The Way to Stand in Budo

武道的な意味で，基本の立ち方は，「自然体」である。糸東流では，「基立ち」と呼ばれている。自然に一歩踏み出した程度の歩幅で半身になって立つ。近代スポーツ空手では，歩幅を広くとって腰を低く落とした前屈立ちで移動稽古をしたり，約束組手稽古をしたりする。特に富名腰義珍先生の松濤館系の空手や全空連系の空手は，大学を中心に本土で普及したせいもあり，体育的な性質が強い。つまり，足腰の鍛錬という点では有意義ではあるが，武道的には，歩幅の広い低い立ち方は居着いてしまうために，極めて不自然である。武道では居着くことをもっとも嫌う。沖縄空手には本来，前屈立ちというものはないとさえも言われている。

In terms of budo, the basic way to stand or the basic stance is "shizen-tai (natural standing)." That is called "moto-dachi" in Shito-ryu. You stand and take an oblique stance, with which you make a step forward naturally. In modern karate sports, players do such activities as moving basic practices or pre-arranged fighting practices with "zenkutsu-dachi," which is one of the way to stand, taking a wide stance and dropping hips. Especially, the schools such as Shotokan-ryu founded by Gichin Funakoshi sensei or Japan Karate Federation (JKF), which have prevailed among universities in the mainland of Japan, have a distinctive nature of physical training. In other words, although it is beneficial as lower body workouts, it is extremely unnatural in terms of budo since the way to stand with a wide stance and hips dropped leads to "itsuki," which means a state in which a person is stuck there, not moving or reacting quickly when his/her enemies attack We budo-ka (martial artists) regard itsuki as the most unfavorable state. As for Okinawan karate, primarily, there is even said not to be zenkutsu-dachi.