Judo/wrestling/bjj stance differences would be great! Shintaro was talking about posture differences between Judo/BJJ post leg grab ban on his podcast the other day.
To be honest, I wanna see Seth compare his USA Karate to old school Okinawa. Maybe even practice with an Okinawan Karate dojo so he can actually feel and realize the differences
This is what I got from the video. Muay Thai focus on practicality Taekwondo focus on the sport Karate focus on adaptability Kung Fu Wushu focus on self-improvement
@@HessianLikeTheFabric Muay Thai is a much better stance for all around striking, TKD's stance is optimized for kicking only, it's not very good for throwing or blocking punches because punches are not expected at all. But that fluid MT stance doesn't work so well when you're actually wearing clothes and shoes and it still relies on gloves for protection. I'd say the Karate stance is the best for self defense because of that, arms out just makes more sense when you're not wearing gloves. The Kung Fu stance is for dancing, let's not pretend there is anything "martial" still left in that art.
yes wushu does focus on self improvement but i’d say that it’s more focused on the art of the fighting style. wushu is characteristically more “showey” and has much more flowey movements compared to the other forms of martial arts which aren’t as practical compared to them but incredibly difficult to do. i’d say that although taolu wushu is probably the least likely to win in a fight against any of the other martial arts (sanda definitely has a chance) it’s definitely the most difficult to get right with so many weapons, so many jumps, so many forms, etc.
@@BigUriel just remember this is wtf taekwondo so it is focused on the sport of taekwondo and kicking fast not necessarily hard, wtf was created by the founder of taekwondo’s son because he fell out with general Choi. In MMA you are more likely to see itf Taekwondo. Conor mcgregor for example.
@@jigglyroro6780 dude, we all know that wushu stance in this video is just a traditional and exercise stance. Lets see which dumbass would actually believe that wushu people will use that stance as fighting stance.
I think what Im most impressed with is that all of these different instructors are open to getting together and sharing. I have tried this so many times and every school; karate, TKD, Judo, and BJJ, have all said that I need to pay and sign up before they will discuss their system with me. I have invited them to our open mat time and even asked a few if they just wanted to grab a cup of coffee and talk martial arts and they all get mad for even suggesting it. The only one that was open to it was a Uechi Ryu instructor that I have formed a good friendship with over the past few years. It is so refreshing to see instructors open to sharing their experience with another instructor.
Years ago when I trained my dojo closed for the summer so I needed a new temp dojo. I just went around and joined a few classes but everywhere I went there was utterly rubbish sparring. Evaluate the schools on how they fight and how many champions they produce.
The same issues were around in the late eightys and early nintys, some instructors were cool and had self confidence some didn't. I would go to different schools and after a while the head instructors would trust I wasn't there to be a dick and we would train. If I sparred the head instructor he would win, everytime, no exception. We martial artist should be bringing each other up and learning not tearing each other down.
sounds like you're trying to collaborate with McDojos. i think it's safe to say anyone truly interested and teaching martial arts of any kind is open to discussing their art with others.
Hi Seth, I want to touch on the Taekwondo Stance because I felt there is more that could and should of been explained of why the stance is the way it is. In the video he mentions the back kick. Yes I would like to say in Taekwondo the back kick is the most dangerous kick to worry about. Not only we are protecting our body with being sideways, the stance is made for Counter attacking mostly with a back kick being halfway ready so its explosive and fast. I just thought bringing an extra enlightment to the Taekwondo Stance will be appreciated.
I was for 27 years ITF Taekwon-do but i love Muy Thai training to mix and switch these 2 styls was sometimes hard but very useful and suprising benefits
interesting to me that the muay thai and taekwondo guys both said stepping back to get into stance. i come from a kyokushin/enshin karate offshoot style, our stance is similar to the muay thai stance but with a more even weight distribution between the feet as opposed to more weight on the back foot and we were taught to step forward into stance.
I would’ve said the same thing had I not just had josh teach me a minute before. I did mine without “repeating him” so next time I’ll have to do mine on my own first
I think he said to step back to not overcomplicate the video. Usually from ready stance, we step forward into short stance and then forward again into long stance when practicing patterns. Horse stance is stepping sideways from ready stance as usual and back stance can either be stepping 1.5 steps forward from ready stance or a half step back from long stance.
I've been also taught to step forward into stance when I was training Oyama Karate. I think that it may make more sense because it shows your opponent your confidence, which increases chance of intimidating him.
I'd speculate (from my armchair!) that the weight distribution relates to the amount of kicking, and especially front-kicking. As I understand it, kyokushin doesn't have as much kicking as many karate styles, and tends to keep them low. (Flame me gently if I'm wildly wrong here.) Compare with the basic "ten" stance in aikido, which is if anything even more thus: slightly forward weight, rather than back. Which makes sense as you're not kicking, looking to keep a strong balance, and your first movement will very often be an off-line step, moving the front foot first.
So as someone who has trained Wushu (traditional) in both in the U.S. and China (for 3 years). The eight stances are transitional stances while your din shi is your fighting base stance. The transitional stances generally work for either footwork or wresting depending on the stance. Also not all styles have eight transitional stances or are all eight the same between styles. Also deep version of a stance is used more for conditioning than actual application.
If you are talking about fighting, why not ask a Sanda practitioner rather than a Wushu practitioner, since the Chinese have artificially created this division to separate the two disciplines?
@@sweynforkbeard8857 Generally wushu is the term for any martial art. Traditional wushu is what we in the U.S. as Kung Fu or anything before the division of contemporary wushu and sanda. Kung Fu just means skill. You can literally have kung fu in making noodles. Sanda would also be wushu, as is Karate. But yeah a Sanda practitioner would be good!
@@sweynforkbeard8857 As far as my own experience, it would be more accurate to say I practiced Northern Mantis, and Choy Li Fut in the US while I practiced Xing Yi Quan in China. The mantis I learned was questionable, but both the Choy Li Fut and Xing Yi were legit. But both used different primary stances. Choy Li Fut used more of a Karate stance while Xing Yi used something closer to the Thai stance. The difference most came down to the fact that the former was more of a rangey style while the latter was more infighting.
@@jamesmitchell2704 Sorry, yes you did state you practiced traditional Wushu in your comment. What the video demonstrated is modern Wushu stances, which are done as a performance art if people are interested.
The reason taekwondo is similar to karate is because the founder of Taekwondo, general Choi actually learnt karate for many years becoming fourth degree I believe, or it might have been second, but any way he came from a karate background and went on to adapt it. Quite interesting actually. He went on to teach it to the Korean military
I'm an old Kyokushinkai. The primary fighting stances that I fight from is the cat stance or the back stance. Front hand is generally a little under chin height, elbow held close to the ribs to protect the ribs. Back hand is close to the chest, just under the chin in order to block and in good position to strike from.
That’s interesting. I’m a “00s” Kyokushin guy, only time I ever used back stances was when I was trying to get my opponent to take an offensive like with lower grades and opponents who seemed to want to run away. I tended to sway between a boxing stance and something close to a diagonal Hahn kibidachi.
That's very interesting. Some of the old black belts from Kyokushins "parent" style, Okinawa Goju Ryu, also prefer the cat stance. Nowadays, generally people will assume something between Sanchin Dachi and a short Hanzenkutsu Dachi by default. I think the cat stance practically isn't too much different from the way Muay Thai fighters sit back a little, square up the hips and don't have a lot of weight on the front leg. When MT fighters stand a little more forward, it starts looking like Sanchin / Hanzenkutsu. So in general, I think old style Goju and Kyokushin actually have more in common with MT stances (closer range, hips square, sturdy, compact, rooted) than modern competition karate (sideways, hands low, hopping motion, loose, long range).
@@honigdachs. Of course, fighting from a "stance" is very fluid. During sparring/fighting a karateka would be moving through the variuos cat stance to front stance, sanchin dachi etc. Not going to just be standing there.
Good job. Even kinda pointed out Deep, Kung fu stances are for training. Using Isometrics is very now. No one fights in a deep stance. Nice connection with, slightly changing everybody's basic stance not dissimilar to everyone else's. We all use the same body structure and there are only so many ways with which to use that structure. Makes me proud. Getting choked up a little. 😭😭😭 So Dame Proud.
