16 min
Basic #2 - SOKU （足 ） Legs/Stance Karate 4 Life
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- Education
In the episode we continue going deeper into ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki as we take a deeper look into the second element the legs (stance).
The stance is the foundation upon which we build, it grounds us and is the basis for all movements and actions that carry us forwards.
---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to dig a bit deeper into the basics of karate and life, taker a closer look at the second element of ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki - the stance.
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is all about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems. Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Martin: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: We've managed to wrap up Ichi Gan, the eyes, Martin, and we do need to move on to Ni Soku. Before we do that, I wanted to share with you I had quite a few people come and talked to me about the Ichi Gan, the eyes segment, and are really interested to learn a lot more about Ni Soku now. They're kind of hanging out.
Martin: The pressure.
Sandra: You've delayed this one coming out. You've had quite a busy time at the moment, but you should look at this a bit quicker I think.
Martin: We need to get it moving.
Sandra: Yes. Okay, so where should we start?
Martin: I think we'll start the same way we did last time and look at Soke's text, his teaching manual the Kyohon. I might show our video again to read it out.
Sandra: "The basis of all movement and posture. Always take care to unconsciously have correct and smooth stepping motion, stance, and way of evasion."
Martin: That's simple stuff, really. Isn't it?
Sandra: You try and do that well. Maybe if you work it out you can let me know.
Martin: Yes. A simple idea, simple but not easy.
Sandra: Okay. Well, let's see if we can break it down just a little bit more than that. When we were having a chat earlier, we were discussing three points as far as looking at the stance, looking at stability, mobility, and also power generation. Maybe let's go to the stability first, and let's see if we can unpack that just a little bit.
Martin: Stability, I guess, that gets back to what we do with our brand new beginner students. The first thing we do when we're looking at stance is literally just getting the feet in the correct position. How wide is your stance? How long is your stance? How much do you bend your knees? Creating that position of stability, but, I guess, this is where we probably need to tie back to the eyes as well.
As we talked about last time with the eyes, that creates that posture and that structure, and then the stance builds on that creating a full body structure.
Sandra: Yes, so we have those little tests in class where there's a big strike shield coming whacking at you or whether it's a one-finger test on your belt, if you don't have your eyes in the correct position, it makes it very hard to maintain a strong stance.
Martin: Yes, this is a bit of a paradox with teaching brand new students to get your feet in the right spot. Automatically most people look down at their feet. They look down at their feet, and they go, "Oh, okay. Are my feet in the right spot?" Then they might have their feet in the right spot, but because they've looked down, they've broken that structure. They've broken the posture. It kind of defeats the purpose of having their feet in the right spot in the first place because they don't have that stability.
Sandra: Yes, so true. Then, as we tend to take people through thei
In the episode we continue going deeper into ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki as we take a deeper look into the second element the legs (stance).
The stance is the foundation upon which we build, it grounds us and is the basis for all movements and actions that carry us forwards.
---- Transcript ----
Martin: Hey everyone, this is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome back to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: Today we want to dig a bit deeper into the basics of karate and life, taker a closer look at the second element of ichi gan, ni soku, san tan, shi riki - the stance.
Martin: We've noticed that everyone faces challenges in life, some big some small. But not everyone has a way to navigate these problems.
Sandra: It’s not always easy, but we’ve found that we always keep coming back to what we’ve learned from our years in the dojo.
Martin: And that’s what this podcast is all about...
Sandra: Helping us all find the solutions to life’s problems. Or even better yet, to remove the problems before they arise.
Martin: This is Martin & Sandra Phillips and welcome to the Karate 4 Life Podcast.
Sandra: We've managed to wrap up Ichi Gan, the eyes, Martin, and we do need to move on to Ni Soku. Before we do that, I wanted to share with you I had quite a few people come and talked to me about the Ichi Gan, the eyes segment, and are really interested to learn a lot more about Ni Soku now. They're kind of hanging out.
Martin: The pressure.
Sandra: You've delayed this one coming out. You've had quite a busy time at the moment, but you should look at this a bit quicker I think.
Martin: We need to get it moving.
Sandra: Yes. Okay, so where should we start?
Martin: I think we'll start the same way we did last time and look at Soke's text, his teaching manual the Kyohon. I might show our video again to read it out.
Sandra: "The basis of all movement and posture. Always take care to unconsciously have correct and smooth stepping motion, stance, and way of evasion."
Martin: That's simple stuff, really. Isn't it?
Sandra: You try and do that well. Maybe if you work it out you can let me know.
Martin: Yes. A simple idea, simple but not easy.
Sandra: Okay. Well, let's see if we can break it down just a little bit more than that. When we were having a chat earlier, we were discussing three points as far as looking at the stance, looking at stability, mobility, and also power generation. Maybe let's go to the stability first, and let's see if we can unpack that just a little bit.
Martin: Stability, I guess, that gets back to what we do with our brand new beginner students. The first thing we do when we're looking at stance is literally just getting the feet in the correct position. How wide is your stance? How long is your stance? How much do you bend your knees? Creating that position of stability, but, I guess, this is where we probably need to tie back to the eyes as well.
As we talked about last time with the eyes, that creates that posture and that structure, and then the stance builds on that creating a full body structure.
Sandra: Yes, so we have those little tests in class where there's a big strike shield coming whacking at you or whether it's a one-finger test on your belt, if you don't have your eyes in the correct position, it makes it very hard to maintain a strong stance.
Martin: Yes, this is a bit of a paradox with teaching brand new students to get your feet in the right spot. Automatically most people look down at their feet. They look down at their feet, and they go, "Oh, okay. Are my feet in the right spot?" Then they might have their feet in the right spot, but because they've looked down, they've broken that structure. They've broken the posture. It kind of defeats the purpose of having their feet in the right spot in the first place because they don't have that stability.
Sandra: Yes, so true. Then, as we tend to take people through thei
16 min