Fudo-dachi 不動立ち
Rooted stance, immovable stance
The technique, and its job.
A hybrid of the front stance and the horse stance: the length and forward orientation of zenkutsu-dachi with the even weighting and outward knee pressure of kiba-dachi. It is the stance of Sochin, from which its alternative name comes, and it is used where a technique must be absorbed rather than evaded.
Application. Meeting an attack without giving ground, and delivering a technique whose power comes from the whole body settling rather than from travelling forward.
Mechanics
What each part of the body does, in the order it does it.
- Weight distribution
- Even between the feet, low, and driven downward. The name is the instruction: immovable.
- Feet
- The length of a front stance, the width of a horse stance. Both feet turned out slightly.
- Knees
- Both bent and both pushed outward, the tension between them being what roots the stance.
- Centre of gravity
- Hips square and low, spine upright.
- Movement
- Travels like a front stance but never rises; the sensation is of dragging the floor rather than stepping on it.
What survives when the name is forgotten.
- The rooting comes from opposing tension, not from mass. The knees pressing outward is what makes it immovable.
- It is a stance for meeting force, chosen where retreating is not the answer.
Common errors, and how to fix them.
Naming a fault teaches nobody. Each one below carries why it happens and what corrects it.
Why it happens. Weight drifting forward out of habit.
The fix. Check that a push from either side is resisted equally. If the front foot carries more, it is not fudo-dachi.
Why it happens. Treating it as a shape rather than as an action.
The fix. Consciously press both knees out and feel the stance tighten.
Drills
- Alternating between zenkutsu-dachi and fudo-dachi on the spot to feel exactly what changes.
- Sochin performed slowly, checking that the stance is genuinely even at every position.
This one is not settled.
Whether fudo-dachi and sochin-dachi name the same stance or two subtly different ones is answered differently by different Shotokan organisations. They are treated here as one entry with both names recorded, which is how most of the JKA line teaches it.
It is written here rather than resolved silently, because a student whose instructor teaches it the other way should find that acknowledged and not contradicted.
Where it appears.
Kihon is the vocabulary, kata is the literature, kumite is the conversation. Every link below was written down deliberately; none of it was inferred from a name matching.
- Tai-no-sen Simultaneous initiative
- Zenkutsu-dachi Front stance
- Kokutsu-dachi Back stance
- Kiba-dachi Horse-riding stance
- Neko-ashi-dachi Cat-foot stance
- Hangetsu-dachi Half-moon stance
- Sanchin-dachi Hourglass stance
- Musubi-dachi Joined-feet stance, heels together with toes out
- Heisoku-dachi Closed-feet stance
- Hachiji-dachi Open-leg stance, "figure eight" stance
The Japanese, explained.
- Fudo-dachi 不動立ち
- Rooted stance. The length of a front stance with the even weighting and outward knee pressure of a horse stance. Also called sochin-dachi.
- Kime 決め
- Focus, decision. The instant at which every part of the body arrives at once and the technique becomes solid — and the instant immediately after, when it relaxes again. Kime is a moment, not a state. Tension held after impact is tension that slows whatever comes next.
Video
No recording in the register is tagged to Fudo-dachi. MMAKF has not filmed this technique, and the discovery pass did not find an external recording specific enough to attribute to it without guessing.
Nothing is shown here rather than a search link dressed up as a demonstration. What has been found, checked and registered is listed in full on the source register.
The video source register →