fighting stance
Ready for battle
A fighting stance is a body position assumed in preparation for combat, with feet planted, weight balanced, and hands raised to strike or defend.
Different martial arts teach different stances—boxing's sideways profile, karate's lower crouch, wrestling's forward lean.
Figuratively, someone who takes a fighting stance adopts an aggressive or confrontational posture: The union adopted a fighting stance in negotiations.
- combatArmed hostile engagement
- guardWatchful defensive attention
- defensiveProtective or easily threatened
- martialRelating to warfare
- mixed martial artsMulti-discipline combat sport
boxer · posture · ready · squared · fists · sparring · karate · warrior · balance · feet · planted · crouched · aggressive · opponent · square up · ring · dojo · tension
- self-defenseself-defense, martial arts, self-protection, karate, pepper spray
- Taekwondofront kick, side kick, roundhouse kick, back kick, axe kick
- combat drillsbayonet charge, military drill, precision drill, basic training, drill commands
- fight tacticsfootwork, feints, combinations, timing, distance control
- fighting stancesorthodox, southpaw, on guard, en garde, peek-a-boo
- defensive positionsready position, en garde, guard, crouch, brace position
fighting stancerelaxed posture
Unstrained body positioning
at ease · slouch · standing down · slump · at rest
fighting stanceopen arms
Welcoming body language
submissive posture · surrender · hands up · cowering · prostration
fighting, stance, fight, fights, fought, fighter, fighters, stances