fighting stances

[hskwarrior]

I have a question for everyone.

When in a fighting stance, and you are being circled, do you......?

a) put weight on front leg and maneuver.

or

b) weight is on back leg while you maneuver?



I am asking just to see how you do things.


For my self, most of the time i put my weight on front leg and steer with the reverse--pivoting on front leg.


hsk

[gwa sow]

i move with him so that instead of him circling me we are both moving sideway in the same direction.

[David Jamieson]

neither. mobility follows as it will.

[Fu-Pow]

I have a question for everyone.

When in a fighting stance, and you are being circled, do you......?

a) put weight on front leg and maneuver.

or

b) weight is on back leg while you maneuver?



I am asking just to see how you do things.


For my self, most of the time i put my weight on front leg and steer with the reverse--pivoting on front leg.


hsk


Do you pivot on the ball or the heel?

[brothernumber9]

There are probably risks and vulnerabilities in any weight distribution in that scenario. I try not to put most of my weight on the front leg for wariness against a front leg sweep. If I can catch more of my balance on the back leg (assuming I'm not squared up to the opponent) then I feel I would less likely go down, not to say that the back leg can't be swept as well, I just think it's harder. When I shift my footwork, if I'm conscieous of it, I will also move the front foot first for some of the same reason.

[Mano Mano]

More or less the same as gwa sow, I circle him as he circles me.

[SevenStar]

neither. mobility follows as it will.

yup. me too.

[Infrazael]

I use the stance I always use. Essentially a relaxed, loose horse stance that's a bit wider than a boxer's stance, with slightly more weight on the front leg for attacking purposes.

Both legs are bent at the knee.

It just feels natural, I know everyone fights differently but this stance works for me.

[kung fu fighter]

Hi,

The key to all footwork is how to manipulate and control your center of gravity in order to evade or attack the opponent.

When being circled I square up to the opponent using a 50/50 weight stance similar to the way a boxer cut off the ring, or I can also cut 45 degree angles similar to how a boxer circles to the outside depending on the situation!

[hskwarrior]

I see,

i can go either way. Personally i like 60% on the front while i use my rear leg to steer me left or right or whatever. it's only one step, one pivot, one step one pivot. I feel you are more likely to save more energy that way. plus, if you put more weight on the back leg, and lean kinda back, it tells me you're afraid to be hit. also, i think its easier to get off a sweep when someone transfers weight to the back.

bec back in a minute, gotta pick up the old lady.


peace.

[TenTigers]

I step in, to cut off his circle and put him on the defensive. Don't fight his fight.
"Use a straight line to defeat a circle and a circle to defeat a straight line."

[Infrazael]

I see,

i can go either way. Personally i like 60% on the front while i use my rear leg to steer me left or right or whatever. it's only one step, one pivot, one step one pivot. I feel you are more likely to save more energy that way. plus, if you put more weight on the back leg, and lean kinda back, it tells me you're afraid to be hit. also, i think its easier to get off a sweep when someone transfers weight to the back.

bec back in a minute, gotta pick up the old lady.


peace.

Weight in the back, IMO, is what I would use ONLY if I was being defensive and pulling off a pure Muay Thai. Which I never do, so it's out of the question.

That MT stance u always see is the defensive kicking stance. . . . . . . . so you can wait for the other guy to come, leg kicks, then move in and clinch.

Not something I'd wanna do vs. multiple guys. CLF all the way in that situation. . . ..

wait, CLF all the way in EVERY situation.

[Eddie]

what ever comes the most natural and most comfortable, BUT if he is circling you, its easy to sweep him/drop down and grab his legs/ throw him.
if someone is doing this, he is trying to size you up and is waiting for your attack. give it to him , dont give it to him, its all up to you.

[hskwarrior]

so would you attack first?

in california it usually falls on the person who threw the first blow. the rest is self defense.

