Ernest Cadorin

Sparring Stance

2020/09/26

Making It Work for You

Unlike other karate stances, sparring stance is very much a matter of personal preference. There are some general guidelines for keeping yourself protected and mobile, but otherwise it’s as freeform as sparring itself. This subjectivity may make it seem enigmatic at first, but over time as your sparring style develops, your sparring stance becomes as natural to you as breathing.

Students sometimes ask if they can just use one of our other stances for sparring. I’ve seen this done on occasion at the higher levels, but it’s not very common. Let’s look at a few stances in particular…

50/50 Stance

You wouldn’t use this stance as your sparring stance because it’s not mobile enough and it leaves your groin open. You may enter into it momentarily while blocking or attacking (which is what it’s designed for), but you wouldn’t stay in it indefinitely.

Cat Stance

I know of at least one black belt who sparred in cat stance, and since he was predominantly a counter-attacker, he was able to use it to good effect. I myself will sometimes revert to using cat stance (or a variation of it) when facing an opponent who is trying to sweep my front leg. Keeping your weight off your forward leg helps neutralize that type of attack.

Sanchin Stance

A sanchin stance, or something similar, can definitely be an effective stance for sparring. My own sparring stance, in fact, often resembles sanchin dachi (especially when I’m sparring someone who is targeting my groin!). I also occasionally move into sanchin stance when parrying a groin attack, giving myself a little extra protection below the belt*.

Defending the Groin

Using Sanchin Dachi for Extra Protection

Sparring Stance Tips

  • Maintain an aspect of about 45° in relation to your opponent. If you face them too squarely, your targets will be exposed, and if you turn yourself too far sideways, you will be especially vulnerable to sweeps.

  • Stay compact. If your stance is too long, your agility will suffer and your forward leg may become a target. If your stance is compact, you will be more mobile and you'll be able to transfer weight between your legs almost instantly as you launch techniques.

  • Keep your hands up, one in front of the other. You may occasionally see an advanced belt sparring with their hands lowered, but this is probably just a tactic to lure their opponent in. Generally, your hands should be up and ready to block.

  • Keep your arms in. If you hold them too far out, they become easy to grab.

One last thing to keep in mind is that your sparring stance is your “home” position, and you should be able to execute all of your basic techniques comfortably from within that stance. This is why so many of our drills are done from sparring stance, and it’s also why (as I mentioned in my article about kaizen) it is so important that we go back into a proper sparring stance within each drill repetition.

* Believe it or not, on two separate occasions I managed to trap a rising groin kick between my legs as a last resort. In both cases, as soon as it happened, my sparring partner and I just stopped and looked at each other in disbelief!