Stances

Oooh, stances.  Not going to write much here today, but I thought I’d discuss stances.

I’m a right-hander, so I should be fighting orthodox.  It puts my strongest side back, lets me hit hard with my right fist / kick and allows me to block with my left.

However, due to years of fencing and some Tai Chi work, I actually automatically assume southpaw.  I move more fluidly in southpaw, I block faster, I hit faster and chain combinations more smoothly in that stance.  However, my left side is weaker, so my stronger side is forward.

It’s weird too because I know my left side can grow stronger.  I just haven’t gotten the iterations up.  It’s mostly due to practise – I practised a lot of strikes & kicks in orthodox while learning (Karate, etc) in the beginning and just continued practising in that stance.

However, because I fight southpaw normally, I just don’t have the muscle memory to turn on the power on my left side as much.  With practise though, I’m hitting harder and more smoothly and soon should be able to ramp it up – though I think I’ll always be weaker.

Still, all these changes do mean that I shift quite fluidly between the stances, striking from either without hesitation when I am sparring.  I often don’t even think about stances, just hitting and moving when I am in the groove. Not as good for training specific responses, but great for sparring…