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Originally Posted by treelizard
A friend of mine was telling me that what is considered the strongest stance in taijutsu is not a defensive or protective stance or even an offensive stance, but a totally open stance. Is this true in any other arts?
I thought it was pretty interesting, that being open is considered less vulnerable, possibly because you can move anywhere...
This also reminded me of something I've read, that in internal martial arts (or was it in samurai culture? i forget) that the ultimate stance is one that is still and not quivering. This in opposition to some Filipino arts that teach you to constantly be moving your weapon hand and/or live hand to speed up your reaction time...
Thoughts, anyone?
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Stillness, like a cat waiting to pounce...the idea being to own the space around yourself, when someone enters that space you hit whatever enters that space...This sort of thing isnt for typical hands up fighting or empty handed duels as i call 'em. The empty stance idea is that you are going to wait for the opponent to attack then EXPLODE into the attacker and disable him as quickly as possible...its purely a self defense idea, and NOT a sparring tool!!
Defense is not on the mind of someone using this set up, its a recieving posture, "come on in." the idea being to shift from being like the wind to a raging fire in an instant.
The wind posture works well on those who aint wielding a blade...the stillness idea will get you DEAD in a knife encounter. holding any part of your body exposed and still to a trained knife fighter is about the dumbest thing you could try...when its a punch or kick or a shot you can bump and evade or sprawl to control the situation. Thats fine empty handed, you can work from there, but against a blade...not so good...thats why the FMA people move constantly, its a different reality when blades are in the mix.
think about it this way, the wind posture works because no one is going to punch your arms when you hold them out to the side of your body, they attack your exposed groin and torso and face. Empty handed that works you can intercept the attacks...with a knife the exposed arms are targets, you wont try to punch them, but you'll damn sure slash them to ribbons.