How much do you bend your knees in your wing chun?
Do you like to stay high or are you sinking your stance?..
I do a 50/50 structure and I like to go fairly low as my knees are bent around 40/45 degree.I realise many will find this a little low but I find it beneficial to me as I like to use my structure as a tactical thing.(I still have good mobility with it)
I know many like it very different so without getting into “my Si-fu sez or my way is better” what are your opinions and reasons behind your stance?
Hey old jong, what’s up! I think that the lower the stance the better! Fist distance between the knees is the ideal for structure, leg training, and groin kick defence. Or so my momma said.
When I practice, I go as low as I can go comfortably, then I go a little bit lower. Strong, relaxed legs and a low COG give you extra options in a tussle.
Low training does not necessarily require low applications. High training DOES require high applications. If you try to sink your structure under pressure, but you haven’t “done the time” in the low stance, you will be moved or collapsed easily.
I am more upright…
I don’t think “lower is better” is all there is to it.
I see lots of junior students in my kwoon, especially males, take this “maxim” and take it beyond common sense, to the point where their feet are too wide for them to hold their pelvis in the correct position, so that their weight is not on the flat of the feet but on the inner edges, and their pelvis is tilted forward, so that the stance is less stable and their structural integrity is violated.
“‘More is better’, they seem to think,‘so if I take my feet REALLY wide and get REALLY low my training will be SO much more effective’”. I disagree.
The training stance to me is not about getting a good burn in the quads and other muscles around the hips, which squats, duck walking, bunny hops, and hung gar style horse stances will do much better, thank you. To me the stance is about correct skeletal alignment, learning to stand so that the skeleton, tendons and ligaments are holding you in place, rather than excess muscular tension, which is the enemy of biomechanical efficiency, and the flow of chi (if you buy into that).
What goes up, must come down.
Going low does not require going wide.
If your feet are really wide it also becomes harder to kick, because it takes longer to transfer wieght on to the other foot.
Then dont transfer the weight…
The one posistion that really slows you down, is when your knees are pointing in to much…
movement
Also would not a lower stance intefere with movement of stepping?
Lower and Wider
Hello,
I think that when one considers training as oppossed to application then a lower stance, and perhaps even a slightly wider stance would be better.
A lower stance is harder to perform correctly but will give additional benefits such as strength and stability. If one trains to move from a low stance then when one goes higher your movement will be even more fluid, stable and faster than someone who trains only for a high stance. The additional strength will carry over for kicking and other movements.
Having a slightly wider base can also provide more stability, although too much width can have severe drawbacks. 
Take a look at some other styles and observe their training methods. The one which comes to mind right away is Pakua. Pakua is known for its fast and fluid footwork. Yet in training some styles of Pakua train their stances to be low. In application they may not be low but the foundation is there.
One last thing; don’t confuse a low stance with some type of competition to see how low one can go. The important thing is to achieve a low stance which still allows you to move and react quickly and effectively.
Just like the Pontiac commerical, with a slight paraphrase
Wider is better, so is lower 
Peace,
Dave
My Sifu always told us to have a low stance. I can do a low
stance, but now prefer a slightly higher one. I found that, with
my low stance, I had excellent structure, but I was so rooted in
that I react fast enough to move. Perhaps this isn’t a problem
with the stance so much as me, but I found that with a higher
stance, I could still maintain a good root and have added mobility.
I’m sure there’s a happy medium, but I haven’t quite gotten it
yet.
Another concern I have is the knees. In western sport science,
having the knees over the toes, which happens in the low stance,
is a bad thing, especially if you’re a person with mass (I’m not).
I had read that eventually, the knees will adapt to this way of
positioning so it won’t damage them, but I don’t know if this is
true.
my 2 cents
Hey guys, as far as stance goes I like to look at it this way:
Everyone I have ever trained with, has said the stance should eb low for Sil Lim Tao. This makes sense for training since you are building strength, endurance, structure, and Qi in your body. So when I am practicing or doing my forms, I go low, and try to stay that way. But for practical use I think lower is not necessrily better, you want to go low, that is what helps you get your root, lower CofG, but you also want to leave some room to go lower. I have been taught that in certain circumstances, going lower can get you out of a tight bind, so you want to leave some room either way, it gives you more flexibility and range of motion.
A low horse does not automatically equal good root.
A high horse does not automatically equal bad root.
IMHO, the transition between high and low/ low and high is where good root is developed.
Dzu
Explanation
Dzu, can you expound upon that answer?
My own preference is a high stance. I’d rather have mobility than immoveability.
Whenever Ive used wide stances Ive always been kicked in the groin and had difficulty with lateral movement. I find that if Im still in a high stance I’m often swept on my ass though so i have to keep moving.
I suppose a lot depends on your body type and other attributes though.
Wing Chun is a system,not a style!
And when you want to use a system,you must adapt it to [SIZE=3]your [/SIZE]style! So…Everybody is right here…as long as you can use your own thing effectively.
there is another reason the stance is sometimes practiced a little lower that often seems to not be discussed, it is the same reason to some degree that all wing chun techniques are practiced from 1 extreme to another.
this reason is that when in a fight you will lose a certain degree of your technique, your legs will straighten somewhat but seeing as though you have practiced with them a little more bent than usual you should find that they do not straighten in combat & therefor your knees should not become targets.
vts
This makes sense VTS:cool: