Fighting stance
Ni-kobushi dachi (literally: “two-fist stance”) is the standard sparring position. This fighting stance is also the position you are to assume after performing a self-defense technique, in case you need to deliver a follow-up to incapacitate an especially tough opponent.
Fighting stance is the happy medium between front and back stance. The foot positioning is the same as either front or back stance, but your bodyweight is evenly distributed between both legs. This allows you to drive forward into a front stance (adding the power of your legs into an attack), along with the ability to shift into a back stance (to avoid blows and to force the opponent to overextend themselves).
Both your knees push out to the side. This way, merely lifting a foot releases the other leg's pent-up spring tension, and automatically propel you forward and to the side, in a 7-3 movement.
The elbow of your leading arm is one fist-width away from your ribs, and the leading fist is at shoulder level, to setup a front-foot punch. The other hand rests in front of the navel, to setup a reverse punch. Both hands are palm-up to take advantage of turning over your punches.
Both fists point inward towards your centerline (line-of-symmetry) to form a stable, triangular guard. This guard acts as a wedge to passively divert attacks to either side, away from you. It is imperative that your elbows point downward, because raising your elbows turns your strong triangular guard into a structurally-unsound pentagonal guard, and exposing your fragile floating ribs to attack. Keeping both of your hands up high like a boxer or UFC/MMA fighter isn’t recommended, because those fighters train for contests in artificial microcosms where groin strikes and other low-blows are forbidden.
Do not lean forward. Leaning compromises your stability, and it makes your head easier to hit, simply because it is closer. The crouched-forward positions used in jūdō and Greco-Roman wrestling are impractical when striking is allowed.
Tuck your chin to help protect your jaw and throat. While this forces you to constantly looking downward, but this improves your reaction time: the opponent can only be seen in the top boundary of your field-of-view, and peripheral vision is superior at detecting motion than central (foveal) vision.
[photos of ni-kobushi-dachi from the front and side.]
When done properly, the Goshin-Jutsu fighting stance confuses people, since you'll look like an old-timey bare-knuckles boxer, a rare curio in today’s world. Because of this, some people won’t see this stance as a serious threat. Good -- allow your enemies to underestimate you -- the joke will be on them.
