also use some deep stances, but our instructor encourages us to find a comfortable stance that we like, but to be able to switch at any time.

[Kombat]

We use the horse stance for punching/breathing techniques during warm-up and the traditional "boxing" stance, if you may, for our training techniques.

However, that's just for leaning the basics at the lower belt levels. As we progress we abandon the stance and adopt an "open stance" scenario identical to what Ancient Dragon described. However, we are taught to adapt to the situation...if someone goes into a traditional stance we counter with an open stance, if they go open we go into a traditional stance.

Kombat