The Most Common Fighting Stance Mistakes

Your stance seems to be one of those things that people know is extremely important, even if they don’t know exactly why.

In a word: readiness.

A good stance allows you to be ready both offensively and defensively. But two of the most common stance problems we see are standing too linear, with your feet in a straight line with your opponent, and standing too wide, with your feet too far apart.

These can definitely both happen at the same time.

Standing Too Linear

A linear stance keeps the body narrow and is often taught in traditional martial arts as a way of reducing your opponent’s body targets. There’s real logic to that. Turn side-on and there’s simply less of you facing them.

The problem is what it can cost you.

Standing too narrow leaves your front leg incredibly vulnerable to leg kicks. It can also remove your ability to use your rear arm and leg effectively, which are half your strikes.

It also exposes your back. Especially in MMA, or in any situation where your opponent can grapple you, you really do not want them on your back.

Standing Too Wide

Having your feet too far apart creates a different set of problems.

Your front leg becomes vulnerable because it’s much harder to check or dodge a leg kick when your stance is so wide that you’d lose your balance if you lifted one of your legs.

You’re also less mobile. Stepping, turning and changing direction all become more difficult when your feet are spread too far apart.

A wide stance also makes it much harder to pivot and rotate for round kicks, where you need your mass centered. You want to be able to move, rotate and lift either leg without having to reset your entire stance first.

The Right Stance Depends on What You’re Training

This is also where it’s important not to pretend that exactly the same stance works for every combat sport.

Leg kicks, checking kicks, round kicks and protecting your back are especially important in Muay Thai, kickboxing and MMA.

In pure boxing, nobody is kicking your legs or trying to take your back, so a somewhat more bladed stance can absolutely make sense.

The goal isn’t to find one universal stance. It’s to understand what your stance needs to let you do.

Hands and Arms

Your hands should be high, probably higher than you instinctively feel like they should be.

Your fingers should generally be able to touch your temples, and your elbows should be under your hands, not flared out too wide.

Be mindful not to waste energy by keeping your hands constantly clenched. Only tighten your hand into a fist when you punch. Generally, keep your hands near the sides of your head, but not stuck to it with no motion in your arms.

Offensively, this allows you to quickly and easily throw punches and elbows without telegraphing your intentions.

Defensively, you’re just inches away from being able to block, parry or catch any strike thrown at your head, which is defense priority #1.

Those inches make a huge difference when you’ve got fractions of a second to react.

Feet and Legs

Imagine a line from your center straight toward your opponent on the ground. Use an actual line when you’re practicing if you can.

Your feet should be on each side of that line, but not directly on it.

If your feet are too narrow, you won’t have lateral balance. Additionally, keep your front toe pointed toward your opponent, not inward.

Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart so you’re able to lift either leg easily and balance on it for a few seconds.

This last point is important: you want both legs in play at all times, ready to check kicks and throw them with ease and speed.

If you want a case-in-point example of the power of a good stance, check out Petchmorrakot’s defeat of the incredibly experienced and wily Saenchai, utilizing an incredibly tight and measured stance, among other things, in one of Saenchai’s rare defeats.

Check Your Own Stance

One simple way to check yourself is to film thirty seconds of shadowboxing from the front.

Look at two things:

Are your feet on either side of your center line, or have they started falling directly onto it?

And are they roughly shoulder-width apart, or have they gradually moved farther and farther apart?

Stance can drift while you’re training. Something can feel completely normal from inside your own body even when your positioning has changed.

That’s one of the advantages of having a trainer watching you. Small stance problems are much easier to correct before they become habits.

At FightFit, we train one-on-one across Los Angeles in boxing, Muay Thai, kickboxing and MMA. Your first session is $100.

– Matt, owner of FightFit Personal Trainers, Los Angeles