Ma Bu is not Kiba Dachi?

 

My office is in a building situated in a busy shopping centre. Among my neighbours there is a Chinese beauty salon run by friends of mine. Well... we say we are family...

The owner's Aunt Hu came over to visit from Shenyang. When I drove back home one day I passed by the shop and found Aunt Hu practicing Taijiquan outside the salon. I think you can guess what happened next.

Aunt Hu agreed to join me for a practice session that Sunday. While she showed me the 24 step Yang Set of Taijiquan I have shown her Qigong and a Wenhsiuquan form. 

My warm-up starts in Horse Stance from where I stretch my calves and sink into a half-split. When I got into Horse Stance, however, Aunt Hu stopped me very quickly. What followed was a stern admonishment in Mandarin, but it was basically this:

"No! This is not horse stance! Your feet is turned all wrong! Turn your feet to point outward like this! From here you can move this way, that way and that way!" (accompanied by sweeping hand gestures to show the directions in which one can step).

Karate students will recognise the stance that earned Aunt Hu's disapproval as the Kiba Dachi that we find in the katas of Shotokan Karate. Kiba Dachi is known as Horse Stance in English, which is also the translation for Ma Bu in Chinese. 

Aunt Hu's approved version of Ma Bu is more familiar to students of Shito Ryu and Goju Ryu Karate. They don't call it Horse Stance, though. To them it is known as "Square Stance" or Shiko Dachi. A source on Karate told me long ago that Kiba Dachi has its origins in Kung Fu while Shiko Dachi's origins lie with Sumo wrestling. This confused the hell out of me for years, because Sumo was as Japanese as you could get, but Japanese Karate uses Kiba Dachi. I know, however, that Okinawa has its own form of Sumo and did not wonder too much about their use of Shiko Dachi...

What is more confusing is that Shotokan Karate's stances remind one a lot of Northern Kung Fu, but this is merely coincidence as Karate was developed from Southern Kung Fu. While Northern Kung Fu is characterized by long stances- much like Shotokan- Southern Kung Fu is characterized by shorter stances. The hourglass stance (hangetsu dachi or sanchin dachi) that we see in old katas of Karate is still a remnant of the Fujian White Crane style which is a Southern style that is credited with being the Chinese ancestor of Karate.  In other Southern styles we also find "Goat Stance" which is a short version of Horse Stance with the feet placed parallel as with the Kiba Dachi that we see in Japanese Karate. In Southern Kung Fu the pointing of toes to each other is believed to help with the focusing and holding of energy in the base of the stance. 

Another well-known stance- seen in Southern Kung Fu and also in Okinawan Karate- that has the toes pointed toward each other while the knees are kept bent is the pigeon toe stance known as Naihanchi Dachi that we find in the Naihanchi katas of Okinawan styles. Shotokan students can tell you what Shotokan has done with these katas...

Chinese Kung Fu has far more stances than Karate- trust me... However- if you ever venture from Kung Fu into Karate you have to bear in mind that Horse Stance (Kiba Dachi) is a wide straddle stance with toes pointing forward. Square Stance (Shiko Dachi) is the wide straddle stance with toes pointing outward. 

For a Karate student venturing into Kung Fu- Ma Bu (Horse Stance) is the name for a wide straddle stance, regardless of where the toes are pointed. And- the stance you know as Back Stance (Kokutsu Dachi) is also a from of Horse Stance to the Chinese. 

Wenhsiuquan often looks like Karate or Shaolin based martial arts under normal circumstances. I have found long ago, however, that the footwork of Taijiquan makes more sense on slippery surfaces and the flowing movements make for more unpredictable hand combinations.

With Jujitsu becoming more popular by the day I also recommend that MMA fighters research the grappling techniques of Taijiquan for a fresh perspective on grappling. 

That's it for today...

Have fun training! :)