ditto MAC! us old guys learn to play smart, but isn`t it fun to shuck and jive…
I think in many self-defence scenarios, contra many sportive and training scenarios, there is never the opportunity for any kind of “squaring off” in the first place. The way range develops and changes in each of these cases is quite different, and this has implications for training. For instance, in the sportive/training sense, you might concieve of a stance as a consistent and self-sufficient defense base from which you can launch attacks with optimal static defense. On the other hand, in the self-defense sence, the stance could be concieved of as a pedagogy for instilling a primary reflex which establishes an interactive structure with the engagement of your assailant. These two things may be very different.
In the later case, it’s difficult to talk about the stance in isolation, as it’s meaning only arises when it interacts with the opponent’s attack. Rather, we could ask, how is the stance being trained as a primary reflex? How does it establish your own posture? How does it respond to your opponents attack and establish his posture and your relative positions and ranges? In what way does it begin a series of trained reactions to your opponent’s subsequent responses which will manifest themselves as the techniques you use in the engagement? In all of this, I think you will the important thing to not be the stance, that is - not the end-product of the movement; but rather, the movements your body made to get there. Again, this would be contrast with a sportive and training “squaring off” approaching to stance, where the end-product is very important.
Christopher M, getting there seems literally pointless without a destination into which to be gotten.
There should be a comprehension of attacks as one understands them. There should be a single posture which can address all these. However one is before, the getting to that one initial posture can occure from nearly any other semblant posture–a standing/crouching posture from nearly any other standing posture.
You know, even though he is a guy desperate and long overdue for a gallon of lithium, he may just have a good point.