alright andy you asked for it! i studied the wushu style and this mainly was based (so i was told by my shifu) on leg strength.
most of the stances are very simular to what we see in are karate style e.g kiba dachi stance was horse stance exactually the same!
in many of the forms we had to complete we had alot of transition from low to high stances, this was basically for strengthing the leg muscles.
and for technquies, well everyone has their favourites, but one thing i do remember were as to attack/punch with your body stright i was always told to extend my punching so that u wear only half showing as we do are blocking.
also another differance i noticed was that karate is used to attack the inside of ones body when in wushu i was told to always attack someone from the outside.
Hi Rob,
Thanks for sharing, very interesting.
Like yourself, I am only a beginnner, but as I understand it, some of the techniques in Shotokan are to the outside of the body, eg Shane loves to use a type of Mawahsi geri (ushiro Mawash?) to connect with the neck. His control is awesome, but you still get sufficient impact to know he's been there.
I really need to work on the height of my stances, and thus leg strength, so will be working hard on these for the next few weeks, Both Dave and Shari have shown me there is room for "significant" improvment.
To be honest, I thought I was getting there with back stance, but Dave hit the spot entirely on Monday when he said "you often think you have it, think you are there with a stance or technique, , but just need someone to push you, to show you your next steps"
