Kung Fu Fighting Stance

In a traditional kung fu school setting, we often work from a traditional fighting stance.

This is how we get into the stance…

Start out with your feet together and hands by your side.

Take one normal length step back with your right foot at a 45 degree angle and set the foot on the ball.

As you set the heel of your right foot down, rotate on the heel of the left foot to the right so that the left foot points to the right at a 45 degree angle.

While you are performing the foot work, draw the arms up into a fighting position with fists loosely closed.

The fists, arms, shoulders and hips should all be in alignment and your hips angled to the right at 45 degrees.  The left knee should be turned inward slightly and both knees will be bent slightly.

The purpose of this fighting stance is to protect your center line, and give you the best opportunity to block strikes and kicks coming from outside angles.

The stance also puts you in a good position to deliver strikes and kicks of your own while still affording you some protection from an incoming strike.

In a public situation, you really don’t want to find yourself in this stance, even if a fight is about to start.

The reason for this is that this stance displays intent.  Given that there is almost always a camera nearby, you do not went to demonstrate any fighting intention.

I’ll get into the type of stance you want to get into down the road.

Just keep in mind that this traditional stance is for training purposes only.

In the video below, I demonstrate how to get into the stance.