This seems to have largely disappeared from most modern TKD schools. You know what I mean. The old 'settle into a deep horse stance' and hold it for 5-10 minutes. If you can, that is.
When I Was teaching at my own small school I used to have the students do stance training in both
annun sogi and
gunnun sogi. It wouldn't go on for half an hour or anything but it would be for a few minutes in each stance (
annun sogi and in each side for
gunnun sogi). It was good for strengthening the legs and making sure the students could develo a good foundation. I'd also push on them from various angles while they were in each stance so they could work on resistance.
Do any of you believe this type of conditioning still has value? For 'traditional' TKD? How about for sport TKD? Has horse stance training disappeared for any other reasons than because it is boring and painful?
Oh, sure it has value. In fact, I was just doing some stance training yesterday on my own (in
guburyo sogi on each leg for several minutes). The concept is so important that Gen. Choi included a special training aid in his encyclopedia called a "stance mold" that would help students focus on the basics of various types of stances, not just one stance.
Annun sogi does have some combat applications to it, although clearly not usually from the front facing position that people are used to when practicing punches. It can be quite helpful at attacking or defending from the side as well as being used to cover ground both towards and away from an opponent.
If by "sport TKD" you mean not just freesparring but specifically WTF sparring I'd say no. It has little if any benefit. You can see many high level sparring matches on youtube. There is little emphasis on having a good foundation when fighting. In fact, it is quite common for players to fall down directly after kicking someone. If that is OK then there's no reason to work on having good static balance (dynamic balance while moving is still important, of course).
I would say, however, that having a good foundation from a static stance training exercise is only half the battle. It is equally important, if not more important, to know how to move from one stance to another quickly and smoothly so that the student can fully mobilize body weight shifting when executing techniques, be able to move out of range of an attack quickly, move into range for their own attack, etc. But this actually means moving into and out of actual stances (or at least the semblance of stances), not executing a kick and falling over.
Pax,
Chris