In teaching new students I am continuously reminded that the stances in Taiji can be hard to get at first.

Maybe they are not strange to dancers, fencers, boxers and other athletes, and they are definitely not foreign to martial artists. ‘Refugees’ from other martial arts come to taiji classes well versed in stances and they can see the differences and understand their importance.

In my typical qigong ‘warm up’, three of the moves use the horse stance (mǎbù (馬步) in Chinese, kiba-dachi (騎馬立ち) (or shiko-dachi (四股立)) in Japanese, and juchum seogi (주춤 서기) or annun seogi (lit. sitting stance) in Korean - Wikipedia). This is really excellent strength training for the legs.