Comments on: Martial Arts Fighting Stances; What is Best?

By: John W. Zimmer

John W. Zimmer — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:13:08 +0000

Hi Coen,

Thank you for commenting. There is a lot to be said for both.

By: Coen

Coen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:57:04 +0000

Kuroi ryu ninjutsu is the style that i practise. My sensei is soke Arie van den Akker o sama sensei. We practise traditional stances and modernd stances as well. I think you need to know many stances it is good for structure and practise.

By: John W. Zimmer

John W. Zimmer — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:21:06 +0000

Hi Matt, Great points about Bill Wallace and Benny Uriquidez. What is awesome about Bill is he can really develop a lot of power with those front leg kicks!
.
Hi Zara, I used to really enjoy fighting people from different styles in open tournaments and dojo sparring. I even had fun once fighting a boxer – bare knuckles after leaving a club one night. We both did not think much of each other fighting style at first (I was a brown belt at the time – not yet very worldly). The fight went like this, I would bridge the gap (boxers aren’t great at this) and smacking with a jab, reverse punch and try to get out of dodge. The boxer just took the strike and counter with some hard hooks (luckily for me I covered on the way out).

I then faked a back-knuckle and pivoted into a rear kick that picked up the boxer and landed him on his butt.

We fought until the cops got there and then explained to the cop that we were just having fun! We both left thinking that there was something to each other’s fighting art.

By: Zara

Zara — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:06:24 +0000

I’ll take your word for it John, you’re far more experienced in fighting and sparring than me, it’s just that the sparring I’ve done uptill now was always kickboxing orientated and the range there is usually a little shorter than in karate. In kickboxing the sidekick is not used much and the usual way of attacking is boxing-combo’s mixed with mid-range kicks or short-range clinching with knees or JKD-trapping. I would love the opportunity to train with a good karateka on this, unfortunately I don’t know anyone with a decent skill-level (a few lower belts but not very advanced)and I don’t really have the time to join a karate-club. If that were possible I’d prefer kenpo but there isn’t a dojo in reach. I know my sensei used to attend kenpo-seminars for a while but nowadays he’s more into the filipino-MA, I’ll ask him whether he has an interest in taking it up again (he has a car, I don’t).

By: Matt Klein

Matt Klein — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:05:35 +0000

Hi John, stances and footwork are the keys to success in the martial arts so I read your article with great interest. Well done. I believe there is a place for both stances and being able to shift back and forth when needed is the mark of a great fighter. Bill Wallace was super successful in both point and full contact with the side stance, using front wheel (roundhouse), heel hooks, side kicks, backfist almost exclusively. What people didn’t realize was that he could fight really well inside too when needed. Benny Uriquidez was awesome inside by using a more forward stance because his strength was punches but he had great kicks as well. Agree with Jack above that above all you must be mobile, making you a much harder to hit.