Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
For many years I have felt that stance training was very important to martial arts....all martial arts, and if you go back 50 years to China and Japan you could still find a lot of schools that made the beginners hold a stance for 2 hours or more before they started any other training. Go back further and you will find students having to stand in a horse stance (for example) all day everyday for a year or more before they ever are trained to throw a punch or a kick. Most unfortunatley today many styles have forgotten this aspect of martial arts training.
I have done stance training in the past and I have always found it beneficial. I stopped doing stance training, for multiple reasons, a few years ago. I started doing Tai Chi Chuan stance training again recently but since I have returned to Xingyi and started "san ti" training and I have found that my tai chi has gotten much better along with my Xingyi.
To see a picture of what I am talking about go to
http://www.geocities.com/eyesac2/mastersphotos.html
and look for the picture of Jin Yun Ding in San Ti
San ti is basic Xingyi stance training, and this is just one variation; Stand with 100% to 80% of your weight on your back leg for 3 to 5 minutes switch legs and repeat this for 3 to 5 rounds. get to 20 minutes per side and you’re a Xingyi beginner.
I am currently only up to about 9 to 12 minutes per side at 100%. My current teacher's teacher required 45 minutes per side, there may have been no switching until 45 minutes was up.
The power that you can gain in your forms and applications from something as simple as stance training is amazing. And you can pick any stance in the style that you do and practice it this way. This also gives you the benefit of time to analyze the stance and make the necessary little changes needed.
Admittedly it is not as exciting as throwing the perfect roundhouse, doing push hands or training strikes, but I feel it is the base of most martial arts training, the root if you will, that I feel is very often overlooked in martial arts today.
But, then again, this could just be my background talking….. CMA people are always concerned about rooting.
I have done stance training in the past and I have always found it beneficial. I stopped doing stance training, for multiple reasons, a few years ago. I started doing Tai Chi Chuan stance training again recently but since I have returned to Xingyi and started "san ti" training and I have found that my tai chi has gotten much better along with my Xingyi.
To see a picture of what I am talking about go to
http://www.geocities.com/eyesac2/mastersphotos.html
and look for the picture of Jin Yun Ding in San Ti
San ti is basic Xingyi stance training, and this is just one variation; Stand with 100% to 80% of your weight on your back leg for 3 to 5 minutes switch legs and repeat this for 3 to 5 rounds. get to 20 minutes per side and you’re a Xingyi beginner.
I am currently only up to about 9 to 12 minutes per side at 100%. My current teacher's teacher required 45 minutes per side, there may have been no switching until 45 minutes was up.
The power that you can gain in your forms and applications from something as simple as stance training is amazing. And you can pick any stance in the style that you do and practice it this way. This also gives you the benefit of time to analyze the stance and make the necessary little changes needed.
Admittedly it is not as exciting as throwing the perfect roundhouse, doing push hands or training strikes, but I feel it is the base of most martial arts training, the root if you will, that I feel is very often overlooked in martial arts today.
But, then again, this could just be my background talking….. CMA people are always concerned about rooting.