@@Diabolical-Divinity yes she said she will present him some unique stance she teach, but since he wanted the wushu fighting stance, she doesn't answer to the question. Nobody doing kung fu when he's gonna fight will take a bow stance with the fist to the sides
As a Hung Ga Kungfu practitioner, The stance in the modern Wushu part in Hung Ga it is more to training but also when we do the form which karate you call it as kata we use it to fight. For example take down by using the horse stance as a trip while I pull the opponent down like in Judo for example. But ofc during a sparring I would raised my hand and make a fist out of it. Not placing i besides my hip So the difference is if u place your fist besides your hips it is more to training stances. But if you do it with hand movement that is technique.
i feel like for traditional martial arts, stances are a misnomer. you did a good job with tkd and karate in differentiating between self defense and sparring/competition, but in wushu too, i'm sure most schools (if they do spar) they don't spar in those stances solidly. Wushu sanda ofc being the prime example
@BIGFOOOOOT in the traditional arts some stances are that low in stance training but usually not in sparring unless its a weird shuai jiao. also we call everything wushu in china lol
Thank you Mr. Seth for trying to make the clarification on your video between Sport Taekwon-Do and Original Taekwon-Do. I am still watching your videos and making sure not only that you educate the people correctly but you also know that there is a big difference between the two styles. For example when the TKD guy said that we don't need the chin in, of course that doesn't apply to the ITF Taekwon-Do since we do punch when we get close. While we stay back and rely on the kicks, yes we want to keep that head away from any round house kick or axe kick, but as soon as we come close is like boxing, guard need to come up and chin in. At my Dojang I teach my students boxing for the same reason, because we use both hands and feet. Also in our case while we cannot use excessive force, we not only worry about the point but also to get kick in the chest since we don't use the chest protection that WT uses. Also explain your TKD guy that not to get offended if you are trying to distinguish his style from ours, because it is different. Thumbs Up from me this time on this video.
The way you teach your ITF TKD is how i learned it. With some mild form of boxing to get us to learn how to use hands if in close. I was even lucky to learn judo, akido, bjj(when the other teacher for the bjj class would collaborate with our tkd teacher) plus some other self-defense techniques due to the bjj instructor being a sheriff and ex military. It was almost like going to an mma school without the pricey cost. 😀
For Wushu I feel like one key difference between it and other styles is that the stances are meant to be rooted. You're not supposed to bounce or fidget or even move at all because in modern Wushu they aren't used for fighting; the stances are purely performative. They also work as training since the 'ideal' bow, horse, etc. stance requires an _absurd_ degree of flexibility, balance and strength.
I'm glad you at least mentioned that the taekwondo was the WT version. I would like to have seen an addition of the ITF version of taekwondo. They are so different from each other.
As an ITF practitioner I agree 100%, The only similarity's in the two are the name. We, ITF, fought in semi-contact tournaments were punching was allowed and Knock-outs were expected, if KO'd you had 2 minutes to get your head screwed on straight and return to fight or you could quit. The Olympic run for power in 1987 destroyed real TKD and brought about this half fighting joke that is, sadly, what people think TKD is all about. It saddens me that a good martial arts style that held to traditions for 3000 years sold out for the Olympics.
Guessing Hessian needs a Korean martial arts history lesson. Although named Tae Kwon Do after Japanese occupation ended after WW2 Tae Kyon was practiced for over 3000 years, starting before the Silla Dynasty and reaching its zenith with Hwa Rang Do Warriors, basically the Korean equivalent to Knights. With the influx of Confucism the Buddhist HWD dwindled, leading to the Japanese take-over stating in 1860's. Tae Kwon Do is the general name for Korean martial arts, like Karate in Japan. I have much more information learned from reading and not being rude, and by asking questions of the old practitioners. Some Korean Buddhists Monasterys were allowed to continue practicing their religion under Japanese rule.
@@kirklaplace5013 what tf, 3000 years? are you being serious or just joking around. tkd was only invented in 195 by General Choi. Its a combination of a Korean form, taek kyon, and the Japanese discipline karate.
In Taekwondo sparring (mostly point sparring) I like to call the stance as "The Neutral Stance". There is the "Offense Stance" and "Defensive Stance", especially if we see or use the old (rules) fights. In Taekwondo sparring, 90% points are score on the counter attack. With this in mind, old fighters usually kept their defensive stance in the ring. But, there are also the offensive fighters who like to initiate attack. Usually they use more "Offensive Stance". The Offensive Stance usually put more weight on the front leg, while the Defensive Stance will put more weight on the rear foot. The idea was that, Taekwondo offense won’t stop at one or two kicks, it will go in 3-4 combo, so that we use front leg to start the momentum going eithee with jumping/skipping kick (for initial attack), or to start the combo kick. It's also to steal some steps in the ring since naturally, opponent will move a step or two back when they see an attack is launch, with the exception if they wanted to intercept the attack. While otherwise, if you're prepare to counter an attack, you would preprare to move back a half-step or one step while launcing your counter kick. Usually people do slide back and kick, or just simply half-slide, half-shuffle and kick. So, the Neutral Stance like the Taekwondo Master shows, would look like the riding stance with higher center of the gravity, when we look it from the side view. The idea of Neutral stance is that you can easily change your stance to offense or defense quickly in the middle of fight. So, you have a very comfortable stance to do both attack or counter attack. With this Neutral Stance, you won't be stuck with a single strategy in sparring. Although Olympic Sparring probably has another view on these stances since we hardly see counter attack anymore in modern tapping games, other than the spinning kick.
My taekwondo school (ATA) taught a sparring stance that was more similar to the karate stance than the taekwondo stance you showed. None of this hands down stuff that gets your head knocked off. Instructors were constantly on us to protect our head. There are multiple stances, too, including front, back and side stances and you choose which to use based on technique and strategy, though in general the karate like stance is what we called sparring stance. I totally get why people can think taekwondo is ridiculous after watching WTF sparring, especially since that is the style represented in the Olympics, but not all organizations follow those idiotic rules and quite frankly it's frustrating to see taekwondo represented that way. ATA is not a taekwondo school that restricts punching in competition (except spinning back fists iirc), so your hands are up for offense as much as defense and in training and sparring we spend as much time punching as kicking, perhaps more.
A word on wushu: my teacher taught me that the stances are purposefully exaggerated and overcorrected, so that you do it properly in a real fight. If you start off all loosey goosey with your stances, in a real fight, your stance would be that much worse.
Total horse crap. The stance are exaggerated for 2 reasons in modern wushu. Strength building and Performance. Like 95% of modern wushu practitioners can not fight and most do not train to fight. Even if they have perfect low stances, it will not translate to any fight skill. Fighting takes place standing, not in low, and harder/limited to maneuver stances.
what i really liked about your last bit (full circle) was it emphasizes that most of the time, stances are fluid and snapshots of movement. maybe just talking about myself, but i distinctly remember personal pitfalls of rigidity in stances, becoming immobile in sparring due to worry of standing wrong or not perfect enough. great comparison
Yeah I've noticed that as well. When you have a more open rule set and a sparring heavy training regiment almost all the styles converge to what actually works and it tends to look like a blend.
i trained in a kyokushin/enshin offshoot style, it is my understanding that mas oyama was influenced by muay thai after a series of challenge bouts. the kyokushin kicks and stance afterwards were influenced by muay thai.
I like that you call it "Kyokushinkai." Nowadays it's only "Kyokushin." Kyokushinkai (as it was called when I started) will make you a good fighter. There are other martial arts that will take you faster forward, but you will be turned into a fighter slowly as your body will be trained to take a lot of strain. Kyoukushinkai training is for the beginner not very pleasant, but if you really go for it, the result will be great. With respekt to all martial arts from me, Martin, 2. Dan Kyokushinkai. Osu.
Yeah, it has evolved over time to be as such. There were instances of cultural exchange which took place between Muay Thai and Kyokushinkai and the Karateka saw the effectiveness of the low kick and started implementing it into their own style. Over time, a hybrid of the two grew into Japanese Kickboxing similar to modern competitive Kyokushinkai with face punches and that heavily influenced what is known today as Dutch Kickboxing. Competitive Kyokushinkai has a ton of Muay Thai influence in it. It is quite evident when you compare the Kickboxing part to the traditional parts of the art such as the Kata.
Sensei Seth is great for a martial art documentary show with episode for different stuff: interviews, entertainment, experience, documentary... a martial art educator who learn with his fans
In my experience and what I’ve been told, stances and hand position in Kungfu mimic the position that style would hold their weapons in. A lot of the stances are mores transition of movements rather than a solid stance to be held, though this isn’t so much wushu… Just something interesting to add
Yup wushu stances were actually positions or style of a man holding some cold weapons. Those are traditional wushu stances, for exercise and self improvement, i rly like it.
