Stances and Balance are one of the main parts to any Martial Art; they deal with all things whether it's posture for stances or everyday walking.

With the Ju Jitsu system I teach we work on 5 basic stances. How you hold yourself in posture is up to you but for now we will use the cross and feet drawing

One Centre Stance

This stance is the basic with feet apart like the Horse Stance

Two and Three

Left Attack and Left Defence

Four and Five

Right Attack and Right Defence

With all the movement between Stances you should keep as much contact with the floor as you can so there are no big steps to move from Attack to Defend back to Centre (very much like they use in Spirit Combat) which posture you use is up to you if you like the Cat Stance then you can use that as a defence Stance it is up to you.

The move used to the movement you get, you then can make it into an exercise and go lower into stance and try not to adjust your height when moving

Triangles

Triangles, Squires and Circles are all shapes so how come Triangles are any use?

Well think of this...One legged Chairs or a tripod. When you sit on the chair it holds your weight, when you kick it away you fall over (or if you fall asleep) same with Stances. Every Stance has a Triangle (dots show where)

It is at these points that you can take the balance and with the added help of their body movement (e.g. where ever the head goes the body follows) you can then throw or use takedowns.

Take the takedown O Soto Gari it is a common Throw/Takedown used in Ju Jitsu/Judo when you take their balance (pushing the head back) and sweep the leg you are making a triangle between their feet and your hand that's the balance, or even when you teach it, you show the part of taking the balance and you will see the triangle that you are making.

Have a think about it when next training and see what you think. Train Hard and Safe.