A reflection on the timeless importance of proper stance in aikido, from first steps to mastery
Last week, I came across an insightful article about stance in kendo in the Tozando newsletter (a wonderful martial arts equipment shop from Kyoto that I highly recommend). The author described receiving guidance from a high-ranking sensei about the misconception that wider foot spacing automatically provides better stability and power. While a wider stance might feel stronger initially, it actually disrupts balance and limits the fluid movement that characterises effective technique. This wisdom applies equally—perhaps even more profoundly—to aikido, where kamae (構え) serves as both our physical foundation and spiritual starting point. The stance in Aikido has a two-fold rationale. First, the stance is the foundation by which power and movement are generated. How one stands and how the hips and feet are placed generally indicate how movement and thus power will be generated. Secondly, the stance is the basis for one’s defence.
The Paradox of Perfect Posture
Ideally, Aikido has no stance: a natural body posture called shizen-tai is best. For training purposes, however, we usually employ a stance based on that used in Japanese swordsmanship. This seeming contradiction reveals one of aikido’s most profound teachings: we learn formal structure to transcend structure itself. O-Sensei understood this principle intimately. Some observers note that in his later demonstrations, Ueshiba appeared to minimise formal kamae positioning, suggesting perhaps that advanced mastery allows for more natural posturing. Yet this apparent evolution from formal stance came only after decades of mastering the precise positioning that underlies all aikido movement.
Why Beginners Must Master Hanmi
For beginners, hanmi—aikido’s fundamental triangular stance—provides essential grounding in several key areas:
Structural Foundation: Hanmi translates directly as half body stance. The front foot faces directly forward while the back foot is in line and relatively perpendicular. Both feet are evenly weighted and are an appropriate distance apart, allowing for easy movement in any direction. This positioning creates what practitioners call sankaku-tai (triangular body), offering the optimal balance between stability and mobility.
Movement Preparation: Any Aikido technique begins with hanmi, and any Aikido technique ends with hanmi… the hanmi triangle is the only Aikido position because it uniquely enables movement in all six directions. Unlike the static, square-based stances that prioritise stability over movement, hanmi embodies aikido’s flowing nature.
Energy Cultivation: The purpose of the stance is to focus energy forward and downward, toward a specific target, generally being the central axis of your training partner. In aikido, this vertical energy flow originates from the hara (one’s energetic centre in the lower abdomen), travels down through properly grounded legs, and connects with the earth beneath. This connection allows practitioners to draw power not from muscular tension but from their unified structure, channelling natural forces. Aikido movements are powered by these vertical flows of energy, and proper hanmi teaches beginners how to establish this fundamental energetic pathway from the very first class.
The Advanced Practitioner’s Return to Natural Stance
As practitioners develop, their relationship with kamae evolves toward shizentai—natural stance. At the holistic level, natural stance, or shizentai (自然体), is the stance that allows a human being to feel the totality of himself as a natural element integrated with his environment. However, this return to naturalness isn’t a rejection of formal training—it’s its fulfilment. The student will be able to accomplish Aikido only by consciously assuming this attitude, even before assuming it at a physical level. We are going to be able to welcome the other only by renouncing a part of ourselves. The geometric precision of hanmi becomes internalised, creating what advanced practitioners describe as being “in hanmi even when their feet are not orthogonal.”
The Pitfalls of Poor Kamae
Common stance problems affect practitioners at every level:
Weight Distribution Errors: A common reaction for a beginner in this state is to lose contact with his stance. Like a child who is first learning to walk, he may shift weight onto his toes as his body tenses. This forward weight shift undermines the grounded power that proper hanmi provides.
Excessive Width: Just as the kendo sensei warned against overly wide stances, aikido practitioners often make their hanmi too broad, sacrificing the triangular mobility that makes techniques possible.
Tension vs. Stability: We must train our bodies to relax! I personally think this is the hardest thing to learn in AIKIDO, as our bodies seem to have a natural tendency to tense up in a stressful situation. Relaxed and accepting is strong! Tense, muscle-using movements are weak!
The Progressive Path to Mastery
As practitioners age, the importance of correct kamae becomes even more apparent. The kendo sensei’s observation about naturally narrowing foot distance with age reflects a deeper truth: the body instinctively moves toward efficiency. A beginning aikidoka, if he practices regularly, may find that with just a few weeks of training that he is walking differently. This can be a joyful discovery. He feels closer and more connected to the ground.
For senior practitioners, maintaining proper stance becomes less about power and more about preservation—of balance, of mobility, and of the ability to continue training safely. The precise triangular positioning that seemed academic to younger students reveals itself as practical wisdom for bodies that can no longer rely on raw strength.
Beyond Physical Position: Kamae as Mindset
In Japanese, many of the words like migamae, taisei, and goshi mean “posture”, but like in English, posture can also mean “attitude.” Thus, what he is saying is that our physical posture is an indication of our inner attitude.
This deeper understanding of kamae explains why advanced practitioners can appear to abandon formal stances while maintaining their essence. True mastery integrates the mental and spiritual aspects of stance into a natural bearing that requires no conscious adjustment.
The Foundation That Never Changes
For anyone who has trained in aikido for any length of time, you know that if you mess up right at the beginning of a technique, it is unlikely you will salvage the rest of the technique… Your hanmi is about as basic as it gets. If your stance is incorrect, you probably won’t get very good results in your technique.
This harsh truth applies equally to beginners learning their first irimi and to black belts attempting advanced henka waza. The principles underlying proper kamae—centeredness, balance, and readiness for movement remain constant regardless of rank or age.
In the end: The Timeless Triangle
Kamae in aikido serves as both a practical foundation and a philosophical gateway. For beginners, mastering hanmi provides the structural basis for all future learning, teaching essential lessons about balance, movement, and energy flow. For advanced practitioners, the return to natural stance represents not an abandonment of formal training but its internalisation—the geometric precision of the triangle becomes an internal compass that guides movement without conscious thought.
Whether we are twenty or seventy, first-time students or seasoned black belts, the principles of proper kamae remain our constant companions. The triangular foundation of hanmi offers immediate mobility in all directions while teaching the deeper lesson that true strength comes not from rigid positioning but from dynamic readiness. In mastering stance, we master the fundamental paradox of aikido itself: learning form to transcend form, practising structure to achieve naturalness, and maintaining the beginner’s careful attention to basics even as we embody the master’s effortless flow.
As O-Sensei taught, every technique begins and ends in hanmi. In this eternal return to proper stance, we find not repetition but renewal—each return to the triangle bringing deeper understanding of the infinite possibilities that emerge from a solid foundation.
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