TKD, Karate, and Chinese Martial Arts are all connected and so much of their old foundations are the same but the modern context of each diverge them into much more distinct differences. Cool video
On Kung Fu stances... The deeper stances and taolu (kata) seem to mostly originate from Shuaijiao (Chinese Wrestling based on sweeps and throws) which is one of, if not the oldest form of Kung Fu. They serve two purposes. One is conditioning the core and legs because in most forms of sport Shuaijiao you lose points if you make three points of contact on the ground, so leg and body conditioning is a must...Also most of the deeper stances are variations of set ups for throws, etc. Take the bow stance shown in the video, the modern wushu form is a slight variation of the Shuaijiao form of an over the shoulder throw where you will twist and shoot your back leg up to leverage the opponent over your shoulder. Also this transfers over to arts like Tai Chi as well. When you watch a practical application from a sports perspective it's almost indistinguishable from Chinese Wrestling and a lot of the movements are set ups for reaps, sweeps, and arm drags...And in self defense form you add in clinch elbows, shoulder hits like you see Jon Jones and Connor throw, and a few other clinch strikes. It's interesting seeing how historically a lot of the stances originated in grappling but were modified for performance for modern Wushu. Basically most of what you see are still based on tripping and throwing your opponents. (There's more stance stuff with Chinese striking arts, but from what I've seen it does seem to cross polinate with Shuaijiao still, but I need to research more into that. Anyway it's fascinating stuff.)
Would have been interesting to see BJJ in here. Coming from boxing to self-defense BJJ a couple years ago, I had to rethink my stance more around being able to sprawl, guard against headlocks, etc.
@@EmmanuelReyes We start on our feet in BJJ. Sometimes we practice by starting from our knees. And there are BJJ players who pull guard immediately. But BJJ starts standing.
@@CaptPostmod As a bjj guy, my fight stance is sitting on my ass. On the off chance I'm standing, I'm desperately trying to grab a hold of somebody's clothes so I can pull guard.
You need to educate yourself, that is why the comment is very ignorant to TKD. But don't blame you either, I am sure all you see about TKD is the Sport version of it.
My stance I was taught in karate was a mixture of karate an taekwondo in the UK but since I box now I’ve combined them all with a lead left jab palm hand half extended out an a tight right hand temple guard for a power shot with a wide left foot forward stance
Do you have a video on pros and cons of bouncing for fighting? I see that its more common on point based matches, but I do wonder how useful it is on a contact match or sparring. the timing might be easier to figure out but being kind of a heavy guy I find that it helps me be way more agile and explosive while moving!
In my personal experience, I don't like bouncing because while you're on the fall phase of the bounce you can't move well, since you can't push off the floor as easily.
TDLR TKD: long range kicking defense Muay Thai: close range brawling defense Karate: a little bit of both All in all if you get too close a karate guy to where elbows become a threat, if the karate guy is good he’s gonna know to bring his hands closer and he’ll start to look like a Muay Thai guy until he once again establishes distance that favors him
Sensei Seth, a video on comparison of katas across various styles of Karate will be cool For eg: difference between a Goju Ryu Seiyunchin and a shito ryu Seiyunchin Or difference between a Naihanchi kata of SHOTOKAN and a Naihanchi of Shorin Ryu
Wushu Kung Fu: head up, shoulders back, chest forward. is this supposed to be a joke about exactly what you should Never Ever do in a any scenario Ever?
In the most part, no they don't. The large majority kung fu styles use most of the same basic stances or variations thereof. Back stance, bow stance, half-squat stance, horse stance, empty stance, resting stance
I remember a Wushu dude telling me that twos part of the origin for their horse stance, variations of the bow stance, and hand positions were 1: they originated from army training where you might have to change direction quickly (either to the side or even to your back) as both an individual and as a group, so they were more symmetrical/reversible and 2. that because weapons training was involved the stances are meant to to require the least amount of alterations to be used in either unarmed or armed combat (with different weapons) but that over time these practical origins got blurred, for the reasons you mentioned at this video's end
Super cool to see you mention the "sport vs defense" standing in karate. I was taught it as one for distance covering and in and out entries vs for standing and trading. I dont think a lot of people teach the second and its pretty sad.
Please do a video about how to avoid breaking your leg when throwing kicks, especially Muay Thai kicks. See Uriah Hall vs Chris Weidman and Chris Weidman vs Anderson Silva.
Im coming from ITF tkd and created my own taekwondo style with a more square stance, some punches and a guard. I also opened my own dojo to teach it to some people Nice video btw🤜
I like what you said about why the karate stance has further away hands because of not wanting to get hit by your own fist if you're not wearing gloves. When we work on our boxing techniques, this is one of the reasons we don't use the peekaboo hand position for self defense, but will use it for kickboxing (along with other positions).
I did taekwondo for years & never thought of using a different fighting stance until I tried Muay Thai. Then I thought Muay Thai had a better fighting stance. Currently, I do Karate, where my instructor uses some wushu stances. Now, I see how they are different & similar but no stance is superior, they just have different purposes.
Kung Fu/Wushu guy here: The stances in modern Wushu, i.e. The performance sport, are the same as the one's used in traditional Kung Fu, but are made to look more aesthetic. The horse stance and the side horse stance are usually used from a sideways position and from there you can transition to a bow stance when you punch, thereby delivering power to your punch through the stance transition. This is why the bow and arrow stance has that name; the legs moving from horse stance to bow stance is the bow and the punching arm is the arrow 😁
The sparring stance I learned in the TaeKwonDo school I trained in is much closer to the Karate stance you described mixed with the Muay Thai stance than it is to this TaeKwonDo instructor's stance. It's clear that even within the different Martial Arts there are differences!
I like the spirit of the video. I would also like to see traditional styles or combat versions of martial arts as well of the more modern "sport" types... As Many of the older versions of these same arts were grappling arts as well, so the stances and strikes had MUCH more meaning and applications. And as my old instructor would say... "Stances are stationary in training... but should mature into the understanding of simply being transitional movements." Again... love the spirit of you guys... Love what your team is doing!!! Keep the fun videos coming.
I've been really getting into switch stepping . Literally studying Willie Pep . It's so game changing its like opening up a 4th dimension. You can go from the worst place for an authodox to the best place for a southpaw in one step . While they block the left hook you pivot back into authodox and send a straight right in at 90 degree to there guard .
An interesting consideration regarding head position for self defence: Once a fight actually kicks off, yes, you want to tuck your chin, to protect your neck, throat, and to stop people landing a knock out punch easily. But tucking your chin prematurely, when you might be just having a verbal argument at that point, can have some negative effects. Firstly, it closes your airway a little, which can exacerbated the effects of adrenaline and the fight or flight reaction, which in turn lowers you dexterity and can increase the likelyhood that you panic. Secondly, tucking your chin can act as a subconcious trigger/indication to your opponent that you're about to fight, which could cause your opponent to react aggressively in a situation where you might still have been able to talk your way out of it.
I found three very interesting things regarding Wu Shu: 1. The Front Bow Stance looks almost exactly to our Zenkutsu Dachi, although we do not drop too low. 2. The concept of the hikite, the (wrongly named) passive hand at hip height, being an elbow strike, which we apply to our kata applications in Karate (a good example being Pinan/Heian San dan). 3. The crouching pose, also known as the "I am too old for this" stance; we practice a Kobudo kata with Bo called Chou no Kun Sho that actually uses that same stance! Although, we tend to switch to a higher more in practice because it is too heavy on your knees.
One thing that's surprising and interesting is the similarities between the WT sparring stance and the Philly Cover or Philly Shell in boxing. There are of course differences, and different ways of counterattacking in each sport, but the stances look pretty similar.
One thing to note is that Kung Fu outside of Wushu, especially with Lei Tai or Sanshou fighters, we usually tend to fight out of Shibu, or cat stance. The hands are also up with the lead hand in front of the face. Traditionally the rear hand is beneath the elbow of the lead hand to defend the body, however for fighters it's common to bring the rear hand up to chin level. It's basically a very slightly more sideways Muay Thai stance where the lead hand is farther out. All of the other stances are transitional. You use the bow stance to fight, but it's not something you sit in and fight from, it also tends to be a little wider outside of Wushu. Same with Mabu or horse stance, which is side facing in KF. That very low stance you tried is mostly for sweeps, but you see a bit more usage of it with a weapon.
I agree! I’m aware, just not really any of those styles near me. I reached out to about 5 schools near me and she was the only one who had the guts to say yes!
@@SenseiSeth Ah, that makes sense. There are only a few areas in the US that really have solid Kung Fu schools as far as I'm aware, and you at least get some of the same fundamentals from a Wushu school. I just usually make an effort to emphasize that they are still very different things as many people aren't aware of that.
