Horse stance training, what is it? The horse stance is a beginner martial arts stance or stance that can be found in almost every style of martial arts and is thousands of years old. It creates a firm foundation upon which all other martial arts techniques can be built.
Starting with advanced martial artists, “assume the position” and then hold the position for as long as you can. Beginners usually notice that their legs start to burn and their muscles stop cooperating after only a few seconds. For this reason, many teachers suggest that students practice this pose for fifteen minutes every day with the promise that after two years they will have a decent horse stance.
Horse stance is performed with your feet about twice shoulder-width apart. So the knees are bent. Some styles bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor, others bend your knees until you can only see your little toes as you look down at your feet. Anyway, the idea is to have your feet open and your knees bent.
Benefit #1 – Better Balance
Regular horse stance training allows you to develop a solid foundation and gets you used to having very wide feet. So when someone pushes you, instead of taking a small step, losing your balance and falling, you’ll take a big step and stay on your feet.
Benefit #2: Lower Center of Gravity
Along with balance, regular training also helps the student develop a lower center of gravity. This is known as “changing levels”. Many styles of martial arts use tripping and throwing techniques to defeat an opponent. With a well-practiced horse stance, a student finds that his center of gravity is nice and low and that his opponent has a much harder time bringing him down.
Benefit #3 – Powerful leg muscles for kicking
Another benefit of regular training is the strength that is developed in the leg muscles. Later, in a student training, they will learn kicking techniques. Regular horse stance training done above will give them more powerful kicks.
Benefit #4 – Yin and Yang
Most students find standing in a horse position very boring. To spice things up, blocking and punching exercises are practiced while standing in a horse stance. With each hit or block, the students will give a spiritual cry, known as a kiai. This cry helps the student to breathe, which provides the necessary oxygen for the muscles to work. It also helps the student learn to be flexible yet well grounded and is a beginning teacher of yin and yang.
Benefit #5 – Energy, Awareness, Health
Along with all of these benefits, many students are taught to do “rock pushes” while standing in a horse stance. Boulder push is a breathing and strengthening exercise that increases “chi”. Chi is universal energy. By increasing their chi energy, students begin to experience increased mental awareness and improvements in their health.
The path to great kung fu or karate or jujutsu begins with the horse stance. It is a rite of passage. There are many other benefits of regular posture training, but you can only learn them if you start your posture training today. Find an experienced teacher, if you don’t already have one, and experience the many benefits of this timeless exercise.