Seisan-dachi

Picture this: You're a kyu belt in a Chito-ryu dojo, and one day you decide to take an extended trip (go to college) to another city (half-way across the country). You really want to continue your martial arts training, but are unable to locate a Chito-ryu school in the area, so you evaluate the many schools available to you from the intensive research you did (the Yellow Pages) and pick a new dojo based on many important criteria; price (you are a student after all).

Shortly after joining, you're at a work-out, and a senior student in the club has offered to help you learn a new kata.

Sempei: "Zenkutsu-dachi!"

You: "What?"

Sempei: "Zenkutsu-dachi! Did your old school not teach you zenkutsu-dachi? Couldn't have been much of a school!" *

You drop into seisan-dachi, and get a strange look from the sempei.

Sempei: "Hangetsu-dachi is not zenkutsu-dachi. Also, that's a terrible hangetsu-dachi."

You: "What am I doing wrong with this stance? Can you give me a hand with hangetsu-dachi?"

Sempei corrects, fine-tunes and corrects again.

You: "Is this stance used in some kata?"

Sempei: "You've never heard of Hangetsu? Are we going to have to re-teach you everything?" *

You: "Apparently so. Can we go over Hangetsu?"

Sempei: "You're not ready for it, so I'll just show you."

Sempei performs Hangetsu.

You: "Hey, that actually looks a lot like Seisan."

DING! And suddenly, the world makes a bit more sense.

OK. I admit it. That story was about me.

Let's fast-forward twenty-ish years.  I'm back at a Chito-ryu school (actually, the same one I moved away from), and I am reviewing all of the kata I learned many (many) years ago with Sensei. We get to Seisan, and my mind goes back to Hangetsu, and I think "if Hangetsu-dachi originated from Hangetsu, then Seisan-dachi must have originated from Seisan. Since Seisan-dachi is not as hard on the body as Zenkutsu-dachi, and offers smoother transitions, that must be the reason why it is the primary stance in Chito-ryu katas.".

DING! And suddenly, the world makes a even more sense.

Now, seisan-dachi has gone through some refinement in the past several years, and no longer resembles hangetsu-dachi as closely as it used to. Modern seisan-dachi is more of a cross between hangetsu-dachi and zenkutsu-dachi.  Let's take a closer look.

Zenkutsu-dachi

Width: three fists or shoulder width on inside of feet

Depth: two full foot spans from toe of back foot to heel of front foot.

Weight: 60% front, 40% back

Many styles use zenkutsu-dachi, with only slight variations seen between those styles.  Zenkutsu-dachi is a deep forward stance where the back leg is straight, and the front leg is bent at the knee at approximately 45 degrees. Some styles prefer the front foot to be turned slightly inward, some styles prefer the center line of the foot to be pointing straight ahead, and some styles want the inside edge of the front foot to be straight.  The key for this stance is the front shin should be perpendicular to the ground.  In order to grip the ground better, shime (inward tension) is employed on the front leg. Shotokan turns the back foot almost 90 degrees outwards to make it easier to deepen the stance.

Hangetsu-dachi

Width: shoulder width on inside of feet

Depth: one full foot span from toe of back foot to heel of front foot.

Weight: 50% front, 50% back

Hangetsu-dachi (Half Moon stance) gets its name from the Shotokan kata Hangetsu, which, in case you are unaware, is the "Shotokan-ized" Seisan (Shuri, not Naha).  Hangetsu-dachi is a longer sanchin-dachi, but the back foot is turned towards the front, rather than turned inward.  The weight distribution of hangetsu-dachi is 50% (just like sanchin-dachi), and the stance employs shime (inward tension) and shibori (twisting) on both the front and back legs.

Seisan-dachi

Width: shoulder width on inside of feet

Depth: one full foot span from toe of back foot to heel of front foot.

Weight: 60% front, 40% back

Seisan-dachi is one of the signature stances used in Chito-ryu, and is derived from hangetsu-dachi, and was actually named hangetsu-dachi before Soke Sensei renamed it to seisan-dachi several years ago (if anyone knows the approximate date, please let me know). Like hangetsu-dachi, shime and shibori are employed on both the front and back legs to solidify the stance.  The key difference is that the weight is more forward than hangetsu-dachi, with approximately 60% of the weight on the front foot, and the outside edge of the front foot is pointing straight ahead.  The back leg is not straight like zenkutsu-dachi, but rather has a slight bend to it.  In order to ensure you are in a proper seisan-dachi, sink into the stance, and then look down at your knee.  You should be able to just see the tip of the toenail on your big toe over your knee. That is the perfect angle for your stance, and from there, the angle of our knee will not change when transitioning to shiko-dachi, kosa-dachi, uchi-hachiji-dachi or niko-ashi-dachi.  This ensures that there is little to no vertical head movement during a transition.  There are other techniques to ensuring a solid seisan-dachi. I'll leave that as  a conversation you should have with your Sensei.

