Praying Mantis Kung Fu Horse Stance

Video Transcript

"My name is Wes Rhodes. I'm from the Chinese Kung Fu Academy and for Expert Village, and this is how to perform a Horse Stance. Now the Horse Stance is the first most basic stance you want to learn when you're practicing any martial art, even including Praying Mantis. The idea is you start feet shoulder-width apart and then you double that distance. You want to point the toes straight ahead. Bend the knees, pushing the knees out over the feet. Eventually you can start the stance training from this level. You try to hold it for a minute, 30 seconds to a minute on your own. As you get stronger, keep the back straight, get lower until the legs go parallel to the floor. Once down here you need to make sure your knees are up over the feet so you have a strong, stable stance. Perform the stance, you want to look...Your butt sticks out, it's not very strong. It's very difficult to root to the ground so you want to roll the pelvis under, sit as low as you can, keep your back straight. This is a sideways technique. Forward and back you don't have a lot of power, but sideways you have a lot of strength. See it again. This is how you can practice getting into it. Just start with your hands on your waist, step out first, shoulder-width, then double the distance. Sit as low as you can, push the knees out, keep your back straight. As a beginning again, hold it for a minute. If you can get up to five minutes your legs will become very, very strong. This is how you're going to perform the Horse Stance in any basic Kung Fu and Praying Mantis techniques."