The tsuka length poll

[Anorymous]

Hello everyone! I'd been thinking about this for a while; I'm aware that there's a similar recent thread, but I think that asking there would de-rail it. So, on to my question...

I was idly trying a few kamae on my own, and noticed that, when I'm assuming seigan instead of chuudan (as distinguished here) my hands tend to move further apart by quite a bit. This immediately made me curious about whether other people noticed that or not.

So I'd like to ask everyone: Do you prefer longer or shorter tsuka? And, do you think that might have something to do with your kamae?

[verissimus]

Doesn't it really depend on the length of your arms?

[Toecutter]

Why would your hands move further apart? The kamae as we're taught it, your left knuckle of your thumb should be in center; hand spacing, the way you hold, nothing should really change (there are small changes with the hips and shoulders). There are minor variations but when i first started using it, it was simply thumb slightly out of center. I only bring it up because in the past we've been drilled into: if you have to move something before you do x, then you should already be doing x. Usually this pertains to hitting, but I'm not understanding why you would change your grip because you shifted your left hand about 1-2 inches to the left?

[tango]

my hands don't "change" if i get into seigan..

but hell, maybe i'm doin' it wrong.