ARE SHOTOKAN LOW POSTURES REALLY WORTHWHILE? I have been on karate shotokan style for 14 years.I do not join it for sport competitions but just for self defense, and art.Now with my 51 years old and one knee not as good as it should be, i am wondering what about knees and the real utility of our kibadatchi,fudodatchi and other very low postures.And u ?
I would imagine that the problem is not the low stances but locking out when kicking air. I wouldnt be suprised if low stances were good for the knees as they bulid up strength, tho i could be wrong. I guess it would be best to consult a physician.
Overdoing the stances isn't a good idea if you've got a bad knee, and locking out is never a good idea. Try looking around for a more fluid art, with higher stances.
Alignment Low stances can hurt or strengthen. It is important that your foot, shin, and thigh track in a straight line while you're moving. Try to not let your ankles roll. Do not go lower than you are comfortable. Also, listen to your body. "Feeling the burn" is always good. "Ouch" is most always bad. Given your comments, I would recommend trying Tai Chi. HTH
Mr Funakoshi himself said "Low stances are for beginners and natural postures for the advanced". So do yourself a favour and use a more relaxed posture. Outside of kata competition, there's no real need for excessively low stances.
Personally I think they're not. I think they were originally bought in to strengthen the legs so that in an actual self defence situation you would be able to move faster in a higher stance thanks to the training you had in a lower stance. I think it is far more beneficial to use the stances that you will actually use rather than exaggerated long ones. If you want to strengthen legs the weights has always been my number one preference. As Moosey said the real reason why so many people push themselves lower is for Kata comps, but if you don't care about that then why bother?
Beat me to it didn't ya Moosey. Its not necessary to use very low stances - most instructors should encourage you to do the class at your level, especially if your not planning to compete
We're all agreed that locking the knees out straight will cause problems. What seems less clear amongst the different views expressed here about adeep stances, although there is obviously much conjecture - some well informed, some less so. Let's clarify. If your stances are overly deep they will be damaging to the health of your knees, no two ways about it. Putting load on very bent knees is bad for you, pure and simple. Less extreme, but still deep, stances may be OK for many people. But if you ALREADY have knee problems then there is a good chance that deep stances will aggravate your condition, regardless of whether you get your stance alignment right or not. If your stance causes you knee problems, correct the stance. If its already correct, then you need make it taller. Mike
Agree with Moosey... using low stances teaches a beginner to increase their explosive power and how to move their center/shift their weight effectively into a technique. Once you have learned this (over several years), you should have no problem converting the principles involved into more natural and upright stances. Save your knees... replacements still kind of suck.
Being lower than your opponent gives you a better 'base' or 'grounding' making you harder to knock over etcetc. But really, if you have a dodgey knee it isn't especially worth it
