Sanchin-dachi 三戦立ち
Hourglass stance
The technique, and its job.
A short, rooted stance with the feet turned inward and the knees drawn together, one foot advanced by about a foot-length. It belongs to the Naha-te lineages rather than to Shotokan proper, and appears in this library because Shotokan students meet it in cross-style training and because hangetsu-dachi is its close relative.
Application. Close-range rooted work in the Naha-te lineages. Included here for completeness and cross-reference, explicitly flagged as not native to Shotokan.
Mechanics
What each part of the body does, in the order it does it.
- Weight distribution
- Even, low, and rooted downward.
- Feet
- Both turned inward, heels roughly on the corners of a small rectangle, one foot advanced by about its own length.
- Knees
- Bent and drawn inward under continuous tension.
- Centre of gravity
- Hips tucked, abdomen strongly engaged, spine long.
- Breathing
- Central to the stance in the styles that own it, and the reason it exists.
What survives when the name is forgotten.
- It is a conditioning posture before it is a fighting one.
- Its relationship to hangetsu-dachi is the useful thing for a Shotokan student: the same idea, adapted.
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. Assuming every stance in a karate curriculum belongs to the same lineage.
The fix. Learn it from the tradition that owns it, and do not import its tension into Shotokan stances where it does not belong.
Drills
- Best trained under an instructor of a style in which it is native.
This one is not settled.
Sanchin-dachi is not a Shotokan stance. It is documented here because the directive lists it "where applicable" and because students encounter it; it is not presented as part of the Shotokan canon.
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.
- Zenkutsu-dachi Front stance
- Kokutsu-dachi Back stance
- Kiba-dachi Horse-riding stance
- Fudo-dachi Rooted stance, immovable stance
- Neko-ashi-dachi Cat-foot stance
- Hangetsu-dachi Half-moon 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.
- Sanchin-dachi 三戦立ち
- Hourglass stance. A short rooted stance from the Naha-te lineages, feet turned in and knees drawn together. Not a Shotokan stance; documented for cross-reference.
Video
No recording in the register is tagged to Sanchin-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 →