Part 2 of 2
For self-defense what we need is speed, power, and mobility. We need to be able to move quickly to seize the advantage and to neutralize threats. The point of our stance training and the stances in our forms is to learn how to move, not merely how to stand. We need to learn how to move quickly and powerfully without losing our balance and deliver striking or throwing power. This means moving with stable steps and using our legs and hips to generate power. Learning a coherent system of body movement that will allow you to keep your footing and move with speed and grace under pressure is what the stances in your classical combat-oriented forms are intended to teach you.
After you can get into your stances properly and they are strong and stable you need to learn how to move from one stance to another stance without standing up. Without raising your center or losing your balance or control even for instant. If you are in a horse stance and the next stance is a horse stance that you will step into while you strike do not stand up between the two stances. Instead, stay low and keep your hips level and your spine upright and straight. Shift from one stance to the next with good posture creating structural integrity and stay low and close to the ground.
Keeping your center of gravity low increases your stability as you move. Keeping your center of gravity low also makes it hard for an opponent to throw you. If you go lower but the structural integrity of your hips core and spine is weakened by misalignment, then you won’t be as strong even though you are lower. If you lose your structural integrity as soon as leave your stance by either standing up or stepping awkwardly your power is weakened giving your opponent an opportunity to throw or off balance you.
In geometry (everyone’s favorite class!) a line is defined as two points connected by an infinite number of points. Our stances are like the points at the end of the line. They are a small part, the first part, the last part? Maybe not even a part of the movement. Your stances are the culmination of a step or a weight shift. It is the weight shift or the step that is 99.99% of each martial technique. It is the weight shift that interests me. It is the step that interests me. I am interested in the step and the weight shift because that is how we generate power and that is when our technique occurs.
To move our entire body and generate maximum force we need to move the center of our body and our arms and legs in unison and have them arrive together delivering maximum body mass for maximum power. It is our legs that begin and drive each movement. It is the legs that develop the power driving the hands. Regardless of the type of strike the power for that strike begins in your feet, is developed in your legs, directed by your waist, and delivered by your hands.
When I see someone who is using the steps and weight shifts or turns between their stances consciously and deliberately to develop power, I think they demonstrate a much higher level of Kung Fu.
If you want to level up your Kung Fu, one excellent path is to start training your strength and flexibility by lowering your stances with good posture. Then learn how stay low with good posture as you transition from one stance to another. Naturally you will soon start to discover how to use the movement of the center of your body to increase the power of all of your strikes and throws. After enough practice you’ll feel how your legs and feet throw your strikes using your hips and open up new realms of lightning fast speed and explosive power. This process will develop the core power and skill of your style of Kung Fu and teach you how to move like a Kung Fu master.
