Tuesday, February 5, 2008

In Search Of ...My Cat Stance

I have been complaining about my lack of a good cat stance for a while. I assumed, incorrectly I might add, that as my quad strength improved my cat stance would come back. In January, I worked very hard on improving my knee. I know that I have made some progress because I can stand up from a one knee kneeling position. It was just a month ago that I was unable to do this.

For the last month I have been watching my kata. I can not figure out where or why my stance feels so wrong. I am usually pretty good at watching kata and helping correct movement problems. Often students would ask me to watch their kata if they were having some trouble. I have been analyzing my stance and checking my alignment, the relationship from my hip to my knee, the distance of my left foot to my right, should my hip be more open or closed, the angle of my knee to my ankle, weight distribution, is my back straight and the amount of knee bend. The bottom line is that my stance is a mess and I want my old stance back.

Last night in the dojo I asked for some help with my dilemma. A few suggestions were made and the problem may lie in my hip position and the length of my stance. I even suggested that I should change my good stance to match the bad one. Perhaps it would not be so noticeable. I then decided that changing my good stance was a bad idea. So I decided that I would give myself one more month to reclaim my stance. If the stance does not improve by the beginning of March I am calling my PT to help me FIX IT!

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