Motobu, Naihanchin Kata, and Horse-Riding Stance: [Kiba-dachi]:
Published 4/9/2010
By Spencer Sensei
Choki Motobu taught the three Naihanchin katas as the core forms in his system. Within these forms he believed all karate knowledge was held. The major stance in Naihanchin kata is the Horse-Riding Stance. This article is a discussion of the Horse stance, but it will also pay homage to a great but somewhat unknown master of the martial arts.
Motobu sensei was a student of Sokon Matsumura. Matsumura sensei is referred to, by many karateka, as the father of karate. Motobu sensei was no ordinary martial artist. He was a descendant of Okinawan nobility, yet he remained a simple man through out his life. Fighting was one thing he most enjoyed, and this endeavor would lead him to the less savory parts of Okinawa to test himself. Motobu was a bull of a man with a barrel chest and tree trunk like legs. On one of these excursions, into the wrong part of town, Motobu sensei was beaten by a formidable fighter. He begged the fighter to tell him the source of his incredible skill. The adversary explained to Motobu that he was a karate student and trained under Sokon Matsumura. Soon the pugnacious Okinawan was training with the legendary Matsumura sensei as well.
Motobu sensei was most famous for knocking out a German heavy weight fighter that challenged all comers in an effort to show, the Japanese public, the superiority of boxing over the Japanese martial arts. At fifty years old Motobu accepted the challenge and quickly dispatched his opponent and was heralded a hero in the Japanese press. The press did not however posses a picture of Motobu to accompany the article, but they did have some illustrations from Funakoshi sensei’s recently published book Kyohan. The publication placed a picture of the famed Funakoshi sensei in the article along with the story of Motobu’s victory. This led to a running feud between the two prominent martial artists that on one occasion boiled into a physical altercation between the two. Funakoshi and Motobu both prospered while teaching martial arts in Japan. While Funakoshi left many students after his death Motobu’s karate was passed on mainly to his son Chosei. Motobu Choki died of malnutrition near the end of the Second World War, and became a foot note in martial arts history. Although he is did not propagate a new system, his influence is still felt today. Two of the many students that trained with Motobu were Shimabuku Tatsuo the founder of Isshin Ryu and his brother Eizo. Eizo would become a master of Shorin Ryu. The Shimabuku brothers have influenced countless students in Motobu’s beloved Okinawa karate. Motobu’s son Chosei carries on the family tradition and is still teaching the three Naihanchin kata today.
The Horse stance, which is a staple of Naihanchin, has many facets. It may be used forward or sideways. It can be a tool to build leg strength, or in close range to throw an adversary. Dropping your body weight, in this stance, can increase the pain in a joint lock. By varying the height of the stance, it can quickly go from a defensive posture to an offensive one. Some martial artists believe the stance is relic from the past while others understand it is still a viable tool in the karateka’s arsenal.
Horse stance is strong side-to-side, but weak front-to-back. A student’s balance is easily broken when pushed from the front while standing in the horse stance. The stance’s real stability comes from the side. Understanding how one’s balance is broken within this stance gives us an opportunity to examine its use in Naihanchin kata’s bunkai more closely. Most practitioners are taught that the bunkai of this kata is most applicable when fighting with your back against the wall. This means that when your balance is broken that the wall becomes your support yet fighting an adversary from the front leaves your legs spread and all centerline targets vulnerable. Other karateka believe that this kata simply moves sideways in any direction. The strength of this stance lends support to that theory. Moving sideways also removes the most vulnerable centerline target areas, but a blade kick above the knee can damage the knee’s ligaments. This controversy simply makes the kata’s nuances even richer. Now you need to decide which idea most appeals to you.
In Naihanchin kata and in standard practice the karateka learns to punch forward and block forward while in the horse stance. It may look very impressive with students in perfect rows mindlessly executing the same technique, but the stance impedes the quick movement necessary in preservation of life combat situations. In this use of the horse stance, it is simply a form of lower body conditioning. Every student that seriously looks at the effectiveness of his/her martial art has noted this problem. Many instructors believe that the sole purpose of this stance is to build lower body strength through disciplining the body to stay in horse stance for long periods of time. With the invention of running, climbing hills and squat exercises this stance becomes useless if it is solely intentioned for leg conditioning. Bruce Lee found these deep fixed stances as a major problem in kung fu. He believed you should remove it from your training if its’ fixed nature serves no purpose in real combat. If the horse stance is only for lower body conditioning, Bruce is right, so now we must examine the stance for other uses to access its value. Your personal karate must evolve into a life preservation weapon, and if you continue to do something and your only reason for doing it is that it is tradition you’re wasting your energy. The question remains do we keep Naihanchin kata?
