Personal Defence Academy

Kickboxing Tips - Stance and Footwork

If you've been attending our kickboxing classes, you'll no doubt have been corrected or reminded multiple times about your stance and footwork. Why is it so important?

In kickboxing or any other combat sport for that matter, your stance and footwork is the basic foundation upon which everything else is built upon! While different arts have different types of stances, at a basic level, a proper stance allows you to remain stable and strong, while serving as a platform to launch all your techniques. If you have a poor stance, you will have a weak base and be knocked over easily, while all your punches and kicks will be weak and ineffective. Unlike what most people think, a good punch or kick comes from using your entire body, not just your arms or your legs.

Once you have a proper stance and a strong base, you'll need your footwork to move around. There's no point being built like a tank if you're too slow to get near your target! Good footwork allows you to move easily into striking range to fire off a quick combination of punches and get out in time without getting hit. As you get better, you'll be able to easily dodge and move out of your opponent's strikes, and look like a graceful dancer at that! But most importantly, proper footwork allows you to move around while maintaining your stance, so that you don't lose balance easily and can still strike with proper technique and power.

Don't worry if you can't get it right the first few times, it takes a long while to perfect it. Even many professionals constantly practice and drill their footwork to get better at it! Just remember to pay close attention the next time you come for class - feet shoulder width apart, diagonally opposite each other, knees bent, and sit into it.

Keep working on it, and I'll see you in the studio!

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