I have problem maintaining my sumo stance lately due to the burning feeling in the thigh. The burning feeling used to be gradual and I could maintain it with a total focus. But now it comes too quickly that I have to fall down and the worst thing my legs then feel like jelly and it's hard to stand up.

I'm wondering if it's lack of acid or too much of acid in the thigh? And what should I do to prevent it?

we'd probably need a little more information to be able to answer that question correctly...

but it may be that your legs have grown used to the stance and your knowledge of the stance has grown and so you push yourself lower, harder and longer to maintain or improve your standard.

pain is not always our enermy...

it may also be that you have been pushing yourself a little too hard, in which case i would suggest to take it easy for a little while and see if that helps.

another suggestion could be that you are not in the right frame of mind to be able to do it at the time.
sometimes we are in a mindset that could help us stay in sumo stance for ages, other times we just "cant do it". it can depend strongly on how you feel about your stance or karate standard at that very moment.

good luck with your stance
im sure you are doing great

It's more like the mindset, because I sometimes practice sumo stance while brushing my teeth and I do better while doing brushing teeth coz I can focus on the brushing and forget about the pain :thumbwink: . Or another possibility is that my body is trying to adapting with the new weight I gain eversince I do karate, something that never happens before. For me to gain 1 - 3kg it'll take months or can be a year.

for the most part
the mindset is easy to get past

while standing in sumo stance in class focus on something else (not the stance) just like when you are brushing your teeth
your mind will be on something else (like your breathing) and not on the pain.
you should be able to handle a wider, deeper stance for longer before the pain becomes too much

good luck with this :thumbwink:
sometimes mindset is a very difficult thing to overcome

There's a bit to be said about the structure of the Shiko Dachi- many (and I mean MANY!) do it wrong!

When you view yourself in the mirror front-on, you should see your shins vertical (ankles below your knees), and the "bottom of your bottom" aligned horizontally with the tops of your knees - forget the garbage about being able to hold a broom-stick on your thighs, that's an idea from the un-educated! (I will cover this later if anyone doesn't believe me!).

When you have your shins vertical, you're not too wide or too narrow. Then, concentrate on tensing your butt-muscles and pulling your knees back - what you've just done doing this, is to take the strain off your quads. :thumbwink:

Think about "spreading" your feet evenly on the floor - too many people keep their feet arched, as if they are doing Kiba Dachi - don't; relax your feet and create a stable base! This is a product of GKR training - from Kiba Dachi practise, how many instructors get the class to "Convert to Sumo Stance!"? Too many; and the students tend to leave their feet arched from the previous stance.

Keep your back vertical - don't think about what Sensei says, "Keep your back straight!" NO! You can still have a straight back in a leaning-over posture, and that's wrong.

Your hips are naturally under your shoulders when you stand upright - keep it that way; and simply bend at the hips and knees, not at the waist. Apart from some unsual moves in Kata, your spine is rarely expected to leave its naturally "upright" position, so don't put yourself in any other strange posture.

After all that - lunges work wonders at strengthening the legs for Shiko Dachi, or you can practise Seiunchin a million times; the choice is up to you!

Hope this helps you do a better, stronger Shiko Dachi.

Craig.

Gee, how many times have I heard someone talk about doing the "broomstick test"? Even many of our senior instructors consider the lower the stance the better.


Mick

That's so cool Craig, the words you were using are really give the emphasis :thumbgrin: I have to digest deeper to really understand and get exactly what you meant to say.

The reason I like to practice sumo stance is due to my thinking that to be able to do martial art properly, one have to have good balance, and good balance usually come from feet, for that reason I need to have strong legs muscle.

But on the other hand, another thought came up. Will practising sumo stance give me the ability to do it in longer time eventually?

Because if I keep practising sumo stance, eventually I will develop leg muscle. As my thigh muscle and other muscles grow that means I gain more weight which means putting additional pressure to my legs, since in sumo stance it's the legs that mainly hold the weight of the whole body. And as I keep practising my leg will be strong again to hold the sumo stance then the muscle grows.. and so on.
In that sense I think I will never be able to hold the position long enough because the growth of the leg muscle and thigh muscle and other muscle as the result of practising sumo stance, will be proportional.

What I said may be confusing, because I am also confused to put it in words

Our RM a few weeks back had us do a sumo stance training technique he had to do in Japan. We had another instructor stand on our hips and do ten punches while we held the stance. Quite tricky and impossible to do if your base stance isnt solid enough.
(not bad for endurance either)