The bow stance from Wushu reminds me a lot of zenkutsu-dachi in karate! What's interesting to me is that in his book, Shoshin Nagamine describes it as a "desperate stance". If you experiment with the angle you keep your back at, I noticed you can maintain a ton of pressure and use your entire bodyweight against your opponent.
Alright, as a Martial Arts Instructor myself, here’s the way I think about it: Use a more sideways stance (hands further/lower) when you’re at a distance from your opponent for speed and evasiveness advantages (think TKD). Use a more squared up stance when you’re closer for the easier use of more “weapons” (punches, elbows, knees, kicks) and lateral footwork and head movement (think Muay Thai, except for the head movement part) with hands held higher. When you get real close... Muay Thai clinch, wrestling sprawl, even Kempo striking, you’re very squared. So your stance should vary depending on range. I teach JKD by the way. ~ Andrew
I've trained in Taekwondo for 7 years and have never seen someone block a side kick that was "coming up." I was taught to "chamber" and bring the knee up to the chest and kick in a straight line, adding an inward twist with emphasis on the heel. In practice its a lot easier than bringing up a heavy slab of meat and makes it difficult and pointless to push down since it'll just end up in the defenders hip or leg.
My longfist instructor taught us the tradition stances, but our fighting stance was just a standard kickboxing stance. Other styles fight in traditional stances is still weird to see.
Love this. Too many martial artists I see comparing things like this end up with something along the lines of “this is why this style sucks and you should just listen to me.” But you keep in mind the goals of each style. I also especially like the kung fu segment, because even martial artists that are open to other styles, still tend to act like becoming a UFC champion is the end-all be-all goal of any martial arts. Not every martial artist is only in it to get good at fighting. For me, that’s only one part of it. I also use it to get in shape because it’s a form of exercise I enjoy. And as a Filipino I practice Filipino martial arts for that cultural connection, a lot of people who just get into martial arts so they can beat people up don’t understand that.
My karate sensei had us doing stances really differently. It came off more like a boxing stance with the strongest arm close to your face while the jabbing arm was extended like a boxer would do it. To be fair she was also teaching us Wing Chun techniques on the side because she was a martial arts nerd, she was already obsessed with MMA back when people were barely hearing about it.
I love finding the similarities in different martial arts. I had a wrestling and taekwondo background. When I trained at my first mma gym, we had a wingchun instructor, and after a little while, I started to notice the similarities between wingchun and taekwondo. Mind you, in my taekwondo class, we didn't do anything for competition. Was purely combos, forms and some shitty "self defense" moves. Some shadow sparring was included too. And then with capoeira, and various others I've done, just as many similarities.
It might sound ludicrous to some, but the majority of "traditional" stances can be directly traced to a) european style boxing (taekwondo, contact karate), you can find literally the same footwork in soviet-style boxing to this day and they have the same origin in english boxing, not vice versa b) ballet and gymnastics - wushu was literally put together in the 1950s based on western ballet and gymnastic routines plus "some elements" of northern shaolin forms.
All right sensei Seth. I’ve been watching so many of your videos. You have CONVINCED ME to do Karate rather than bjj. Mostly because I wanna kick like badass 🥋
Great video! Interesting display of zenkutsu dachi and kiba dachi by the wushu sensei, which shows the Chinese martial arts roots of karate (pre-Okinawan)! Karate itself has a range of default stances, next to the sports and shotokan fighting stance. For example: kyokushin, which is much more frontal, shorin-ryu, which has a higher stance, etc.
I have realised about WT-TKD footwork that was lack of hand guard for a long time, so I always hands & guard up when sparring then. However, I have never noticed that what my guard looks like (Probably Boxing).
From a non-wushu Kung Fu practitioner's perspective, the reason the stances are lower is probably due to the belief in that movement and power comes from the dan tien (layman's terms, dynamic core manipulation). When the core moves, the legs and upper torso move in conjunction. Lower stances engage the core more so the feeling of controlling the body from the core is more prominent which trains us to look for that feeling in a more practical upright stance. In other words, lower stances are for training full body connection and mobility.
Enjoyed the comparison. I am currently training in Taekwondo to learn how to utilize my legs more but typically spar more squared due to wrestling/boxing background
I don’t know if anyone has heard of us before but I train in the PaSaRyu Taekwondo style which integrates both karate and Kung fu into it as well so most of the the stances you was talking about I know of especially the Kung fu. The bow stance is what we call the hiking stance and if you extended your leg out more and pivoted your back foot straight where you’re on the ball of that foot we call that tiger stance. I thought I just put out something interesting.
I just took up Kung Fu and man its fun. I know its not very practical for fighting but its such a great challenge for yourself, three weeks in and its crazy how hard my legs have gotten from all the horse stance
Which styles stances should I learn next??
Kalaripayuttu
Judo/wrestling/bjj stance differences would be great! Shintaro was talking about posture differences between Judo/BJJ post leg grab ban on his podcast the other day.
Capoeira
@@apurvasingh3979 ooh! May be hard to find somebody in person for that one haha
Do a video on the practicality on various fictional fighting stances
"The first thing you should do in your martial art class is learn how to stand"
Me starting BJJ: welll
Bjj is just folding clothes 😅 no martial arts there
@@stupidandboot4507 I know man but they never let me get out of the clothes before they start folding them. Bastards.
@@amitnachman3840 😂😂😂
@@stupidandboot4507 you can literally kill someone with BJJ
@@dzimikes what? No you can't. You can kill someone by folding clothes
To be honest, I wanna see Seth compare his USA Karate to old school Okinawa. Maybe even practice with an Okinawan Karate dojo so he can actually feel and realize the differences
Would be fun!
@@SenseiSeth I think you would enjoy it. Maybe even compare notes with Jesse Enkamp as well
Or go WITH him?
@@SenseiSeth also not a bad idea since he’s already been there. He knows where to go
@@SenseiSeth YES YES YES FOR THE THOUSANDTH TIME YES!!! I want to see Seth and Jesse in Okinawa - Karate Summer Tour!
I actually thought it is going be a roasting video, just like that conversation between martial arts 😂.
Oh no way, I NEVER roast! Lol
What that video was a roast I thought it was just straight facts
we should be roasting tho
I HOPED it was.
@@SenseiSeth Amazing thoughts! Cheers to U
This is what I got from the video.
Muay Thai focus on practicality
Taekwondo focus on the sport
Karate focus on adaptability
Kung Fu Wushu focus on self-improvement
@@HessianLikeTheFabric Muay Thai is a much better stance for all around striking, TKD's stance is optimized for kicking only, it's not very good for throwing or blocking punches because punches are not expected at all.
But that fluid MT stance doesn't work so well when you're actually wearing clothes and shoes and it still relies on gloves for protection. I'd say the Karate stance is the best for self defense because of that, arms out just makes more sense when you're not wearing gloves.
The Kung Fu stance is for dancing, let's not pretend there is anything "martial" still left in that art.
yes wushu does focus on self improvement but i’d say that it’s more focused on the art of the fighting style. wushu is characteristically more “showey” and has much more flowey movements compared to the other forms of martial arts which aren’t as practical compared to them but incredibly difficult to do. i’d say that although taolu wushu is probably the least likely to win in a fight against any of the other martial arts (sanda definitely has a chance) it’s definitely the most difficult to get right with so many weapons, so many jumps, so many forms, etc.
@@BigUriel just remember this is wtf taekwondo so it is focused on the sport of taekwondo and kicking fast not necessarily hard, wtf was created by the founder of taekwondo’s son because he fell out with general Choi. In MMA you are more likely to see itf Taekwondo. Conor mcgregor for example.
Wushu is designed for real fighting, not sel improvement in the way you think…
@@jigglyroro6780 dude, we all know that wushu stance in this video is just a traditional and exercise stance. Lets see which dumbass would actually believe that wushu people will use that stance as fighting stance.
I think what Im most impressed with is that all of these different instructors are open to getting together and sharing. I have tried this so many times and every school; karate, TKD, Judo, and BJJ, have all said that I need to pay and sign up before they will discuss their system with me. I have invited them to our open mat time and even asked a few if they just wanted to grab a cup of coffee and talk martial arts and they all get mad for even suggesting it. The only one that was open to it was a Uechi Ryu instructor that I have formed a good friendship with over the past few years. It is so refreshing to see instructors open to sharing their experience with another instructor.
