Home Page    Lineage    Location    Pictures    Books/Videos

The Chinese term for archery stance is, literally, "arrow and bow stance." When you propel your trunk forward to attack your opponent by stretching the rear leg and bending the front leg, the rear leg is almost as straight as an arrow. The front leg is bent like a bow. When you bend your rear leg to yield, or to draw your opponent, or to assume a posture like "Repulse Monkey," the front leg becomes the arrow and the rear leg becomes the bow.

To do any posture correctly, one must first have the correct feet positions. Suppose you stand facing west, with your right foot at the front. You point your rear left foot about 80 degrees to the left from your front right foot which is pointing directly west along the west-east line. The lateral distance between the two heels, measured from south to north, may be between the full width and half the width of your shoulders. This is about Yang Cheng-fu’s latest relative feet positions in the archery stance.

Unless your legs are very strong, like the highly proficient masters, you do not bend your knees very low if your foot step is not long enough. This is to prevent you from stagnancy. While a short and high stance may be easier for some persons, especially the aged, the longer and slightly lower stance is closer to Yang’s style. It helps sink down your weight and energy to gain stability and better health benefits.

Beginners may start with a stance the length and height of which are comfortable to them, and then gradually lengthen and lower it as they improve their capability. When trained in long steps, you can always make shorter steps, but not vice versa.

This article discusses the method of doing the forward archery stance like Yang’s latest postures. In the forward archery stance, you stretch your rear leg to push your trunk forward, so that the rear leg looks almost straight from the side, although the knee is still bent. The stretching of the rear leg supplies the forward strength for your forward attack.

According to the notes taken down by Chang Hung-kui, Yang Cheng-fu teaches that the front knee is bent only to a point where the front calf is perpendicular to the ground. Bending further forward than this means use of excessive strength. According to Yang’s own photographs, however, his front knee is usually bent up to a point above the ball of his foot. Either way, the front leg serves as a brake to prevent you from over-reaching forward and impairing your stability. The braking strength at the front leg, which is less than the stretching strength at the rear leg, helps your mobility.

To fully transmit the stretching strength at the rear leg for applying the forward pressure for an attack, Yang leans his trunk forward in an almost straight line with his rear thigh and calf. This way, the strength, which is rooted at the rear heel, is fully transmitted through the 60-degree forward inclined rear leg and trunk. His trunk, from the hips and tailbone to the shoulders, squarely faces his direct front.

The posture described confirms the recommendations of the great masters. Chen Hsin called it "firmness at the rear and lightness at the front." Chen Wei-ming said, "one leg should be bent and one leg should be straight." Tung Ying-chieh said, "strength is started from the rear heel."

One may ask: when the trunk is forward inclined, doesn’t the main body weight fall on the front leg? How can we call it "firmness at the rear and lightness at the front"? But one must differentiate between the relative firmness and lightness in terms of the body weight falling on each leg and relative firmness and lightness in terms of the relative strength applied in each leg.

If you look at the dynamic strength in applying the forward pressure in self-defense, from which the one-person exercise is derived, the notion of relative firmness at the rear and relative lightness at the front is correct. By applying the self-defense principle in the one-person exercise, you train yourself in generating the integrated supple strength from the rear heel through the leg and waist to the arms. The use of the large muscle groups at the legs and waist to produce all primary movements is the most basic principle in applying Taichichuan strength.

The braking strength at your front leg not only prevents you from falling forward, but also reduces your stagnancy. A characteristic of the Yang style is to first turn out the front toes before you step forward with your rear foot. By avoiding the excessive bending of the front knee and applying a little braking strength, you can easily add some additional stretching strength at the rear leg to turn your hips and your slightly raised front toes and ball of the foot sidewise.

By avoiding the front leg bearing too much of your body weight, you do not need to unbend your front toes sidewise. If you shift your trunk rearward before a forward step, it will slow down your movements in self-defense and interrupt your continuous energy in the one-person exercise. The braking strength at the front leg also allows you to spring back easily if your opponent’s forward strength is too strong.

Unless you have trained yourself to have very strong legs, you should use a higher stance if you have a short step, in order to avoid your legs being stagnant. If you have a shorter and higher stance, you do not incline your rear leg and trunk so much forward as Yang Cheng-fu does. Otherwise, you may have to bend your front knee too much forward and place too much of your body weight at the front leg. You will become less stable, and you will have to shift back your trunk before you turn out your front toes and the ball of the foot for making a forward step.

But irrespective of the height and length of your foot stance and the degree of inclination of your trunk, you should keep your trunk in line with your rear thigh and calf.

To imitate the archery stance of Yang Cheng-fu, a convenient way is to pose yourself at the front of a large mirror to compare your own postures with Yang’s photographs. Friends may also check and correct each other.

One of the problems certain beginners have in doing the forward archery stance like Yang Cheng-fu when both hands are extended forward is in making their trunks squarely face the direct front. This can be accomplished through practice. The key points are that the lateral distance between your two heels should not be too narrow, and that you must deliberately loosen your hip joints.

By consciously twisting your hips to turn your tailbone in the direction of your front toes, you will gradually reach this position, and your hip joints will become more flexible. Then, you just line up your spine with your tailbone. Your trunk, from the hips to the shoulders, will be straight and face your direct front. You do not turn your shoulders first and then adjust the direction of your tailbone. The result is fuller transmission of your strength from your rear leg to your upper limbs. (See T’AI CHI, October, 1982)

Another point is to align your trunk in a straight line with your rear thigh and rear calf. The apparent straightness of the rear leg is, of course, looked at from the side, because the rear knee is bent to the side, in the direction of the viewer or camera. Without leaning your trunk forward, your line either breaks at the hips, with your tailbone and buttock bent backward or forward, or breaks at your rear knee so that your rear thigh is not in line with your rear calf. Either way, the strength which is transmitted from your rear heel to your upper limbs is reduced.

Persons who have already learned Taichichuan with the rear foot forming a 45 degree angle with the front foot may forget to increase the angle of their rear foot when they want to imitate Yang’s latest style. It needs only conscious practice. A smaller rear foot angle makes it easier for you to twist your hips to face your front. But unless the lateral distance between the two heels is much increased like Yang’s early style as explained in the August 1982 issue of T’AI CHI, you may not be able to shift your torso sufficiently rearward in your yielding without hurting your rear knee. This is the result of mixing styles. The larger rear foot angle also makes it easier to round your thighs, which is one of the requirements in Taichichuan.