Does the traditional fighting stance (T-stance) have a place in todays sport fighting?

Question

I'd prefer answers from ppl who have studied a "formal" art and Muay Thai... is there a distance you think it would be better, or jus throw it out all together...

Ok I dont find the horse stance to have any practicle application (other than conditioning), also a long stance is good to give a powerful base to a technique, but I find it to be a defensive nightmare, and I would agree that in the case of multiple attackers, yes you want to be narrow, and everyone being in a line with me one the outside, but I am asking his ? as a one on one senario, no weapons. as that would chang the complexity greatly as well.

Answer 1

It does for certain fighters and certain situations. It forces your opponent to commit and reach out over your lead foot and leg and extend his attack and at the same time exposes him underneath for blocking and counter punching. You have to make sure that you block and throw a counter immediately and this can be done more quickly if you pull your front foot back and push off with your back foot at the same time. The speed of your counter attack is partly determined by how much you pull your front foot back and how hard you launch your body forward as you block and counter.

The other thing about this technique is that your front leg is very susceptible to a sweep and you will not be able to kick out of it very easily either.

Answer 2

I've practiced TKD, kung fu and muay thai/mma...and from experience I must say that that stance has very little use in actual application. From a muay thai standpoint, that leaves a juicy target for a leg kick...a hard one at that. Granted this may not knock anyone down, but it would hurt like hell, and set up more vicious attacks. Also, it's a good target for takedowns (single leg). The stance is good for stability, in something like wing chun...but if you're in an actual fight...and have to move around...the t-stance will definitely get you hurt if you decide to stick with it, lol

Answer 3

I first learned the T-stance in 1968 as a fundamental basis in Karate for a strong foundation from which to quickly assume in case of a chaotic situation.

In my formal karate instruction, we were taught that strong stances were to prevent you from getting 'bowled over' in a melee' (confused multiple attack scenario).

Thus the wide 'horse stance' 'T-stance' 'front stance' were to prevent you from getting knocked down as you defended yourself against several assailants. But the T-stance gave you the most flexibility for a counter-attack than from the other strong stances.

You don't stand in a static T-stance in a dynamic one-on-one fight. You must learn what each individual stance is for and that is learned through Kata practice.