About stances

Stance may weaken a technique

It may happen! When you are standing in place, you are pressing into the floor at a constant rate which is a component of both gravity and your mass. When you begin to push into an object that is not easily moved, such as when punching an opponent, you add a third support for your body weight. Your feet and fist are acting as a sort of tripod. In other words, some of the body weight that you want to apply through your fist is actually being exerted through your feet. If you lift the front foot of a front stance while punching into a wall, you will notice the increased pressure on your punching arm. Now, your body weight is only supported by your rear leg, your punch, and the connecting points in between. This demonstrates how a punch landed just before the front foot connects with the floor may be timed to have a larger mass component than a punch thrown with both feet planted in a stance. If a larger opponent is punched while charging in, do not let the hips rise when lifting the foot or the body may rise and be up-ended.

Stance correction

After each movement, check all aspects of your stance and make corrections as needed before continuing.

Movements

Movement may be linear (forward or backward in straight or nearly straight lines), circular (in circles or curved lines), or perpendicular (side to side in straight or nearly straight lines). Learn to move quickly.

Movements are a series of contractions and expansions. Contraction refers to bringing the arms and legs inward toward the centerline of the body, and expansion refers moving them away from the centerline. While performs patterns, we first chamber and contract the arms and legs, and then expand into the technique and stance. During turns, it is important to contact the body as close to the rotational axis of the body as possible. Ever notice an ice skater doing a "scratch spin." The skater starts to turn rather slowly with the arms extended (expanded). As the arms contract closer to the body, the spin gets faster and faster. You turn faster with your arms contracted than with them expanded. When performing a 270-degree turn in Taekwondo, you start from a forward stance with the arms and legs held away from the center of the body. As you start rotating, you cross the arms close to the body and bring the legs under the center of gravity. The rotation is stopped by extending the arms and legs away from the torso. For smooth turns, the hips need to rotate directly over the base foot and the head and shoulders should remain in line with the hips.