Fundamental technique: alignment and stance

Reading Louis Preto's book has got me thinking about a few things, as all good books should :)

This picture represents how I tend to align myself when I fence, in a pretty much straight line directly at my opponent (represented by the diamond) with the weight squarely on my front foot:














However from reading Preto I notice he has an alignment more like this:














His stance is wider and his alignment is more in the centre of his body.

After checking Meyer I think both alignments can be seen but perhaps the narrow alignment is adopted in the End stance and the wider alignment is associated with the middle stance, possibly for receiving blows and perhaps as a stronger base for throwing multiple cuts.

I've been trying Preto's stance and I find it is more grounded and balanced allowing for more stength and speed. It does however present a slightly shorter measure, it reduces your ability to move so quickly forward (but this could be an experience/training issues) but it allows for more equal movement backwards & forwards. It also slightly removes the upper body as a target.

Moving forward I intend to train in the wider stance and see how it works in practice. If nothing else it looks very martially effective and the wider legs with lower height is a good workout for the legs!

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