Short sticks’ basics: stance and base strokes

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The guard stance with the short sticks

After having seen the didactic grip and the fundamental safety rules (read The basics of short sticks: safety and grip), let’s move toward the guard position.

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

Without going into too technical details (which we will see later), here are the basics of the posture that we will have to keep during our first approaches with the short sticks (read 6DKF’s basic equipment: explanation).

Single stick guard stance:

Our body has to be in a 3/4 position in front of the opponent, one leg forward and one back (read the details in How to rapidly learn Kung Fu: guard stance)
Specific techniques aside, the forward leg is always the same as the armed arm (the idea is in fact to always be in condition to exploit the maximum safe distance (read also Ideal distance from the opponent during a fight)
Both arms are bent (between 90° and 120°) and the stick in front of us is inclined at 45° (on the x-axis, in relation to the ground); the idea is to create a diagonal shield protection
The elbows are not too far from the ribs (they have to protect them)
The tip of the weapon is pointing upwards and should remain at a height that allows us to quickly defend every vulnerable point of our body (this substantially means below the head level and above the genitals one)
The unarmed hand is naturally opened, active and behind the weapon line of defense, at the height of the neck-mouth and near our central line (ready to protect the face, the body and / or to grab / hit something)
It is important to understand that this stance is dynamic; in no case we are allowed to be rigid or static; steps, breathing, and every involved body element must move liquidy (read Combat interactions: from the strong blow to the light touch), in harmony with our weapon (as if it was a prolongation of our arm)

A note by Master Kongling – One of the most common beginners’ errors is to let the defending hand / harm (the unarmed one) hand too stiff or too “flabby”, as if she were dead or maimed: no, it must be relaxed but at the same time aggressive, mobile, elastic.

Double stick guard stance:

When both hands have a weapon, the one that is ahead should always be the one we use better (in most cases the other one is a support for combinations and / or defense)
The rules of the stance are almost the same, the biggest difference is that the “defending hand” is no more central but at a similar height moved sideways (externally)
The second stick (the one behind the diagonal shield seen initially) is facing backward, almost parallel to the ground (not far from our jaw);
The backward direction of the second stick is the open defined from the natural grip of our second hand
In this case the second stick is loaded backward, ready to deliver a very powerful blow
If the 2 sticks are not equal (eg. because they are improvised, read Improper weapons in a real situation), the longer, the more powerful, the more resistant and in general the more effective must be the advanced one

A note by Master Kongling – These are the basic combat guards with the short sticks in 6 Dragons Kung Fu: there are many other possible stances but these are the ones that allow the best initial approach. Naturally, for a perfect body positioning, there are a lot of other details to add but for now, it is enough (trying to focus too early on too many micro details risks making us lose sight of the real battle dynamics).

The first crucial notions about the basic blows characteristics

These are the basic blows categories:

Penetrating blows (which “go through” the target)
Passing blows (which hit and overcome the target)
Bouncing / vibrating blows (which hit the target and step back)

Each of these macro-categories includes:

Infinite types of circular movements, straight movements, broken movements (etc.)
A large number of targets, trajectories, points of balance and loading options
Combined states variations (solid, liquid and fluid)

We will see all of them but while freely experimenting with them, let’s always remember the core characteristic that each of them has in common: the explosive return to the initial guard stance. Outside the context of a sequence of attacks, the idea is always to immediately recover a safe position.

In the next articles of this series, we will take a deeper look at the basic exercises to train grip, strokes and states.

In-depth video courses

Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu exercises – The necessary practices to build real martial skills
Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu weapons – The training path to our fundamental martial weapons
Weapon disarming: what works and what not – A realistic approach to weapon disarming techniques
Structures for combat: liquid, solid, fluid – Learn how to perfectly adapt the body in every combat situation
Hand grip strength conditioning – Improve the quality of hands combat interactions

In-depth articles

Learning the use of real weapons – The full path of mastering a martial weapon
Softness and hardness, flexibility and rigidity – A discussion about the various states of our fighting structure

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

Looking in the mirror, what openings do you find in your guard stance?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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