Years ago when I trained my dojo closed for the summer so I needed a new temp dojo. I just went around and joined a few classes but everywhere I went there was utterly rubbish sparring. Evaluate the schools on how they fight and how many champions they produce.
Fucken capitalism
The same issues were around in the late eightys and early nintys, some instructors were cool and had self confidence some didn't.
I would go to different schools and after a while the head instructors would trust I wasn't there to be a dick and we would train. If I sparred the head instructor he would win, everytime, no exception. We martial artist should be bringing each other up and learning not tearing each other down.
sounds like you're trying to collaborate with McDojos. i think it's safe to say anyone truly interested and teaching martial arts of any kind is open to discussing their art with others.
All the people in this video seem to be good friends and a few mention taking classes with each other.
Hi Seth, I want to touch on the Taekwondo Stance because I felt there is more that could and should of been explained of why the stance is the way it is. In the video he mentions the back kick. Yes I would like to say in Taekwondo the back kick is the most dangerous kick to worry about. Not only we are protecting our body with being sideways, the stance is made for Counter attacking mostly with a back kick being halfway ready so its explosive and fast. I just thought bringing an extra enlightment to the Taekwondo Stance will be appreciated.
Should have called Shintaro and included the grappler stance
The first thing you learn in judo... is to fall down.
I was for 27 years ITF Taekwon-do but i love Muy Thai training to mix and switch these 2 styls was sometimes hard but very useful and suprising benefits
I need a full body armor vs kali, GET YOUR REVENGE SETH
I guarantee I wouldn’t feel a THING lol
@@SenseiSeth full body armour vs NFL
@@SenseiSeth the chubbernuaght strikes again
Revenge of the Seth
I feel like this video is going to be as popular as the different roundhouse kicks one🔥
Sure hope so, lots of effort into this one
interesting to me that the muay thai and taekwondo guys both said stepping back to get into stance.
i come from a kyokushin/enshin karate offshoot style, our stance is similar to the muay thai stance but with a more even weight distribution between the feet as opposed to more weight on the back foot and we were taught to step forward into stance.
I would’ve said the same thing had I not just had josh teach me a minute before. I did mine without “repeating him” so next time I’ll have to do mine on my own first
I think he said to step back to not overcomplicate the video. Usually from ready stance, we step forward into short stance and then forward again into long stance when practicing patterns. Horse stance is stepping sideways from ready stance as usual and back stance can either be stepping 1.5 steps forward from ready stance or a half step back from long stance.
I believe every instructor theaches It differently. My muay thai coach taught me to step forward into the stance.
I've been also taught to step forward into stance when I was training Oyama Karate. I think that it may make more sense because it shows your opponent your confidence, which increases chance of intimidating him.
I'd speculate (from my armchair!) that the weight distribution relates to the amount of kicking, and especially front-kicking. As I understand it, kyokushin doesn't have as much kicking as many karate styles, and tends to keep them low. (Flame me gently if I'm wildly wrong here.) Compare with the basic "ten" stance in aikido, which is if anything even more thus: slightly forward weight, rather than back. Which makes sense as you're not kicking, looking to keep a strong balance, and your first movement will very often be an off-line step, moving the front foot first.
So as someone who has trained Wushu (traditional) in both in the U.S. and China (for 3 years). The eight stances are transitional stances while your din shi is your fighting base stance. The transitional stances generally work for either footwork or wresting depending on the stance. Also not all styles have eight transitional stances or are all eight the same between styles. Also deep version of a stance is used more for conditioning than actual application.
If you are talking about fighting, why not ask a Sanda practitioner rather than a Wushu practitioner, since the Chinese have artificially created this division to separate the two disciplines?
Not easy to find Sanda in the NC, out of the 6 people I reached out to, Imari was the only one with the guys to say yes
@@sweynforkbeard8857 Generally wushu is the term for any martial art. Traditional wushu is what we in the U.S. as Kung Fu or anything before the division of contemporary wushu and sanda. Kung Fu just means skill. You can literally have kung fu in making noodles. Sanda would also be wushu, as is Karate. But yeah a Sanda practitioner would be good!
@@sweynforkbeard8857 As far as my own experience, it would be more accurate to say I practiced Northern Mantis, and Choy Li Fut in the US while I practiced Xing Yi Quan in China. The mantis I learned was questionable, but both the Choy Li Fut and Xing Yi were legit. But both used different primary stances. Choy Li Fut used more of a Karate stance while Xing Yi used something closer to the Thai stance. The difference most came down to the fact that the former was more of a rangey style while the latter was more infighting.
@@jamesmitchell2704 Sorry, yes you did state you practiced traditional Wushu in your comment. What the video demonstrated is modern Wushu stances, which are done as a performance art if people are interested.
Yooooo whrestling styles from around the globe 🌎 that would be sick
You got it!!
I would like seths take on it but if that interests you there is Chadi a guy on TH-cam who covers it
That would take a literal century. Or maybe not, but it will take a while.
The grappling style of love making is with found in the book of kamasutra lol
@@BD90.. That's on Sensei Seth's OnlyFans :)
The reason taekwondo is similar to karate is because the founder of Taekwondo, general Choi actually learnt karate for many years becoming fourth degree I believe, or it might have been second, but any way he came from a karate background and went on to adapt it. Quite interesting actually. He went on to teach it to the Korean military
Would be nice to see an ITF perspective for Taekwondo aswell
I'm an old Kyokushinkai. The primary fighting stances that I fight from is the cat stance or the back stance. Front hand is generally a little under chin height, elbow held close to the ribs to protect the ribs. Back hand is close to the chest, just under the chin in order to block and in good position to strike from.
That’s interesting.
I’m a “00s” Kyokushin guy, only time I ever used back stances was when I was trying to get my opponent to take an offensive like with lower grades and opponents who seemed to want to run away.
I tended to sway between a boxing stance and something close to a diagonal Hahn kibidachi.
That's very interesting. Some of the old black belts from Kyokushins "parent" style, Okinawa Goju Ryu, also prefer the cat stance. Nowadays, generally people will assume something between Sanchin Dachi and a short Hanzenkutsu Dachi by default. I think the cat stance practically isn't too much different from the way Muay Thai fighters sit back a little, square up the hips and don't have a lot of weight on the front leg. When MT fighters stand a little more forward, it starts looking like Sanchin / Hanzenkutsu. So in general, I think old style Goju and Kyokushin actually have more in common with MT stances (closer range, hips square, sturdy, compact, rooted) than modern competition karate (sideways, hands low, hopping motion, loose, long range).
@@honigdachs. Of course, fighting from a "stance" is very fluid. During sparring/fighting a karateka would be moving through the variuos cat stance to front stance, sanchin dachi etc. Not going to just be standing there.
@@rickmcdaniel6784 Sure, goes without saying.
Good job. Even kinda pointed out Deep, Kung fu stances are for training. Using Isometrics is very now. No one fights in a deep stance. Nice connection with, slightly changing everybody's basic stance not dissimilar to everyone else's. We all use the same body structure and there are only so many ways with which to use that structure. Makes me proud. Getting choked up a little. 😭😭😭 So Dame Proud.
I feel like she didn't understand the question...
@@bertrandronge9019 I can see where you're coming from. Think she said this how we teach. Not this is how we fight. I may have got that wrong.
@@Diabolical-Divinity yes she said she will present him some unique stance she teach, but since he wanted the wushu fighting stance, she doesn't answer to the question. Nobody doing kung fu when he's gonna fight will take a bow stance with the fist to the sides
As a Hung Ga Kungfu practitioner, The stance in the modern Wushu part in Hung Ga it is more to training but also when we do the form which karate you call it as kata we use it to fight. For example take down by using the horse stance as a trip while I pull the opponent down like in Judo for example.
But ofc during a sparring I would raised my hand and make a fist out of it. Not placing i besides my hip
So the difference is if u place your fist besides your hips it is more to training stances. But if you do it with hand movement that is technique.
i feel like for traditional martial arts, stances are a misnomer. you did a good job with tkd and karate in differentiating between self defense and sparring/competition, but in wushu too, i'm sure most schools (if they do spar) they don't spar in those stances solidly. Wushu sanda ofc being the prime example
@BIGFOOOOOT in the traditional arts some stances are that low in stance training but usually not in sparring unless its a weird shuai jiao. also we call everything wushu in china lol
Thank you Mr. Seth for trying to make the clarification on your video between Sport Taekwon-Do and Original Taekwon-Do. I am still watching your videos and making sure not only that you educate the people correctly but you also know that there is a big difference between the two styles.
