He's Michael Jordan popular over there. Sorry, I forgot you were British. He's David Beckham popular over there.
This seems to be a big broblem with most of the traditional arts. Teachers either don't know the meaning of the techniques or fail to inform you about them. I would rather have the teacher saying that this curious technique has a meaning, but I'm not going to teach it to you yet, rather than not to explain it at all.
I got a real grilling when going over stuff like this pic I see a super double leg takedown option! Then GnP all the way on his 9 year old ass! ---------------- No seriously I am long done with all these types of moves and stances, Taijitsu (my main stay I guess) does a lot of it and there are many mystical and ancient reasons for it but IMO it should stay as ancient as its not practical for the modern day. People are bigger, heavier now and have more to put behind punches than the slighter little Asians who created these arts. Many could use an overhaul to the new millennium. However there are some amazing people who can do something with this type of stance. 99.9% of us cant. This will be sold in some places as self defence - lets all be honest.
Brilliant thread I would just like to reiterate(sp?) that those unusual/strange/bizzare/bloody stupid stances are not a kind of ready stance, they are beginning/middle/end parts of certain moves. I for instance use horse stance all the time while throwing/locking/blocking/manouvering and the reason why I can is because I spent a lot of time in horse stance. Same deal with crane and cat stance. After training to use them they become a useful part of my arsenal.
from my experience one legged stances usually imply jumping away and kicking or falling to the hip and kicking or trapping the knee in a lock... as for stances having relevance... I wasn't around back in the day... so like eveyone else I must speculate... I think they probably helped students remember the techniques they practiced as well as offering reference positions for specific techniques much like the positions of jiu jutsu have for decades... I think the main confusion lies in the fact that these positions are demonstrated in space... grapplers use positions in reference to an opponents position only it usually involves direct body contact... strikers also use postions relative to an opponent, only they are in space and are meant to control through perception... Back in high school I learned about the monkey stace shown above from a guy who's name escapes me... but, mostly the stace involves falling to the the ground and kind of sliding forward and kicking people in the groin or scissoring their knee with the feet... I have seen similar moves done in the old days of Pancrase to get heel hooks... only the guy didn't start standing in the stance... also we should not forget that B.J. Penn uses something similar to this stance to block knees... I think the value of this stance is not the stance so much as the techniques it reminds me of... which is where I got the idea that stances might simply be memory tools... even though I can't remember the dudes name... anyway that is my two cents... oh and by the way I just moved to Olathe Kansas if anyone is interested in training some... take care, steve
