Side stance or squared up?

[BrothersMA]

Which stance do you use or like most?
Do you like the side stance like traditional karate or taekwondo?
Or squared up like a boxer or krav maga(er)?
Or do u switch it up depending on situation?
Personally ill use side for most kicks and some front hand tech. Where i use squared for more hands, knees, and elbows.
Thoughts?

 

[Touch Of Death]

Which stance do you use or like most?
Do you like the side stance like traditional karate or taekwondo?
Or squared up like a boxer or krav maga(er)?
Or do u switch it up depending on situation?
Personally ill use side for most kicks and some front hand tech. Where i use squared for more hands, knees, and elbows.
Thoughts?

Well, it isn't about preference, it is about distance. Square is fine, both close and super far away, but if you are anywhere in between, you may want to lessen your targets, and offer them your strongest base of support.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I use whatever stance is (in my opinion) most useful for a given set of circumstances. Which, not surprisingly, changes constantly.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I change constantly. Been paying attention recently, noticed that if I plan on keeping my distance I'll go side stance, and square up if I'm going to close in on the person. May need to work on that, so I'm not as predictable.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I change constantly. Been paying attention recently, noticed that if I plan on keeping my distance I'll go side stance, and square up if I'm going to close in on the person. May need to work on that, so I'm not as predictable.

Sounds predictable, to me. Just sayin'

 

[drop bear]

Front on.

 

[RTKDCMB]

Usually I like to stay side on whenever practical as you are better protected.

 

[Gnarlie]

Somewhere in between for me, a relaxed short stance, especially within kicking range. Side on presents problems dealing with low kicks to your front leg unless you're very good at reading the opponent and maintaining range.

For Olympic style sparring, side on.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[BrothersMA]

Usually I like to stay side on whenever practical as you are better protected.

You are. But you also lose some of your tools in that trade. Hence why i posed the question

 

[BrothersMA]

Sounds predictable, to me. Just sayin'

It is but also sounds practical.

 

[RTKDCMB]

You are. But you also lose some of your tools in that trade.

I usually like to put my tools away when I am not using them.

 

[Andrew Green]

It's going to largely come down to the rules you're playing under. For example taking a very sideways stance when kicks to the legs or takedowns are allowed is likely going to go pretty poorly. Of course the reverse is also true, I imagine most TKD players would rip you apart under those rules if you came at them square.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Sounds predictable, to me. Just sayin'

That it is. It's why I'm trying to change it. As I change, I'm tending to go side stance a lot more, and am trying to switch only when I'm doing a takedown, or the instant I'm closing range, as a way to get in closer faster.

 

[Touch Of Death]

It is but also sounds practical.

Not the way I read it. LOL

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Not the way I read it. LOL

It's practical enough for my purposes. if I wasn't sparring the same people over and over again, I wouldn't really see a need to change it.

 

[drop bear]

That it is. It's why I'm trying to change it. As I change, I'm tending to go side stance a lot more, and am trying to switch only when I'm doing a takedown, or the instant I'm closing range, as a way to get in closer faster.

You don't necessarily need to switch stance to be either unpredictable or throw flash kicks.

Look at guys like James moontasari or ben Nguyen and they throw everything from a basic stance.

The advantage,especially if you are doing take downs is you are less likely to get caught wrong footed.

 

[hoshin1600]

If we are talking street or self defense then 100% square on. When I was younger and into competitive sparring I did like the side stance.

 

[drop bear]

If we are talking street or self defense then 100% square on. When I was younger and into competitive sparring I did like the side stance.

Why do you feel there is a difference?

 

[JR 137]

I used to use a bit of both. I'm pretty much 100% squared up now. I dropped the side stance for a few reasons...

It exposes my back and kidneys too much. When people use it against me, I noticed it's far easier to circle to their back side when I counter, leaving them pretty much defenseless if I get there quickly enough.

Because the stance is longer, it's easier to sweep someone in it by kicking out the front leg.

The reverse side hand and foot are a lot further away, taking those a bit too long to reach their target.

What sealed the deal for me is that I've been hitting a heavy bag 3-4 days a week for the last 3 months straight (New Years resolution to lose weight, get faster and stronger still in effect). I'm a lot weaker with my front side, especially out of that stance, and it takes too long to hit with the same power from my back side as a squared up stance.

I'm not saying this is true of everyone; maybe I'm the exception. I've tried to make it better, but it's like fitting a square peg into a round hole. The only application I see for it for me personally is point fighting where power doesn't mean much, and speed of making first contact is everything. Having zero interest in point fighting, I've stopped using it almost completely. I'll find myself in it once in a while through the course of sparring, but it's more of a transition during movement than anything else.

I'll practice it a bit on the heavy bag for if I'm ever forced into it in a SD situation, but I'm not giving it any more attention than that.

Everyone's different. Use what works for you. A lot of things changed for me when I started hitting the bag on a regular basis. And I'm not doing cardio kickboxing on the bag by any means. Combinations at full speed and power, footwork and sharpening basics are what my workouts on the bag consist of, not Billy Blanks Tae Bo stuff.

 

[marques]

Mostly 'squared up'.