For example when the TKD guy said that we don't need the chin in, of course that doesn't apply to the ITF Taekwon-Do since we do punch when we get close. While we stay back and rely on the kicks, yes we want to keep that head away from any round house kick or axe kick, but as soon as we come close is like boxing, guard need to come up and chin in. At my Dojang I teach my students boxing for the same reason, because we use both hands and feet. Also in our case while we cannot use excessive force, we not only worry about the point but also to get kick in the chest since we don't use the chest protection that WT uses. Also explain your TKD guy that not to get offended if you are trying to distinguish his style from ours, because it is different. Thumbs Up from me this time on this video.
The way you teach your ITF TKD is how i learned it. With some mild form of boxing to get us to learn how to use hands if in close. I was even lucky to learn judo, akido, bjj(when the other teacher for the bjj class would collaborate with our tkd teacher) plus some other self-defense techniques due to the bjj instructor being a sheriff and ex military. It was almost like going to an mma school without the pricey cost. 😀
For Wushu I feel like one key difference between it and other styles is that the stances are meant to be rooted. You're not supposed to bounce or fidget or even move at all because in modern Wushu they aren't used for fighting; the stances are purely performative. They also work as training since the 'ideal' bow, horse, etc. stance requires an _absurd_ degree of flexibility, balance and strength.
I'm glad you at least mentioned that the taekwondo was the WT version. I would like to have seen an addition of the ITF version of taekwondo. They are so different from each other.
As an ITF practitioner I agree 100%, The only similarity's in the two are the name. We, ITF, fought in semi-contact tournaments were punching was allowed and Knock-outs were expected, if KO'd you had 2 minutes to get your head screwed on straight and return to fight or you could quit. The Olympic run for power in 1987 destroyed real TKD and brought about this half fighting joke that is, sadly, what people think TKD is all about.
It saddens me that a good martial arts style that held to traditions for 3000 years sold out for the Olympics.
Guessing Hessian needs a Korean martial arts history lesson.
Although named Tae Kwon Do after Japanese occupation ended after WW2 Tae Kyon was practiced for over 3000 years, starting before the Silla Dynasty and reaching its zenith with Hwa Rang Do Warriors, basically the Korean equivalent to Knights. With the influx of Confucism the Buddhist HWD dwindled, leading to the Japanese take-over stating in 1860's.
Tae Kwon Do is the general name for Korean martial arts, like Karate in Japan.
I have much more information learned from reading and not being rude, and by asking questions of the old practitioners.
Some Korean Buddhists Monasterys were allowed to continue practicing their religion under Japanese rule.
@@HessianLikeTheFabric yes three thousand years.
@@HessianLikeTheFabric Wow dude, get the d* outta your a*.
@@kirklaplace5013 what tf, 3000 years? are you being serious or just joking around. tkd was only invented in 195 by General Choi. Its a combination of a Korean form, taek kyon, and the Japanese discipline karate.
I really like these videos, because it’s so interesting to see the differences between martial arts.
In Taekwondo sparring (mostly point sparring) I like to call the stance as "The Neutral Stance".
There is the "Offense Stance" and "Defensive Stance", especially if we see or use the old (rules) fights.
In Taekwondo sparring, 90% points are score on the counter attack. With this in mind, old fighters usually kept their defensive stance in the ring.
But, there are also the offensive fighters who like to initiate attack. Usually they use more "Offensive Stance".
The Offensive Stance usually put more weight on the front leg, while the Defensive Stance will put more weight on the rear foot.
The idea was that, Taekwondo offense won’t stop at one or two kicks, it will go in 3-4 combo, so that we use front leg to start the momentum going eithee with jumping/skipping kick (for initial attack), or to start the combo kick. It's also to steal some steps in the ring since naturally, opponent will move a step or two back when they see an attack is launch, with the exception if they wanted to intercept the attack.
While otherwise, if you're prepare to counter an attack, you would preprare to move back a half-step or one step while launcing your counter kick. Usually people do slide back and kick, or just simply half-slide, half-shuffle and kick.
So, the Neutral Stance like the Taekwondo Master shows, would look like the riding stance with higher center of the gravity, when we look it from the side view.
The idea of Neutral stance is that you can easily change your stance to offense or defense quickly in the middle of fight. So, you have a very comfortable stance to do both attack or counter attack.
With this Neutral Stance, you won't be stuck with a single strategy in sparring.
Although Olympic Sparring probably has another view on these stances since we hardly see counter attack anymore in modern tapping games, other than the spinning kick.
I truly do appreciate the time effort and sacrifice that you put in to make such an informative and powerful video
🙏🙏
My taekwondo school (ATA) taught a sparring stance that was more similar to the karate stance than the taekwondo stance you showed. None of this hands down stuff that gets your head knocked off. Instructors were constantly on us to protect our head. There are multiple stances, too, including front, back and side stances and you choose which to use based on technique and strategy, though in general the karate like stance is what we called sparring stance.
I totally get why people can think taekwondo is ridiculous after watching WTF sparring, especially since that is the style represented in the Olympics, but not all organizations follow those idiotic rules and quite frankly it's frustrating to see taekwondo represented that way.
ATA is not a taekwondo school that restricts punching in competition (except spinning back fists iirc), so your hands are up for offense as much as defense and in training and sparring we spend as much time punching as kicking, perhaps more.
Ong thank you for speaking my mind. It's so annoying to see that people think that WT or Olympic sparring is all there is. ATA gang
Liked the Way u keep the Neutrality in the different Fighting forms specifically their stances without trying to Rank it nor judge it. Nice
A word on wushu: my teacher taught me that the stances are purposefully exaggerated and overcorrected, so that you do it properly in a real fight. If you start off all loosey goosey with your stances, in a real fight, your stance would be that much worse.
Total horse crap. The stance are exaggerated for 2 reasons in modern wushu. Strength building and Performance. Like 95% of modern wushu practitioners can not fight and most do not train to fight. Even if they have perfect low stances, it will not translate to any fight skill. Fighting takes place standing, not in low, and harder/limited to maneuver stances.
@@frankkyle9590 true. The “real” wushu for combat is wushu sanshou, or sanda
@@jedijudoka Sanda is basically muay thai with hip throws
@@LR-ku8fn definitely looks that way, but it is full contact kung fu
Its similar, but kicks are kinda different, mostly faster kicks in sanda. But yeah, they're similar
what i really liked about your last bit (full circle) was it emphasizes that most of the time, stances are fluid and snapshots of movement. maybe just talking about myself, but i distinctly remember personal pitfalls of rigidity in stances, becoming immobile in sparring due to worry of standing wrong or not perfect enough. great comparison
Interesting; thanks. I notice in the ring for full contact, all styles start to look the same as far as stances go.
Yeah I've noticed that as well. When you have a more open rule set and a sparring heavy training regiment almost all the styles converge to what actually works and it tends to look like a blend.
Yet another entertaining, informative, and positive video. A gentleman, and a scholar you are. 🔥
I'm starting in kyokushinkai and the small intro of the Muay thai stance was a little more similar than I expected
Veryrrry similar
i trained in a kyokushin/enshin offshoot style, it is my understanding that mas oyama was influenced by muay thai after a series of challenge bouts. the kyokushin kicks and stance afterwards were influenced by muay thai.
I like that you call it "Kyokushinkai." Nowadays it's only "Kyokushin."
Kyokushinkai (as it was called when I started) will make you a good fighter. There are other martial arts that will take you faster forward, but you will be turned into a fighter slowly as your body will be trained to take a lot of strain. Kyoukushinkai training is for the beginner not very pleasant, but if you really go for it, the result will be great. With respekt to all martial arts from me, Martin, 2. Dan Kyokushinkai. Osu.
Yeah, it has evolved over time to be as such. There were instances of cultural exchange which took place between Muay Thai and Kyokushinkai and the Karateka saw the effectiveness of the low kick and started implementing it into their own style. Over time, a hybrid of the two grew into Japanese Kickboxing similar to modern competitive Kyokushinkai with face punches and that heavily influenced what is known today as Dutch Kickboxing.
Competitive Kyokushinkai has a ton of Muay Thai influence in it. It is quite evident when you compare the Kickboxing part to the traditional parts of the art such as the Kata.
Nice summary at the end. The stances as well as styles are modified to fit their functions.
Seth you will be a lifelong martial arts learner. Great open minded attitude
🙏🙏🙏
Sensei Seth is great for a martial art documentary show with episode for different stuff: interviews, entertainment, experience, documentary...
a martial art educator who learn with his fans
That’s the dream!
in reality people who take martial arts seriously always learn and keep learning...
