Training Your Stances

The true foundation of your art lies in the strength and stability of your stances.

There is an old Chinese saying, "Teach the fists, not the feet; if you teach the feet, the student can beat the teacher!" This tells us how highly the old masters valued proper footwork (步法 ~ bu fa) in Chinese martial arts. The quality of your footwork training will determine the final quality of your art. If you take away the footwork training, you will render your art useless. Therefore, it is safe to say that "without proper footwork, there is no Kung Fu." The old Chinese masters refined a precise process for training to develop proper footwork. It is said, "When moving, it's a step. When it's still, it's a stance. First, perfect the stance. Then, take the step." This saying tells us that proper footwork training begins with proper stance training. Once you have developed your stances, you can begin to learn maneuvering or taking steps, which serve as the basis for all footwork.

There are over three hundred different Kung Fu styles, and regardless of the differences between them, they all pay close attention to proper footwork and stance training. Looking from the outside in, spectators and even some martial artists themselves may not grasp the significance of proper footwork and stance training. Stances serve the same purpose to Kung Fu that a foundation serves to a house. The foundation must be built properly to withstand the structural requirements of the house (your body weight,) the occupants in the house (your movements,) and the natural forces that act on it, like rain, wind, and snow (your opponents.) After proper strength and agility is built in your legs, you will find that you can easily switch from one movement to the next (taking "steps") with power and grace. Without strong stances and stability, your applications will not have a firm foundation to be executed effectively. Hence , the old saying that "a poor foundation will make any good technique useless."

Then, what is the process of developing strong stances? We start by learning to hold our stances low for extended periods of time. There is a great purpose for holding our stances low and long, and it is not just for building strength or endurance training. Stance training also provides the student a method and opportunity to investigate the body's structure. Your body's posture depends greatly on its structure. Using a lot of muscular force to hold your stance in position is a sign of bad posture or compromised body structure that needs adjusting. If not adjusted correctly, your movements will lack full-body coordination and leave you prone to injury.

Practicing Kung Fu (if practiced properly) will make your body stronger and will not result in injury or undue exhaustion. Therefore, it's only by holding your stances with an understanding of structure and mechanics that you can develop the proper strength while avoiding injury. Only when you perfect your posture and structure will your stance training have the desired effect of strengthening you and improving your health. As your stance training progresses, you will not only develop strength, but also a kind of springy power of the structure and connective tissue that will manifest itself when you start moving and throwing techniques. The is the only way to make full use of the footwork in Kung Fu.