Horse Stances

I have been working some martial arts basics as well. Most striking based martial arts, those which focus primarily on hitting the opponent with hands and feet, do work from horse stance in varying degrees. A horse stance is just as you might imagine. It is standing as if you were riding a horse without a horse actually being there.

Please see the gentleman below for an example, he is doing a great job!

In essence, the feet are slightly wider than shoulder width apart. additionally, as you can see the legs are not straight but bent with the legs forced out to the sides. The feet of the practitioner will have the majority of the weight resting to the outside edges of the feet. This is a stance practiced for two reasons (1) for stability (2) torture. Well the second reason is just a side effect. If you have a desire to be cruel to yourself try doing this for a while. Just take 10 minutes of your time, lower yourself as the gentleman above in the stance and hold in for 90 seconds. If you haven't done this before 90 seconds will be a good place to start. Then take 60 seconds off then try to hold the stance for 2 minutes and see how that goes. You will know you are doing it right if your thighs have the feeling of bursting into flame. This is a focus drill. You see it is supposed to hurt, but can you focus through it?

Well tonight, I was doing 5 to 7 minutes on versus 2 minutes off while watching the basketball game, go Celtics. I will say that my thighs felt pretty bad after 4 turns through this little game, ouch, ouch, ouch. I hope to be up to 10 to 12 minutes in a month with 30 minutes being the real goal. Give it try, I am sure you did something to deserve it. Just kidding.