I find that a lot of karatekas (especially younger ones) pay far too little attention to their stances.  I know that I have suffered from that in the past (OK, recent past),  but if you pay attention to the stance and ensure the stance is correct (shime, shibori, other stuff you should already know, etc), after a while, sinking into a correct stance comes natural, and you just need to worry about your technique. The added bonus is, with a solid stance, the technique is stronger as well.

For a little bit of history about stances in Chito-ryu, I recommend reading this Ryushu Newsletter from the Ryusei Karate-do website, where I learned some of the above material.

* The attitude that most of the students had towards other schools and styles was one of the primary reasons why I left the dojo (and martial arts for twenty years), but that's another story.

Kuzushi: Where did my stance go?

This article was originally posted by me at okiblog.com. I highly recommend heading over there if you are interested in reading some great material about Okinawan Karate.

The term "Kuzushi" tends to confuse a few students at our club. I hear a few people talk about how you have to "break your opponents kuzushi before you can complete the technique.". Let's get the definition of kuzushi out of the way first, shall we?

Kuzushi - the point at which the stability of the stance is compromised, where the centre of balance is pushed to the point that requires movement in order to regain proper balance.

There are two points one should focus on in order to gain kuzushi on an opponent; the hips and the shoulders. The easiest way to disrupt these points is to crowd your opponent. Another method is to drive your opponent into the direction of least stability. I'm going to use some techniques from Juniko as examples.

Crowding

The key to gaining kuzushi when crowding your opponent is to use your stance and technique against theirs. In Juniko, the eighth technique is the perfect example of this, as shown below beginning at 0:47.

1. Attacker stands in hidari seisan-dachi, chudan kamae.
2. Attacker performs migi oi-zuki.
3. Defender steps back into hidari seisan-dachi and blocks with a heishu-uke.
4. Defender steps forward into migi seisan-dachi, wraps his (or her) left arm around the punching arm of the attacker and shoots right hand past attackers neck over their left shoulder. At this point, the attacker and defender should be hip to hip. When stepping into seisan-dachi, the defender's right thigh pushes against the right thigh of the attacker, twisting their hips and pushing their hips to their left. Depending on the height of the people involved, this could even lead to the attackers right foot leaving the ground. This is the point of kuzushi. The attackers stance has been compromised, and unless they move, they are unable to maintain stability.
5. Defender transitions their back foot into shiko-dachi and guides the attacker over their front leg for the take-down. Since the defender has gained kuzushi, there should be no effort required to take the attacker down.

Driving

Figure 1: Seisan-Dachi

The other method of gaining kuzushi is to drive your opponent in the direction of least stability. Each stance has it's strong points and weak points, and it is of major importance that the student understands each. For instance, seisan-dachi (Figure 1) has strong stability forewards and backwards, as well as to each side. The weak point is at 45 degrees to the left or right (depending on which leg is forward) behind the opponent.

Figure 2: Shiko-Dachi

With a shiko-dachi (Figure 2), the stance is very strong along the direction of the stance, but the weak points are at the front or back of the person.

Performing the stances with the correct weight distribution, correct angle of the knees, correct alignment of the feet, should reduce the size of the weak points in the stances, but will not eliminate them.

The finer details of stances are a whole other topic. I'll cover them at some time in the near future.

Knowing this, let's take a look at Juniko technique number twelve (above video, at 1:18).

1. Attacker stands in hidari seisan-dachi, chudan kamae.
2. Attacker performs migi oi-zuki.
3. Defender steps back into hidari kosa-dachi and blocks with a migi heishu-uke.
4. Defender grabs the right wrist of the attacker with their right hand, steps forward into migi seisan-dachi and drives the attacker's wrist back behind them while applying torque to the wrist. This drives the attacker's elbow up and twists their shoulders towards the weak point in their stance. Notice the front foot of the attacker in the video. This is the point of kuzushi. The attackers stance has been compromised, and once again, unless they move, they are unable to maintain stability.
5. Defender transitions their back foot into shiko-dachi and pushes the attacker's hand down to the floor behind the attacker's back, which is the weakest point of the stance. The attacker is pulled over the defender's front leg.

Juniko is filled with examples of gaining kuzushi on an opponent, as are most of the goshin-jitsu techniques learned in Chito-ryu. Performing these techniques correctly takes a lot of practice. Best method is to perform them slow ... a lot. After a while, the pace can be increases and eventually perform them at full speed.