@@stephenevilboythompsonthed9711 sensei Seth for the new fight quest
I really like how you like to learn and make connections with various martial arts. Keep up the good work!
Thank tou!
In my experience and what I’ve been told, stances and hand position in Kungfu mimic the position that style would hold their weapons in. A lot of the stances are mores transition of movements rather than a solid stance to be held, though this isn’t so much wushu…
Just something interesting to add
Yup wushu stances were actually positions or style of a man holding some cold weapons. Those are traditional wushu stances, for exercise and self improvement, i rly like it.
Horse stance with steel mace killer workout !
2 oclock at night and im here, couldnt be happier though
What happened to mr. “safe space karate”! Lol 😂
..w... what?! Not me
@@HarryGreenMathematician lol
@@HarryGreenMathematician lmao
Great video!!! And in every style, every practitioner has it's own personal adjustments.
It would be cool if you invited Mike to see the best stance for self defense
TKD, Karate, and Chinese Martial Arts are all connected and so much of their old foundations are the same but the modern context of each diverge them into much more distinct differences. Cool video
extra note its way easier to move with your hands low by your centre of gravity
True!
On Kung Fu stances...
The deeper stances and taolu (kata) seem to mostly originate from Shuaijiao (Chinese Wrestling based on sweeps and throws) which is one of, if not the oldest form of Kung Fu. They serve two purposes. One is conditioning the core and legs because in most forms of sport Shuaijiao you lose points if you make three points of contact on the ground, so leg and body conditioning is a must...Also most of the deeper stances are variations of set ups for throws, etc. Take the bow stance shown in the video, the modern wushu form is a slight variation of the Shuaijiao form of an over the shoulder throw where you will twist and shoot your back leg up to leverage the opponent over your shoulder.
Also this transfers over to arts like Tai Chi as well. When you watch a practical application from a sports perspective it's almost indistinguishable from Chinese Wrestling and a lot of the movements are set ups for reaps, sweeps, and arm drags...And in self defense form you add in clinch elbows, shoulder hits like you see Jon Jones and Connor throw, and a few other clinch strikes.
It's interesting seeing how historically a lot of the stances originated in grappling but were modified for performance for modern Wushu.
Basically most of what you see are still based on tripping and throwing your opponents.
(There's more stance stuff with Chinese striking arts, but from what I've seen it does seem to cross polinate with Shuaijiao still, but I need to research more into that. Anyway it's fascinating stuff.)
Would have been interesting to see BJJ in here. Coming from boxing to self-defense BJJ a couple years ago, I had to rethink my stance more around being able to sprawl, guard against headlocks, etc.
That is because BJJ dont have any stance, all their fights are on the ground.
@@EmmanuelReyes We start on our feet in BJJ. Sometimes we practice by starting from our knees. And there are BJJ players who pull guard immediately. But BJJ starts standing.
@@CaptPostmod As a bjj guy, my fight stance is sitting on my ass. On the off chance I'm standing, I'm desperately trying to grab a hold of somebody's clothes so I can pull guard.
@@kevinhom75 I'm a BJJ guy. I'm not speaking from a place of wanting to know. I'm speaking from a place of "It would have been cool to include." 🤣
Thanks Sir,i love this video about all different styles were discussed together instead of which style is stronger!Subscribed!
So nice always making the TKD guys feel included in real martial arts
Anthony Pettis: *eye twitch*
I mean the oldschool TKD was a real Martial art sport.
It’s still a sport haha
@@SenseiSeth ✌️Sure it is✌️
You need to educate yourself, that is why the comment is very ignorant to TKD. But don't blame you either, I am sure all you see about TKD is the Sport version of it.
My stance I was taught in karate was a mixture of karate an taekwondo in the UK but since I box now I’ve combined them all with a lead left jab palm hand half extended out an a tight right hand temple guard for a power shot with a wide left foot forward stance
Do you have a video on pros and cons of bouncing for fighting? I see that its more common on point based matches, but I do wonder how useful it is on a contact match or sparring. the timing might be easier to figure out but being kind of a heavy guy I find that it helps me be way more agile and explosive while moving!
Gotcha!!
In my personal experience, I don't like bouncing because while you're on the fall phase of the bounce you can't move well, since you can't push off the floor as easily.
I took shorin-ryu karate in my 20s for several years. I still remember some of it. Great workout!
TDLR
TKD: long range kicking defense
Muay Thai: close range brawling defense
Karate: a little bit of both
All in all if you get too close a karate guy to where elbows become a threat, if the karate guy is good he’s gonna know to bring his hands closer and he’ll start to look like a Muay Thai guy until he once again establishes distance that favors him
TKD instructor here, just wanted to say cool! this was a fun vid ^_^
Sensei Seth, a video on comparison of katas across various styles of Karate will be cool
For eg: difference between a Goju Ryu Seiyunchin and a shito ryu Seiyunchin
Or difference between a Naihanchi kata of SHOTOKAN and a Naihanchi of Shorin Ryu
Oh interesting!
@@SenseiSeth pls do it
Really great show sensei! I’m a relatively new sub and really appreciate the content but also the lightness and humor that you have
Wushu Kung Fu: head up, shoulders back, chest forward. is this supposed to be a joke about exactly what you should Never Ever do in a any scenario Ever?
you know i like this series there's something to appreciate.
Different Kung fu styles have different stances
In the most part, no they don't. The large majority kung fu styles use most of the same basic stances or variations thereof.
Back stance, bow stance, half-squat stance, horse stance, empty stance, resting stance
I remember a Wushu dude telling me that twos part of the origin for their horse stance, variations of the bow stance, and hand positions were 1: they originated from army training where you might have to change direction quickly (either to the side or even to your back) as both an individual and as a group, so they were more symmetrical/reversible and 2. that because weapons training was involved the stances are meant to to require the least amount of alterations to be used in either unarmed or armed combat (with different weapons) but that over time these practical origins got blurred, for the reasons you mentioned at this video's end
Anyone who grew up playing fighting video games got a headstart on fighting stances.
Super cool to see you mention the "sport vs defense" standing in karate. I was taught it as one for distance covering and in and out entries vs for standing and trading. I dont think a lot of people teach the second and its pretty sad.
I thought you might have gotten a sanda/sanshou instructor to teach your Gong fu stance.
The real Kung Fu kickboxers of sport....Wushu is nothing more than forms like the XMA. All show with 0 fight skill.
@@frankkyle9590 You know some people do both right? Lol.
@@arbogast4950 exactly. Just because you do Sanda doesn't mean you can't also do Wushu
@@frankkyle9590 some of us like to do both, I train traditional taolu mostly for strength, conditioning, and coordination. I also spar... a lot.
Loved that you stitched a Karate Culture vid as a reference!
I will be really happy if seth talked some time about chupa porrazo its a Mexican martial art
Ill Google it!
Lmao
really fun, educational video that compares the martial arts in a non-competitional way.
Please do a video about how to avoid breaking your leg when throwing kicks, especially Muay Thai kicks.
See Uriah Hall vs Chris Weidman and Chris Weidman vs Anderson Silva.
set up kick with fients / hands to make it less apparent and turn your leg over so you don’t strike with the side of your shin
I really commend the curiosity and the work you put in!
Im coming from ITF tkd and created my own taekwondo style with a more square stance, some punches and a guard.
I also opened my own dojo to teach it to some people
Nice video btw🤜
Wouldn't it be called a dojang then?
@@mythrin whats a dojang
Like a dojo, but for tkd
@@SenseiSeth yeah i meant gym (i called it dojo since i can remember thats why)
I like what you said about why the karate stance has further away hands because of not wanting to get hit by your own fist if you're not wearing gloves. When we work on our boxing techniques, this is one of the reasons we don't use the peekaboo hand position for self defense, but will use it for kickboxing (along with other positions).
Why is wushu even included? lol
I don’t know it was supposed to be sanda
I did taekwondo for years & never thought of using a different fighting stance until I tried Muay Thai. Then I thought Muay Thai had a better fighting stance. Currently, I do Karate, where my instructor uses some wushu stances. Now, I see how they are different & similar but no stance is superior, they just have different purposes.
Bingo
Kung Fu/Wushu guy here: The stances in modern Wushu, i.e. The performance sport, are the same as the one's used in traditional Kung Fu, but are made to look more aesthetic. The horse stance and the side horse stance are usually used from a sideways position and from there you can transition to a bow stance when you punch, thereby delivering power to your punch through the stance transition. This is why the bow and arrow stance has that name; the legs moving from horse stance to bow stance is the bow and the punching arm is the arrow 😁
The sparring stance I learned in the TaeKwonDo school I trained in is much closer to the Karate stance you described mixed with the Muay Thai stance than it is to this TaeKwonDo instructor's stance. It's clear that even within the different Martial Arts there are differences!