The reason why i usually wait for the person to attack first is you don't know anything about him. if he's carrying a knife, gun etc. that reminds me of a guy who followed me off the freeway in a road rage situation.

I pulled into a safeway parking lot, and figured if he follows me in then its on. I had a pair of escrima sticks with me and when i got out of the car he ran up to me. i had a stick in each hand and yelled out "give me a reason to use these!!"

but i put them down and he started to jump around like bruce lee. so i played a game of mental gung fu with him. i acted scared but impressed, even animated in my responses, but i said to him "it looks like you may know martial arts" and you can see his confidence building while he said "yeah 4 years muther f'er".

So once again i acted impressed and you "wow, you must be really good!!, but wait!" then i raised up my sleeves and showed off my tattoos of my coulplets and asked with a smile of my face.........." Do you think its possible that i may know martial arts too?" he stopped his dancing around and the look on his face changed.

I then said you got two choices.

1) you can either fight me, or

2) apologize, shake my hand and get back into your car.


He shook my hand and got back into his car.


Mental kung fu, dude!


hsk

[hskwarrior]

Now, when it comes to sweeping from my stance, i don't usually go for the front leg sweep becuase it is pretty easy to evade by stepping into a cat stance and circling the tip of your toe either clock-wise or counter clock wise depending on where the sweep is coming from.

or you can simply go into a one legged crane stance to avoid the sweep, or step back into a retreat horse. you know.

But when facing off with someone i usually stand 60-40 on the front leg head and weight slightly leaned forward. at the same time im ready to launch a kick from behind.


Does anyone do it this way or know what i mean when i say "sei Ping Ma Sweep"?


hsk

[Eddie]

never sweep the front leg. Sow gerk is one of the most usefull apps in my CLF arsenal. I think I can safely say, once I have lined my oponent up correctly (which isnt difficult) i can sweep just about every one :) . If someone is standing in a diu ma type stance or a one leg stance, he does half the work for me ;)
in our siu ping kuen there is a move where you step from sei ping ma back into a gong ma. its used as a sweep too, pretty easy, effective and very common to get into when you are in a fight.

****, today im in such a mood to go spar with someone :cool: . pitty is summer holiday now, and our school is closed for the holiday. wish i could email myself over to the usa or some place ;)

[hskwarrior]

when it comes to front leg sweeps, it won't happen to me. I have a lot of lower body awareness. I wouldn't use the Diu Ma horse in fighting stance. But when you go to sweep my front leg i will either use the Diu Ma with a circle being drawn on the floor with the tip of my toes on the ground, or simply lift my front leg and put it behind me changing my fighting stance from the right side to facing the left side in south paw style.

In my school, including my students, we all pray for someone to do a front leg sweep because we got a surprise for them.

But if you haven't tried to evade the front leg sweep by using the diu ma then circling either clockwise or counterclockwise then you most likely don't realize how easy it is, especially to shoot in right afterwards.

i guess you have to see it to understand.


peace.

[hskwarrior]

eddie,

when you execute the sow gerk, your lead hand, is it pushing at the chest like i see many clf people do?

The way we execute a sow gerk is combing the sweep with like a pek choy-instead you are using the area from your wrist down to your elbow and it comes downwards starting at the 11:00 position and ending at the 5:00 position ( the hands only).

We do it this way to wipe off the face of our opponent. It starts at the forehead and crushes downwards breaking the nose then while you move your head back to evade that strike my arm comes crashing down into your chest while the leg is still sweeping sending our opponent to the ground. HARD!

actually there are a lot of sweeps to the front leg that are good, and the whole thing is timing, precision, speed mixed with the ability to make my opponent think im going all up top, and not down below.

sometimes its better to show than to tell.

hsk

[Eddie]

i could push, strike or cut, high, medium or low. situation usually dictates it for me. i prefer a quick push/cut movement across the chest or throught area. guess what, it works for san shou too :rolleyes:

we obviously have our own variations too. Low kick to sow gerk :) works very well