Last Stance with Brian Duffy

Date: Weds, 3 May 2006

Wrapping up our series on stance is this welcome piece by my Kenpo instructor Brian Duffy.  In addition to being a senior Kenpo black belt student of the late Ed Parker, Mr. Duffy is blessed to live in Austin, Texas, my hometown and a place I hope to move back to somehow, someway, some day.        

By the way, if you're lucky enough to live in Austin I suggest you check out Mr. Duffy's school on South Congress Ave. in glorious South Austin - my old stomping grounds (so to speak).

Rob,

Here's my take on stances and how I explain the reasoning behind the Neutral Bow Stance to a student.  A good stance is one that is a happy medium between a couple of different factors.  

First factor is the one you addressed in your newsletter; depth.  The longer and lower the stance, the more stability you have...a wide low center of gravity, strong foundation, hard to knock you off balance, but also very hard to move quickly from for most folks.  The higher and shorter the stance, the more mobility you have...can "dance" and maneuver easily both offensively and defensively, but can be knocked off balance with a good hard shot like a side kick or get both legs reaped on a throw.  In a fighting situation there will be times in the conflict when either more mobility or stability is needed.  As such a base stance that affords you a certain amount of both is a good place to start.  The Neutral Bow Stance's heel-to-knee depth (a depth that is set so that dropping down on the knee of the back leg it just touches the back of the front heel) allows mobility while bending the knees outward and settling the weight allows for good stability.  From there you can adjust the stance as necessary for more mobility or stability depending on the situation.  This basic same depth is what Ray McCallum used to call "walking stance" when he used to teach fighting seminars at my studio.  He advocated a depth that was measured by each person's normal tread which when we compared notes turned out to be almost exactly a heel-to-knee depth.

The second factor to be addressed is that of offensive versus defensive capability.  The more squared off to my opponent I am the more offensive capability I have; since both sides of the body are forward then strikes from either side are equally easy to execute and equally as quick.  However the defense in this type of position is solely dependant on how quickly you can react to strikes and pick them off since your center line is facing directly toward your opponent. Conversely, the more sideways I stand the more defensive my posture; I present a very narrow profile of less vulnerable targets to my opponent and close off the center line completely. But from here my fire power is limited.  I can strike quickly with only my front hand and leg, the back hand and leg are too far removed.  The happy medium in this case is to align the body at a 45 degree angle while in the Neutral Bow Stance.  By keeping the body at a 45 degree angle you have narrowed your width creating a narrower profile and protecting the center line, yet you can still strike quickly with both front and back hand or leg. Here again one can adjust to a more offensive or more defensive alignment as needed during the conflict.        

That concludes our stance series.  I hope you got something out of it, and many thanks to everyone who wrote in.        

Train like you mean it,

Rob LaPointe