BALANCE AND STANCE
Another of your goals for successful street fighting is to retain
your own physical balance as you destroy the balance of your opponent.
With a good stance and good balance you can utilize your entire strength
and enhance it. By attacking and destroying your opponent´s
balance you have a decided advantage because his strength, weight, size,
and power cannot be fully utilized.
There are numerous kinds of fighting stances, which are in constant
change during a fight. Pre-fight stances are not the same as during-the-fight
stances. The stances of judo, kenpo, kajukembo, tae kwon do, karate, boxing,
wrestling, etc., are all at least somewhat different from one another, and yet are all effective.
Different instructors and practitioners within each fighting art have their
own variations of stances. Good postures permit the use of
techniques of attack and defense with both left and right side.
The idea is to have a stance which permits you to deliver strong
blows and to defend against strong blows while maintaining your balance.
You need to use your body´s weight in your moves in such a way that
you have maximum power without losing balance. If you make contact
against an opponent with a powerful rear kick, as an example, your
thrust against him might drive your own body forward off balance
or drive your own head into the ground. Or if you miss the kick completely, your momentum might cause you to bypass your missed opponent while losing
your balance, and with your back toward him. You will occasionally
have to lose balance, but lost balance must be immediately recovered.
Study the pre-fight positions martial art books, and practice your
stances and movements, using them as your basic beginning stances.
Generally, you will keep your knees slightly bent, your feet separated
by about the width of your shoulders with a fairly even distribution
of weight on each foot (depending on the technique you are using),
your body and head fairly erect, arms and hands prepared and in place (never
flaying), eyes always on your opponent, and ready to move in anydirection for either attack or defense. Fighting stances are quite
natural for some people and very unnatural for others. Your fighting
stances have to be learned and developed by you for your own fighting style
and techniques, coordination, strength, balance, size, and agility.
