1.
Identify the Importance of Improvement
It is not your level that is important. What is important however is the
understanding that you can improve your stances today by taking on an
attitude of growth. That you can become better than you already are. As
with anything you do there is always room for improvement. To think
otherwise is limiting your capacity to grow to say the least.
2. Start Small
GKR wasn’t built in a day! It takes time to develop good quality. Desire
is a positive thing. Nothing happens without it. Work on the fundamentals.
Foot position, weight distribution and overall balance are all fundamental
qualities of a good stance. Learn to develop a “feel” for the stance
whilst standing still before introducing movement. At all cost avoid
unnecessary foot and upper body movement. Think of your entire body when
executing a strong stance.
3. Improve Flexibility
Do not limit your potential by limiting your mindset. So many potentially
good students let themselves down by not adopting an attitude of “I can”.
We all have the ability to improve our flexibility. Tight tendons, muscles
and joints will only hinder your stances. A proper warm up and more
importantly a warm down and stretch will go a long way toward lowering and
lengthening your stances. A key point to remember is that the more
flexible you become the lighter your legs will feel allowing you to move
faster as well as improve consistency and stamina not only in stance work
but other areas of your karate as well!
4. Improve Leg Strength
You don’t need to develop your legs like a weight lifter however you can
condition and tone them to absorb more through extra exercise like lunges,
squats and leg lifts. You can increase power and stamina through
introducing movement. In other words Kata. Nothing conditions your legs
for karate like “more karate” which brings us the last tip and that is…
5. Practice
The only way, and I mean the only way you are going to improve your
stances is through conscious effort. Kata is a great way to develop your
stances. Focus on the fundamentals. Be aware of what your feet are doing.
Develop a strong mental picture of the desired stance before you execute
it. Not only should the stance look good it should also feel good. If it’s
worth doing, it’s got to be worth doing well. Repetition is the mother of
skill.
Stances are the very foundation
of good karate. Not only are you training your body as a self defence
weapon,
you are also training it
to be a delivery system and platform from which your weapon is launched.
You may have a strong punch or kick as well as the speed to deliver the
technique but unless you have a strong platform to support the delivery
then things might not go your way when the time comes