I’ve talked to a few friends from WC and CLF and they said the horsestance should feel a “suction” or “grip” to the ground, even on slippery surface. TCPM’s William Fong has mentioned this as well. Does anyone’s horsestance “grip?”
In YKM we grip the ground with our toes to help ground ourselves, it also activates Kidney 1 to draw energy up through the legs. Is that similar to what you are refering? 
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Horse
The sensation is similar when jogging, the first couple of miles is painful, then you begin to feel the right sensation that you’re body has adjusted to the stress of this workout. Horse training is the same. The first half hour is a killer. After that there is that sensation that you are rooted and the energy is flowing. This is assuming you are standing correctly, and practicing the correct breathing technique.
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what is the correct breathing technique?
I never knew there was a proper breathing technique while in horse stance. amazing.
Indeed..
Just as with almost all sporting activities, a good grip or placement is vital to proper stance/power/balance and ‘feeling’ development.
All stances have a fundamental structure that provides for a proper feel or sense. Over a period of time, the structure can become modified (or less structured per se) as the sense remains. Although in my opinion, perfection should always be strived for. As a teacher, if one does not seek perfection, then there is a chance I teach more of my kinetic-movement vs that of the style’s founding ‘kinetic’ principles.
Breathing
To get the most benefit of horse stance training you should practice either Taoist or Buddhist breathing. This is part of qigong internal/external exercises. If done correctly, after an hour, you’ll feel as if you’ve worked out twice as long. This can also be done using weights or not.
mine does
When I saw this post I thought the “Grip” refered to pushing to the sides slightly to get more root. Its actually kind of a fake root. I sometimes push out to the sides to avoid being lifted without bending my legs. Otherwise breathing and posture are everything with horse stance. The more I learn about horse stance, the more I regognize the slight places where I am unalligned or not breathing correctly, or overtensing the legs. Stances are the first thing you learn, but with practice your always improving them
If your not bleeding, your not having enough fun.
Stance
One of the main benefits of horse stance training is its the easiest exercise to develop your chi flow. The result, more energy, relief of stress, stronger legs, etc.
what happens if you are not using the correct breathing technique?? The results aren’t as good or???
Breathing
Well at the least, without the proper breathing technique you won’t achieve the full benefits of horse stance training. At the worst, and I haven’t heard or seen any real evidence only been explained by my sifu, that you can injure yourself internally. Because if done correctly horse stance training develops chi flow, doing it wrong will develop the chi incorrectly. Good chi flow promotes vitality and rejuvenation. Bad chi flow influences fatigue and poor health. You may have to conduct more research on this because I am not an expert on all the intricacies of chi only the general principles as taught by my sifu. Hopefully this helps though.
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can you explain a little about how is the correct breathing technique?
i just got a little worried about that…
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anyone here trains at Tat Wong academy?
Breathing
This depends on your style. I studied Shaolin Five Animal Style and each animal had a different breathing pattern and each sound was distinct and deep. In other words, full inhalation and exhalation. I currently study Eagle Claw and the breathing is natural, not deep. Again breathe techniques in one style may not be appropriate for another style so its best to ask your instructor.
How high your horse or how low does not matter. It’s the alignment of your spine and stomach that matters. Anyone agree to this?
Biu Ji,
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about! What style are you from? What’s YKM?
Hehehe grip with toes with nike or reeboks see how you go hehehe
WL , sort of answer ezpected.∆
Gripping Horse Stance
I agree with the concept of the height of the horse stance not being as important as how you
grip. I’ve encountered the concept in both
SPM and chen style tai chi. In chen style tai chi, the standing post exercise, which is a form of horse stance. Where you carry your dan tien/ raise your hips which straightens your spine and you sit on your third leg i.e an imaginary point from the base of the spine to the ground. I find this causes you to lock your stance. In addition to this you are meant to spiral down/ drill into the floor. However this, is still beyond me.
With SPM, you use the same prinicpals to root yourself to the ground i.e carrying your dan tien.
But rather than using standing post training, you do it as a internal training exercise, its sort of like a dynamic tensioning exercise. Where by you grip the floor with your toes turning them inwards. Then tense your ankles going outwards and so on.
in Yau Kung Mun, we practice our horse stance 31/2 steps apart. when sitting in our horse stance, we tuck in our buttocks and grip the floor as Biu Ji has stated. we also curve our back (tiger back) & breath into our dan tien. tiger back is very important to our system for many purposes, which can be discussed at a later stage.