Stances4 common errors3 drills
Dachi-waza — Stances

Zenkutsu-dachi 前屈立ち

Front stance

What it is

The technique, and its job.

The stance Shotokan is recognised by, and the one that teaches everything else. A long forward stance with the front knee bent over the foot and the back leg straight, it exists to put body weight behind a technique travelling forward and to give the hips a stable platform to rotate against. Almost every forward-moving technique in the syllabus is first learned in it.

Application. It is the shape a body takes when it commits weight forward into a technique — a stepping punch, a strong block against a committed attack, the moment of a throw. Its length is also its warning: a person in a deep front stance has traded the ability to move for the ability to hit.

6 points

Mechanics

What each part of the body does, in the order it does it.

Weight distribution
Roughly sixty per cent on the front leg, forty on the back. The distribution is a consequence of the shape rather than something to be held deliberately — a student thinking about percentages stops moving.
Feet
About two shoulder-widths long and one shoulder-width wide. The width is the part most often lost: a stance on a tightrope has no lateral stability at all. Front foot points forward, back foot turned out no more than about thirty degrees.
Knees
Front knee bent until it is above the front foot — the shin close to vertical, the kneecap over the laces. Beyond that the knee is loaded past its joint line. Back knee straight but not locked.
Centre of gravity
Hips square to the front for a forward-facing technique, or half-turned for hanmi. The centre of gravity sits between the feet and low, not over the front foot.
Movement
Stepping travels in a shallow arc through the centre, the moving knee passing close to the supporting one, with the hips staying level. A head that rises and falls through a step is a head that telegraphs it.
Breathing
Exhale into the settling of the stance; the stance finishes when the breath does.
Principles

What survives when the name is forgotten.

  1. The back leg is the engine. It is straight so it can transmit drive from the floor to the target without collapsing on the way.
  2. Length buys power and costs mobility. That trade is the whole reason a syllabus contains more than one stance.
  3. The stance is a destination, not a place to live. In kihon it is held; in kumite it is passed through.
4 faults

Common errors, and how to fix them.

Naming a fault teaches nobody. Each one below carries why it happens and what corrects it.

Fault
The stance is too narrow — both feet on one line.

Why it happens. Stepping through by swinging the foot along a straight track rather than around the supporting leg.

The fix. Step so the moving foot passes the supporting ankle and lands on its own track. Practising along the join between two floorboards makes the fault visible immediately.

Fault
The back heel lifts.

Why it happens. The stance is longer than the hips can currently open to, so the heel escapes to make up the difference.

The fix. Shorten the stance until the heel stays down, and lengthen it as hip flexibility allows. A long stance on a raised heel transmits nothing.

Fault
The front knee drifts inside the foot.

Why it happens. Weak hip abductors, or driving forward from the knee instead of the hip.

The fix. Track the knee over the second toe consciously, and strengthen the hip. This one is worth fixing early — it is the fault that ends knees.

Fault
The body rises during the step.

Why it happens. Straightening the supporting leg to move rather than pulling with the hip.

The fix. Step under a low bar, real or imagined, and keep the crown of the head at one height throughout.

Practice

Drills

  • Stepping up and down the floor in zenkutsu-dachi with no hand technique at all, watching only the head height and the width.
  • Holding the stance while a partner pushes gently at the shoulder from four directions — the stance either holds its shape or shows where it does not.
  • Stepping with the hands on the hips, so nothing can be hidden behind an arm movement.
Where Shotokan does not agree

This one is not settled.

The exact length and the permitted angle of the back foot differ measurably between Shotokan organisations, and between the same organisation in different decades. What is agreed is the shape and its purpose; the centimetres are not, and are not printed here as though they were.

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.

Kihon ↔ kata ↔ kumite

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.

Kata
Kumite
  • Maai Engagement distance
  • Kamae Guard, posture of readiness
Same family
3 terms

The Japanese, explained.

Zenkutsu-dachi 前屈立ち
Front stance. A long stance with the front knee bent over the foot and the back leg straight. About sixty per cent of the weight is on the front leg.
Hanmi 半身
Half-facing. The hips turned roughly forty-five degrees away from the opponent. It narrows the target presented and pre-loads the rotation a counter will use, which is why so many blocks finish in it.
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.
Reference recordings

Video

No recording in the register is tagged to Zenkutsu-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 →
← All kihon Kumite Kata library Terminology