Master Shi De Yang
Before completing this first chapter on this online wushu course, I asked my students what stance training's purpose is, and they answer it's to build up strong legs. And I asked them the purpose of strong legs, and they said its to have powerful kicks. They're right, technically. Stance training will give you strong legs and more powerful kicks, plus allow you to better withstand blows to your legs. But these aren't the reasons to practice stance training, they're merely side benefits. The real reasons for stance training are to develop solid root, to improve posture, to temper and control one's mind, and to cultivate chi or inner energy. If any of these qualities aren't fully developed in your own training, then your skill will never reach its full potential.
Today wushu* stance training is often misunderstood, neglected, or interpreted in a much more limited way than its intended purpose. Stance training has for centuries represented an important part of wushu training, often considered a fundamental element without which most other aspects of the discipline would be impossible to understand, perform correctly, and has any martial efficiency.
In the past, wushu students were encouraged and devoted much of their time to the training of stances. Traditionally it was a common practice for the beginning students to spend anything from six months to one year of solid stance work alone before they were allowed to learn anything else. Day after day the student was required to assume a low horse stance – Ma Bo and hold this position for extensively long periods of time. This time period was usually ranging anything from the burning of one- incense stick to three-incense sticks, which in total is about 3 hours. In the modern times of today, this kind of training is rarely done or seen anymore. There are variety of reasons why most modern martial artist don't bother with such gruelling training anymore most of which usually comes down to change of times, way of living, personal attitudes and needs. In some peoples case pure laziness and lack of patience. The fact of the matter is, despite its extreme importance, most martial artist of today don't even spend 10 minutes a day training in kung fu, let alone 3 hours of stance work every day. Unfortunately majority of today's students are looking for quick results, always anxious to learn new techniques and move to the next stage without proper understanding or mastery of what they were taught in the previous stage. In other words they try and run before they can walk. Traditional training methods such as these are no longer appreciated nor seem useful and worst of all the enormous benefits offered by this type of training are often over looked or totally ignored.
What is all the fuss about? one may ask and wonder why should one has to devote so much time and effort to training of stances? There are many reasons, but to sum it up the main purposes behind stance training are: strengthening and conditioning of the legs, training the mind and the spirit, rooting, internal energy training and last
Horse Stance- Ma Bo
Ma Bo (Horse Stance-step) is so called because it resembles a person riding a horse. This is one of the most faundamental and important stances in Wushu and can be found in almost every style of Chinese martial arts. This is a strong, stable stance, which provides a strong foundation. Ma Bo like all the other stances must be practiced regularly to improve your balance, strength, speed as well as many other important factors including the mental and internal aspects of the art. When practicing horse stance there are important points to follow.
Important Points
• Body weight even on both legs 50/50
• Sink down not forward
• Toes pointing forward
• Knees turned out
• Back straight, buttocks tucked in
• Body relaxed and weight sunk down
Common Mistakes
• Toes pointing out
• Knees too inward or too outward
• Feet too near or too far apart from each other
• Back not straight, buttocks sticking out
• Body too tensed
• Body leaning forward or backward
*irrespective of the style
