Shotokan Karate is one of the four major karates styles in the world, so many systems are derived from this style, and thus are contaminated with some very incorrect concepts. Thus, whether you study Shito ryu, Isshin Ryu, Kyokushinkai, or any system that has the Heian forms as a base, you probably are making the errors I am listing in this article. It doesn’t mean your karate stance is bad, it just means if you make a couple of tweaks you can make it better.

A good karate stance should be a perfect blend between mobility and solidity. Mobiity is when one can launch their body quickly in one direction. Solidity is when one can grip the ground with their feet and become virtually immoveable.

In the Shotokan kokutsu dachi stance, however, the mix between mobile and solid has been unbalanced. If you study the legs you will see that they are angling more than 90 degrees apart. This means the stance is more solid than mobile.

If the rear foot is angling away from the target the major muscles are not pointing towards the target. The foot being in the incorrect position means that there is not going to be enough traction for the foot. The leg being pointed in the wrong direction means that the major thrusting muscles of the leg can’t be properly utilized.

in addition, the hips will be angled improperly, and when one pushes with the leg there will be a ‘power leak,’ in the structure. That is to say that the hips will not want to support the entire weight of the push. This can be severe enough to tweak the back, and even (in extreme cases) lead to problems with lower spine.

To fix this stance all one needs to do is turn the rear foot towards the target to about 45 degrees or less. This will angle the foot for better traction, and set up the major muscles for the push when one launches the body towards the target. Of course, this is going to alter the basic nature of the stance.

Thus, when you turn the foot to the proper angle, you are going to have to figure out the better angle of the hips, and put the weight more on the rear leg. Doing this will prepare the body for maximum launch, but shotokan instructors will usually not like this alignment of the body for a simple reason: it lacks the sensation of shotokan power. But this merely proves that the system has been corrupted for sake and sensation of power, and not for the balance between gripping the ground and launching the body.

To deal with this, Shotokan masters have made the style specific to rely on overly aggressive front stances. What they have done is okay, but only in special situations, and the proof is in the fact that the back stance is more for holding the ground than for launching the body. Thus, there is a decision to be made, do what you are told in Shotokan Karate classes, or other classical martial arts styles, or estimate the validity of the physics I have presented here and change your stance to match these physics.

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Tags: Self Defence