You are correct on the lead foot placement, as you know. It shouldn't move when transitioning into a forward bow for several reasons. I will say, however, since the art is a tailored art, if someone has injuries (like in which you spoke) or issues, changing positions to fit your body or circustance is acceptable. We know that war is not pretty. Fighting is not a beauty contest and in the heat of reality if our foot rotates a quarter turn and doesn't stay where it should, we will still be okay. That doesn't mean slack off with training, however.
I believe in training as hard and perfectly as you can with proper body alignment, weight distribution, mechanics, and such to have a solid structure in which to dominate with. If we don't have that, we will be gambling.
As for the reason why people don't have solid stances, probably because of the flashy slap happy demo Kenpoists who get too fixated on upper quadrant (I should know--I used to be one). My first (several) years of Kenpo stances weren't engrained as important so I was ignorant. When I woke up I began my own personal journey of becoming solid from the ground up. It's been quite a journey for me, but since I have focused so heavily on lower quadrant for the last five years I have drastically improved (mostly over the last three years).
I make sure my students don't suffer the same loss I had for my first handful of years in Kenpo. I am harsh on proper foot, knee, and hip positioning. We work stances hard.
Good post!
Michael Miller, CKF
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