Crane Stance: Useless or Viable?

Question

I've been wondering about the infamous Crane Stance that many people associate with Martial Arts. Is the Crane Stance a technique that can be used in a fight and strike an opponent effectively without overly exposing yourself to strikes by your opponent? If it is, what are some techniques that can be used out of a Crane Stance?

Answer 1

It's not a stance that would be used in a real fight, on even ground. My teacher's best interpretation for it is if you were fighting an opponent on a set of stairs. If he was below you and attempted to pull one of your feet out from under you, you are drawing your foot back to avoid this. But no, you would never use this in real life (unless it was on the ground in order to get a submission) - it is more of a stance to learn how to balance yourself!

Answer 2

As always Sensei is on the top. And I agree with him about stslavik. Nice answer - brief and to the point and esy to understand for a beginner or lower/lower-intermediate level student (who would be asking this type of question).

Some more easy/beginner answers to consider:

A) Some other possible applications would be a knee (like in Saifa kata), using the shin/leg for  blocking, etc.

B) Learning to generate snap in a kick without using the body behind it. Many patterns break down techniques into seperate parts to help learn specific principles. Later you can combine or alter those specific sections to match the situation.

There are a lot of reasons for stances and techniques that appear in traditional martial arts. It takes a lot of study and very good teachers (or sempai..haha) for the practitioner to discover those meanings. I gave you some easier answers to help you discover these meanings on your own. That will help you more in the long run...

Good luck!

Answer 3

Good question, I guess it depends on your game.  It seems a bit risky to me, but looks really cool when you are doing "Repulse Monkey" in the Yang traditional form.

Personally, I wouldn't use it, but I am a practical guy...maybe there is someone who can really use it effectively, my greatest fear would be getting charged while on one foot.

Answer 4

As a practitioner of White Crane Boxing, I can tell you that the way the "crane stance" is demonstrated, is due to lack of knowledge... of course.

Firstly, there is no one crane stance. It is not THE crane stance... it is ONE of the crane stances.

If there was going to be A crane stance, it would be the Sanchin stance, for it is the foundation stance of the White Crane Fist.

Aside from all that, when you perform the single leg crane stance, it is only because there is a technique being executed against an attacker. Yes, it can be used to prepare a kick against an attacker but it has many more applications than that seen on the "karate kid" and it is not even part of the basic applications for that posture.

The technique you saw in the movie was taken from the kata Sanseiru and it is not from a crane stance, it is from Zenkutsu Dachi and it is not merely a "skipping front kick" as I have heard it called.

stslavik - your answer was very good. You have a better understanding than most of the people who answer here.

Stances are executions of techniques.

Answer 5

The tournament habit of dramatically "posing" these stances gives one the impression the user is waiting for an attack rather than evading an attack( kick to the knee blocking a kick to the groin lower abdomen area or delivering a knee strike.)

Shotokan pretty much removed these stances except for one kata ganakaku  in other kata the leg raise is done very swiftly with the leg returning to the ground immediately nijushi ho being a good example.

Answer 6

It's good if you want your opponent to pull that leg from underneath you and slam your head on the ground.

Answer 7

only use it as a last resort.

Answer 8

People seem to be confused as to why you do stances. Stances are not something you fight in. They're a snapshot in time. One brief transitional instant. Somebody tries to sweep the forward leg, you pull it up briefly and transition back to something else, or take the opportunity to kick. They are a training tool. As such, they are useful.