I like the spirit of the video.
I would also like to see traditional styles or combat versions of martial arts as well of the more modern "sport" types...
As Many of the older versions of these same arts were grappling arts as well, so the stances and strikes had MUCH more meaning and applications.
And as my old instructor would say... "Stances are stationary in training... but should mature into the understanding of simply being transitional movements."
Again... love the spirit of you guys...
Love what your team is doing!!!
Keep the fun videos coming.
I've been really getting into switch stepping . Literally studying Willie Pep . It's so game changing its like opening up a 4th dimension.
You can go from the worst place for an authodox to the best place for a southpaw in one step . While they block the left hook you pivot back into authodox and send a straight right in at 90 degree to there guard .
An interesting consideration regarding head position for self defence: Once a fight actually kicks off, yes, you want to tuck your chin, to protect your neck, throat, and to stop people landing a knock out punch easily. But tucking your chin prematurely, when you might be just having a verbal argument at that point, can have some negative effects. Firstly, it closes your airway a little, which can exacerbated the effects of adrenaline and the fight or flight reaction, which in turn lowers you dexterity and can increase the likelyhood that you panic. Secondly, tucking your chin can act as a subconcious trigger/indication to your opponent that you're about to fight, which could cause your opponent to react aggressively in a situation where you might still have been able to talk your way out of it.
Fantastic video! Keep up the great work
I found three very interesting things regarding Wu Shu:
1. The Front Bow Stance looks almost exactly to our Zenkutsu Dachi, although we do not drop too low.
2. The concept of the hikite, the (wrongly named) passive hand at hip height, being an elbow strike, which we apply to our kata applications in Karate (a good example being Pinan/Heian San dan).
3. The crouching pose, also known as the "I am too old for this" stance; we practice a Kobudo kata with Bo called Chou no Kun Sho that actually uses that same stance! Although, we tend to switch to a higher more in practice because it is too heavy on your knees.
One thing that's surprising and interesting is the similarities between the WT sparring stance and the Philly Cover or Philly Shell in boxing. There are of course differences, and different ways of counterattacking in each sport, but the stances look pretty similar.
One thing to note is that Kung Fu outside of Wushu, especially with Lei Tai or Sanshou fighters, we usually tend to fight out of Shibu, or cat stance. The hands are also up with the lead hand in front of the face. Traditionally the rear hand is beneath the elbow of the lead hand to defend the body, however for fighters it's common to bring the rear hand up to chin level. It's basically a very slightly more sideways Muay Thai stance where the lead hand is farther out. All of the other stances are transitional. You use the bow stance to fight, but it's not something you sit in and fight from, it also tends to be a little wider outside of Wushu. Same with Mabu or horse stance, which is side facing in KF. That very low stance you tried is mostly for sweeps, but you see a bit more usage of it with a weapon.
I agree! I’m aware, just not really any of those styles near me. I reached out to about 5 schools near me and she was the only one who had the guts to say yes!
@@SenseiSeth Love to see you able to interact with a kung fu school!
@@SenseiSeth Ah, that makes sense. There are only a few areas in the US that really have solid Kung Fu schools as far as I'm aware, and you at least get some of the same fundamentals from a Wushu school. I just usually make an effort to emphasize that they are still very different things as many people aren't aware of that.
Pubu
I swear to god I swear to god I swear to god I was searching about this last week so badly ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you for the lesson
I understand my confusion on different opinions now
That was a great video! It's not easy to make an almost 15 minute video on stances and keep it interesting.
The bow stance from Wushu reminds me a lot of zenkutsu-dachi in karate! What's interesting to me is that in his book, Shoshin Nagamine describes it as a "desperate stance". If you experiment with the angle you keep your back at, I noticed you can maintain a ton of pressure and use your entire bodyweight against your opponent.
They are different, also used for different things! Some people do not understand Bu Stance.
Great summary at the end.
Alright, as a Martial Arts Instructor myself, here’s the way I think about it: Use a more sideways stance (hands further/lower) when you’re at a distance from your opponent for speed and evasiveness advantages (think TKD). Use a more squared up stance when you’re closer for the easier use of more “weapons” (punches, elbows, knees, kicks) and lateral footwork and head movement (think Muay Thai, except for the head movement part) with hands held higher. When you get real close... Muay Thai clinch, wrestling sprawl, even Kempo striking, you’re very squared. So your stance should vary depending on range. I teach JKD by the way. ~ Andrew
I've trained in Taekwondo for 7 years and have never seen someone block a side kick that was "coming up." I was taught to "chamber" and bring the knee up to the chest and kick in a straight line, adding an inward twist with emphasis on the heel. In practice its a lot easier than bringing up a heavy slab of meat and makes it difficult and pointless to push down since it'll just end up in the defenders hip or leg.
My longfist instructor taught us the tradition stances, but our fighting stance was just a standard kickboxing stance. Other styles fight in traditional stances is still weird to see.
Cool! Thanks Sensei Seth!
Love this. Too many martial artists I see comparing things like this end up with something along the lines of “this is why this style sucks and you should just listen to me.” But you keep in mind the goals of each style.
I also especially like the kung fu segment, because even martial artists that are open to other styles, still tend to act like becoming a UFC champion is the end-all be-all goal of any martial arts. Not every martial artist is only in it to get good at fighting.
For me, that’s only one part of it. I also use it to get in shape because it’s a form of exercise I enjoy. And as a Filipino I practice Filipino martial arts for that cultural connection, a lot of people who just get into martial arts so they can beat people up don’t understand that.
My karate sensei had us doing stances really differently. It came off more like a boxing stance with the strongest arm close to your face while the jabbing arm was extended like a boxer would do it. To be fair she was also teaching us Wing Chun techniques on the side because she was a martial arts nerd, she was already obsessed with MMA back when people were barely hearing about it.
I love finding the similarities in different martial arts. I had a wrestling and taekwondo background. When I trained at my first mma gym, we had a wingchun instructor, and after a little while, I started to notice the similarities between wingchun and taekwondo. Mind you, in my taekwondo class, we didn't do anything for competition. Was purely combos, forms and some shitty "self defense" moves. Some shadow sparring was included too.
And then with capoeira, and various others I've done, just as many similarities.
It might sound ludicrous to some, but the majority of "traditional" stances can be directly traced to a) european style boxing (taekwondo, contact karate), you can find literally the same footwork in soviet-style boxing to this day and they have the same origin in english boxing, not vice versa b) ballet and gymnastics - wushu was literally put together in the 1950s based on western ballet and gymnastic routines plus "some elements" of northern shaolin forms.
All right sensei Seth. I’ve been watching so many of your videos. You have CONVINCED ME to do Karate rather than bjj. Mostly because I wanna kick like badass 🥋
Fair enough! Lol
Great video! Interesting display of zenkutsu dachi and kiba dachi by the wushu sensei, which shows the Chinese martial arts roots of karate (pre-Okinawan)! Karate itself has a range of default stances, next to the sports and shotokan fighting stance. For example: kyokushin, which is much more frontal, shorin-ryu, which has a higher stance, etc.
Awesome Video Sensei Seth!
I have realised about WT-TKD footwork that was lack of hand guard for a long time, so I always hands & guard up when sparring then. However, I have never noticed that what my guard looks like (Probably Boxing).
From a non-wushu Kung Fu practitioner's perspective, the reason the stances are lower is probably due to the belief in that movement and power comes from the dan tien (layman's terms, dynamic core manipulation). When the core moves, the legs and upper torso move in conjunction.
Lower stances engage the core more so the feeling of controlling the body from the core is more prominent which trains us to look for that feeling in a more practical upright stance.
In other words, lower stances are for training full body connection and mobility.
Enjoyed the comparison. I am currently training in Taekwondo to learn how to utilize my legs more but typically spar more squared due to wrestling/boxing background
I don’t know if anyone has heard of us before but I train in the PaSaRyu Taekwondo style which integrates both karate and Kung fu into it as well so most of the the stances you was talking about I know of especially the Kung fu. The bow stance is what we call the hiking stance and if you extended your leg out more and pivoted your back foot straight where you’re on the ball of that foot we call that tiger stance. I thought I just put out something interesting.
I just took up Kung Fu and man its fun. I know its not very practical for fighting but its such a great challenge for yourself, three weeks in and its crazy how hard my legs have gotten from all the horse stance