Saturday, April 9, 2011

Stance

Several years ago I decided to learn tae kwon do. It was a challenge for me but I stayed with it for three years. A friend of mine joined the same class at the same time but remained a few years longer than I did. The first thing the Master told is was if you get into a situation you want to get out of there as fast as you can. He said, "run". The object is to avoid confrontation.

I have always been a slight bit off balance, you know that equilibrium thing. I progressed slowly through tae kwon do. At first just balancing enough to do the basic stance was an effort, but I did manage to catch on to that one fairly quick. After that I continued to learn the blocking (which came fast for me), the kicks (a real challenge) and so forth. My buddy, Clinton, breezed through it all. He made it to a second degree black belt in half the time it took me to get to the blue belt. I stopped shortly after the blue belt. Occasionally I practice some of the kicks and blocks and will look at myself in the mirror as I practice that basic stance.

Black Belt posing in basic tae kwon do stance


I've never been much into golf, so I had to do a bit of research on a golfer's stance. More interesting in my discoveries is the fact that there are many variations on a golfer's stance than what I thought. For example a woman's stance should be wider (according to golf instructor Debbie Steinbach). She says because women are built with wider hips they need the support of a wider stance.

There's even a stance for left hand golfers. it the same as the right hand golfers but just turned around.
For many years stance instructions have been written for right handed golfers. Left handed players had the extra burden of not just learning the stance but also on turning the instructions around. Thanks to the internet there are several sources which give visual instruction on the left handed stance.

I remember my dad practicing his golf stance and swing in the living room of our first apartment when I was very young. He looked pretty good. He would hit the balls into this metal device that he bought at the golf shop. I would retrieve the balls for him.

 Basic golfer's stance

 Left handed golfer

Woman's wider stance



Dexy's Midnight Runners - Dance Stance (1979)


STANCE

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