Post by Sensei Justice on Jul 1, 2008 18:07:41 GMT -5
17. Ready stance is for beginners Natural stance comes later on
This statement is much like the old saying you must learn to crawl before you walk statement we all use.
One of the things that IMO separates Shotokan from other styles is our ability to drop into our low stance when needed and deliver that one big punch. (One punch one kill)
Although we all hate training low when we start the muscle memory that is developed stays with us and we learn to adjust our hips, control our center and explode into a given move or technique. This is one of the reason you will not find a Shotokan student who is (lets say a 2nd or 3rd Dan that is not very good)
Now I do not think you can come up to fast. Nothing bad is learned from being high. In fact I think for Self Defense and sparing purposes your better off to train high but you miss the real lessons of what Shotokan is trying to teach and develop. This is not to say you will be a bad black belt one day if you train high but if push your low stance early on you will develop an inner core string that you can't teach.
Lets keep one other thing in mind. The low stance was as much a tool used by early Japanese instructors to see if the their new American students were worthy of teaching their Martial Art to as anything. In other words they were not just going to turn over the keys to the kingdom. This is why the JKA and other groups tried to control Black Belt and other testing for such a long time.
Bottom line you can train high and become a very skilled fighter and student of karate but if you train low a deeper understanding will develop. Add to that you will be in much better shape.
This statement is much like the old saying you must learn to crawl before you walk statement we all use.
One of the things that IMO separates Shotokan from other styles is our ability to drop into our low stance when needed and deliver that one big punch. (One punch one kill)
Although we all hate training low when we start the muscle memory that is developed stays with us and we learn to adjust our hips, control our center and explode into a given move or technique. This is one of the reason you will not find a Shotokan student who is (lets say a 2nd or 3rd Dan that is not very good)
Now I do not think you can come up to fast. Nothing bad is learned from being high. In fact I think for Self Defense and sparing purposes your better off to train high but you miss the real lessons of what Shotokan is trying to teach and develop. This is not to say you will be a bad black belt one day if you train high but if push your low stance early on you will develop an inner core string that you can't teach.
Lets keep one other thing in mind. The low stance was as much a tool used by early Japanese instructors to see if the their new American students were worthy of teaching their Martial Art to as anything. In other words they were not just going to turn over the keys to the kingdom. This is why the JKA and other groups tried to control Black Belt and other testing for such a long time.
Bottom line you can train high and become a very skilled fighter and student of karate but if you train low a deeper understanding will develop. Add to that you will be in much better shape.