Sanchin dachi poll

[meguro]

Sanchin dachi, smanchin dachi. I thought I would ask you, my esteemed colleagues, your thoughts on sanchin dachi- you know, that pigeon toed, knock kneed stance. Personally, I think it is a waste of time to march up and down the mat in sanchin dachi when you could be practicing ouchi gari or blocking inner thigh kicks. As for fighting in this most un athletic position, really? Do you? Please elaborate.

[GJEC]

The only 'Sanchin Dachi like' skill in kumite that I can think of is for a close in shovel hook. The hips twist in, and like a golfers swing the back heel lifts as the hips rotate.



IMO all basic stances are given too much attention. They are 'mid points' in an ever changing dynamic and to me the only reason to hold them is to allow the instructor to correct them.

In Enshin, everything beyond kihon is done from fighting stance, but if you froze a few frames the familiar stances 're-appear' as weight is shifted etc. Kiba dachi becomes a way to drop your weight and control after a takedown. Zenkutsu dachi a way to create space after a grab so we can use a kick. Kokutsu dachi a way to use the front leg as a stopping kick. Neko ashi dachi to pull the leg out of the way of a low kick etc.

Gary

PS Didn't vote as the scenario above - 'limited applications in close fighting' wasn't there

[GJEC]

Thanks Meguro - see you added it.

[MMX]

In Enshin it is only used for the upper body kihon and I think only as it is a safe stance for the hips and knees for the kihon. That is only about 5% of our class time. Like Gary pointed out we spend the other time in Kumite stance.

[senshido]

I sometimes use a version of Sanchin when using kage tsuki (hook to ribs)but it's only there for a split second before moving back to my normal fighting stance

[evergrey]

I use it when we're doing drills where we strike one another, and someone is hitting me especially hard. After having trained the stance in the kata for a while, I find it's quite stabilizing. Kumite, I move too much to sing down into that stance.
Unless it's kumite in the ocean. The waves here are big and strong, lol!

[shugyo]

I'm just thinking outloud...I know, that's scary enough, but I remember thinking that JKD's "ready stance" was similar to the Sanchin stance. However, I've never seen Bruce in Sanchin in any of his "training videos" of himself.

Looked good on paper, but lacks, imho, in effectiveness. Matter of fact, I don't think I've seen any JKD practitioners ever in a Sanchin like stance before. Hhhhmmmmm...

Ok, I'll go back to my little corner.

[evergrey]

Aye, Shugyo, and I've never seen JKD guys fight full contact knockdown, either. I honestly wonder how they'd do? Too bad they don't come out and play! It'd be fun to see more variety in styles at the tournaments...

[meguro]

May 15, 2014 2:58:53 GMT -5 evergrey said:

Aye, Shugyo, and I've never seen JKD guys fight full contact knockdown, either. I honestly wonder how they'd do? Too bad they don't come out and play! It'd be fun to see more variety in styles at the tournaments...

JKD, as I understand it, is a mixed martial art drawing from Wing Chun, Savate, Fencing, FMA, and whatever else the practitioner finds useful. One might argue that MMAists are practicing their own JKD. I wouldn't, but some might. BL said to take what is useful and discard what is not. How do you tell what is useful if you are uninformed? Traditional karateka keep everything, even if they don't understand it. That's cool. Somebody else might figure it out. I remember my 5th grade teacher telling us to keep things for 7 years, and discard them afterwards if they haven't been used. She and BL would probably have gotten along.

On JKD fighting knockdown, meh. I think all stylists should be testing their concepts and skills in the cage.

I finally entered my vote, Yeah buddy. . . I would have voted for limited applications, but as I think of it, maybe lots of applications. First let me say that I object to the way sanchin dachi is taught. Stance implies permanence, like a foundation. Fighting is fluid and dynamic. "Mid-points" is spot on. Anybody do the low-kick checking drill ( check outside left, inside left, inside right, outside right)?

The wrong thing to do, IMO, is to settle into sanchin dachi, focus on stability, and have your stance tested by resisting a push as a house might resist a gust of wind. This proves nothing. Pull the roof off a house, and the walls come crashing down. In a fight, if you are pushing, you are vulnerable to pulling. You don't want stability, you want mobility, hence mid-points.

[GJEC]

Maybe the cage is the ultimate test, although today it has as many rules as any other combat sport. In the first Gerard Gordeau (Holland) did well, using knockdown with a killer instinct.

But we have to accept that not everyone will compete.

I liked knockdown because at the time (1970's) it was the hardest combat sport (UK) that left me able to work. Dealing with RTA's and blood born horrible stuff meant I didn't want cuts and making decisions under pressure meant I didn't want brain damage or concussion.

So knockdown was my choice. I've seen people from a myriad of different styles enter and get smashed. In the 2014 Sabaki Challenge I believe a pro MMA fighter is entering and it'll be interesting to see how he gets on.

In a gi.

I know some debate rages about the relevance of clothing, but since most muggers work fully clothed - not naked and greased up - and even wear a hoodie for us to grab hold of, I think that will be a good test.

Gary

[meguro]

You bring up a good point, Gary. I wonder if a new "dogi" might be devised that closely resembles our everyday clothing, including some type of footwear. I am never greased up and only wearing MMA shorts, and my everyday clothes are not as resistant to ripping as a double weave judo dogi, so if we are going to train something practical, why not wear practical clothing?

[GJEC]

Sabaki Challenge

The professional MMA fighter was dropped twice with jodan mawashi geri. 6:0

Fair play to him for competing under a different rule set. It 'proves' nothing of course. If the sabaki fighter entered the cage he'd no doubt find that equally difficult and would probably get choked out.

But it does mean that Bananarama got it right: "It aint what you do it's the way that you do it"

If we find a rule set we like then get as strong and effective as we can, testing ourselves (in competition or promotion tests) against people that want to put us down, eventually we have sharp and reliable tools we can retain under pressure.

We're not robots so nothing is 100%, but I think that's about as good as it gets.

Gary

[senshido]

just laughed out loud at the Bananarama quote!!