gongfu

 For aesthetic or conditioning purposes, a person might want to increase the depth of their stance. But how is that done exactly? You flip through the magazines, watch the Jet Li movies, but just don’t see how they get so low. I use deep stances for two reasons. The first reason is to condition my body. I practice low/deep stances seperate from my “real” kung fu stances even though they are the same stances. I look at this type of stance work as having nothing beneficial except incredible conditioning value. The other reason, is to show off to new students. Haha. I get a kick out of the blank stare followed by “gawdamn”.

 What new students don’t always realize, is that deep stances have almost nothing to do with laying the smack down. What they do have to do with, is getting up off of the ground fast, having very strong legs, and being able to root instead of fall over in a very rare circumstance. The leg strength, and my creative use of that strength so far, is enough for me to keep them.

 Now if you’ve decided that you want the deep stance you need to know how to achieve it. And the first thing you should develop, is a good deep squat. If you put your feet only slightly wider than your shoulders, put your arms out in front of you for balance, and bend your knees, you should be able to make your thighs become parallel to the floor.

 Once you can perform a proper squat, you should try it on one leg, with the other leg stretched out in front of you as if you were kicking with the heel. When you are able to do that, all you need to know is this; And I am assuming your kung fu is good enough to be thinking about something like deep stance work outside of your existing cirriculum:

 You can bend the waist. In other words, while the back must remain fully erect, and the top of the head flat, you can fold at the literal waist so that your torso is at an angle to the floor. You can also open your feet some. The less bend at the hips, and the less open your feet, atleast in appearance, the higher the level of kung fu you posess. You do not need to hold low stances. But if you do them correctly, the fruit of holding them for extended periods is really quite sweet.

 Good luck, and have fun.

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