When To Use Your Stances

There is a lot of information out there in the Martial Arts community about fighting stances. Each discipline has their own stance to fight from.

In Kung Fu San Soo we do not begin an attack out of a stance. Most of us are taught to stand in a relaxed, non-aggressive looking position that we can immediately move from into an attack.

This is important for a couple of reasons.

• When we move to strike it comes from a position of surprise since we are not telegraphing our intention to attack. This keeps the opponent off balance and unexpecting.

• Also, since we aren’t in a rigid, set stance we have more options in which to meet the incoming opponent because we can move with his movement rather than be crossed up because our stance is set.

Once your attack has been initiated is where the actual Kung Fu San Soo stances have a serious impact. Most of the time we move in at 45 degree angles to the opponent which means that if, for example, you are stepping outside your opponent and striking at the same time you will be by him and behind him before he can counter.

In the mean time you have used your block to attack his striking arm, hopefully breaking or damaging it so that he can’t use it again as a weapon. From there (behind him) you can quickly pivot into another stance (which, if done correctly will generate maximum striking power) to finish the fight.

Here are some tips in using your stances:

• Use stances only as a means to generate power and to close the gap with your opponent.

• Use your stances to drive through your opponent and take his balance.

• Use your stances to pivot your hips from one strike to another to generate maximum power.

• Make sure you are planted as you punch or are driving your balance toward your opponent as you strike.

Stances, when used correctly and at the appropriate time, along with striking the proper targets, will enable you to quickly eliminate any threat to you or your loved ones.

Happy Training!
Tony

My Favorite Thing About Kung Fu San Soo

My most favorite thing about Kung Fu San Soo is the infinite variety of attacks one can use to subdue the opponent. As you progress in this art, and learn to master more and more of its’ fighting techniques, you have more and more weapons to choose from and use during a fight.

Just like an artist that paints, as you learn more and more of this art, you are only limited by your own creativity as to how to best create your fighting reality. One of the most powerful aspects of Kung Fu San Soo is the ability to change direction and adjust your choices at any given moment to what is actually happening during an altercation.

If, for example, you move in to block an opponents attack and your block changes his direction to something you didn’t expect, you can continue to flow into another fighting technique without a second thought. The way Kung Fu San Soo is taught creates the ability to flow from one technique to another with minimal transition time.

I think the key element here is that we are learning different TECHNIQUES in our lessons rather than specific fighting routines. When I first started in San Soo I learned just a few techniques, and practiced them over and over until they worked well for me. Sometime into my fourth year of this art (brown belt level) I started to become more adept at “freestyle” fighting. It just kind of happened for me back then and that is when the full impact of Kung Fu San Soo training hit me.

I was moving and flowing from one technique to another instantly without even thinking and regardless of where my opponent was positioned, I had something learned from my endless arsenal of San Soo techniques to flow into and finish the attack.

My instructor had told us from the beginning that Kung Fu San Soo was like learning the letters in the alphabet in our early stages of training and like learning to read and write this alphabet as we moved up in experience. He said when we reached the Black Belt level we start to fully articulate the language of San Soo we have learned into our own creative and personal fighting style.

This is why, during our presentations to the public, our fighting techniques can look completely different from one San Soo fighter to the next. I often here the comment that is looks like we have so many different styles in our presentations but in reality it is each learned San Soo fighter using his/her techniques in an ever creative and personal way

I look forward to learning and perfecting more and more Kung Fu San Soo fighting techniques and incorporating them effortlessly into the San Soo fighting reality I create for myself.