A prominent Shorin Ryu instructor, in one of his newsletters, shared one of his experiences on this subject. He too noted the weakness within horse stance after running through several iterations of Naihanchin while training with his instructor in Okinawa. He noticed the deep horse stance slowed the karateka’s movement. After practice, he asked OSensei to explain the effectiveness of the stance. OSensei simply said,” Horse riding… It’s like riding a horse. Everyone is taught that this is a deep stance with the heels pushed out with the legs bowed, well… like you’re riding a horse. Riding a horse, you must change position, in the saddle, as the horse changes from a walk to a gallop and eventually to a run.” What the Sensei began to understand was that when you’re initially in the saddle of a horse you sit low as the horse is walking, but as the horse begins to run the stance becomes slightly higher with the knees pressing inward to hold on to the horse. This allows the upper body to relax and become more flexible at the hips. This higher stance is not as aesthetically pleasing as the lower stance but is a more flexible foundation when in combat. If we take this a little further, and also use some creative license, we see that this stance can be performed from varying heights. The need dictates the height of the stance. In a taller stance we can move more quickly side to side. Most beginners point fight from this taller version of the horse stance to increase maneuverability and remove point target areas. In Isshin Ryu the side kick is taught from this stance unlike most systems that teach the side-kick from a forward stance. By utilizing the side stance, the lead leg side kick can be delivered more quickly than it can be executed from a hip forward or balanced stance. Tall horse stance offers a quick and effective means to close the distance between you and your opponent by skipping or taking the back leg and moving it to the position previously held by the lead foot. The back leg side-kick is about the same speed from either horse or forward stance. Still are there are other uses for the horse stance? We can go from a tall horse stance and drop into a low horse stance to apply more pressure on an elbow joint lock or using this same maneuver we can drop to break an opponent’s balance in preparation for a trip or throw. The karateka can vary the height of the stance to simply increase his/her balance. Horse stance has a low center of gravity. This low center of gravity makes it difficult to throw someone that drops into this stance. A simple lowering of the center of gravity is a basic counter to a hip throw as long as your hips are below the opponent’s. A placement of your hand on the opponent’s hip effectively shuts the hip throw down. Ironically, this stance can be used to counter throw your adversary once his/her hip is stopped. Experience now tells us there is more to the archaic horse stance than meets the eye. It can be both fixed and rigid and at a moments notice become quick and fluid. Sorry Bruce but this looks like a keeper to me.
Many kata competitors like horse stance because it allows them to get low and exhibit their lower body strength. In some cases, the student’s belt touches the floor. In a life protection application dropping this low would be unwise, so when you’re judging kata you must ask yourself is the karateka’s bunkai is of any value, or do I score them high because they look good. Too low in this stance and your mobility is compromised. Going extremely low in this stance is great for kata, but it shows a lack of understanding the practicality of the stance.
Fighting from the horse stance creates a few problems. It limits the fighter’s weapons. A karateka’s most affective weapons, while in this stance, will be the lead leg and arm. While standing in a true horse stance, it takes longer for the rear leg or arm to be deployed. This longer deployment means more reaction time for the opponent to evade or counter the attack. Another problem with fighting from the low horse is your first move must be upward, so an attack can be delivered. This extra motion alerts an opponent that you’re initiating an attack. Once the opponent is alerted to an attack the likelihood of a successful assault diminishes. Fighters today use a more balanced stance like Seisan dachi to allow all four weapons to be deployed more quickly. A boxer never changes from a hip forward stance, but a boxer does not use his/her legs in an attack. Horse stance should not be eliminated from your life preservation combat repertoire because its limits two weapons. Remember its’ ability to close distance quickly. It should not be your only stance, but it should be a transitional one. Changing from a forward balanced stance to a side stance keeps the opponent off balance. A karateka should practice going from a forward stance to a side stance and striking with a lead leg side-kick or blade kick and from a horse stance to a forward stance delivering a lead leg front snap kick. An understanding of the strengths and weakness of each stance is necessary to transition affectively from stance to stance. Another potential weakness found in fighting from this stance is the exposure of the side of the knee. A well-placed blade kick above the knee joint can strain knee ligaments. There are versions of this stance that point the knee on an angle to minimize its weakness, but the traditional deep horse stance, with heels pushed outward, exacerbate this weakness by applying weight to the lead leg. For this reason, horse stance really becomes a transitional stance. In a hips forward balanced stance the knees are bent and must be attacked from the side, but horse stance allows an attack to this joint straight on. Knowing the strengths and weakness of the horse stance allows the fighter to know when to attack it as well as when and how it can be used in transition to minimize its’ problems.
A controversial use of horse stance is found in its translation to mat technique. Assuming the horse-riding stance with your back to the ground is a viable use of the technique. While on your back the legs can deliver stomp kicks or can be placed on the attacker’s hips to prevent him/her from mounting you above the hip line. At this point we may want to examine Naihanchin from the ground. Motobu may have been right about Naihanchin. It may well be the universal kata.
Motobu sensei will never be fully forgotten until the last karateka has breathed his last breath. Naihanchin will continue to be a strange linear set of katas. Horse stance is still a viable technique and shouldn’t be abandoned by the new breed of martial artists.
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Practice of Horse Stance:
- Back is straight
- Head and chin is up
- Weight is evenly distributed
- Feet are pointed straight ahead with toes slightly gripping the floor
- Knees deeply bent
Practice this stance in place while watching your favorite television program. Start low until the legs quiver and then move the stance upward. Once the legs have regained their strength begin the process over. Place a bo behind our back, so you’re not tempted to bend forward. Lastly, place a student on your back and repeat the process. It only takes a stone cutter time and a hammer to bring down a mountain. Patients build your foundation, and horse stance can be a valuable tool in lower body development.