Feet

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Dana Sheets
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Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2002 6:01 am

Feet

Post by Dana Sheets »

Your stance doesn't matter if your feet don't work. In order for feet to work they must be mobile and be able to make lots of tiny little adjustments for your balance. In order to strike your feet should be like rocks. But how many people are trying to stand on rocks instead of feet?

So...how do you use your feet? Do you use them the same way in fighting that you do in Sanchin?
2Green
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Post by 2Green »

I try to keep my feet under me and in the most advantageous position (usually Sanchin), and I experiment with turns and transition-type movements.

I've found that Sanchin-stepping is ideal for negotiating a darkened room, the semi-circular pattern virtually eliminates tripping.

Just lately, I've learned how to form the Sokusen -- the Uechi pointed-toe weapon. I'm working on getting it into position as I raise the foot to kick -- unfortunately my "raise-and-kick' is MUCH faster than my ability to form the Sokusen.
This is my latest little project.

I've tested it gingerly on some padded chair-backs and such -- I'm surprised at how solid it feels, except that it takes me about 5 seconds to form it before I kick with it. ...So far...

2G
The music spoke to me. I felt compelled to answer.
2Green
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Joined: Thu Sep 23, 1999 6:01 am
Location: on the path.

elbows and knees too...

Post by 2Green »

I don't know why but lately I've become much more an "elbows and knees" person than "hands and feet". I can't explain it.
The ranges and opportunities just seem to call for elbows/knees, or they seem more conveniently available, I'm not sure which.

Plus, they seem to hit harder and don't get damaged as easily.
I'm a piano player so this definitely works for me!
However I don't recall making any concious decision to do this. It seems to have arisen spontaneously.

2G
The music spoke to me. I felt compelled to answer.
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Dana Sheets
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Post by Dana Sheets »

So in order to kick well - one foot must be relaxed (the one acting as a root) and the other must be a stone. This to me is the perfect example of kime. If you harden your foot while still on the ground you sacrifice balance. Instead, the foot hardens the instant it releases from the ground (because contact could happen at any point in the execution of a kick) then as the foot returns to the earth it again becomes a relaxed and smooth functioning support for the body.

Please note that when I'm saying relaxed here I'm talking about how your feet are when you normally stand or walk down the street. Obviously muscles are engaged to accomplish these feats. But all the muscles in the feet are not flexed as hard as they can go.

Interesting observation on the elbows knees. For myself I've noticed that elbows and knees are more likely to come out during less than full speed training. I think this is a comment on my own level (lack) of control with these weapons at full speed and my understanding of how easily they hurt.
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eric235u
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Location: Quincy MA, USA

Post by eric235u »

I've just started learning how to kick. First kata and other stuff. Now I'm kicking the heavy bag. I was working on the toe kick but I started getting joint pain and stopped. One of my instructors can kick pretty hard with his toe. Not sure if I'll ever get to that. Been kicking with my shin some. Using the ball of my foot feels more like a push than a strike. Kicking well is hard work!

Love your description of "one foot must be relaxed (the one acting as a root) and the other must be a stone". Anybody got any good kicking drills for a hyper brown belt?
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Bill Glasheen
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Post by Bill Glasheen »

Eric

I wish you were in my dojo. I have choreographed many kicking drills. George actually created some mpegs and posted them on my site.

See Thirty Eight Special

My biggest caution - the devil is in the details. When doing those exercises and that form, you must understand that I choreographed them as a means to an end. There is a lot of stance detail that is equally important, and many of these stances are foreign to pure Uechika.

Dana

It's interesting being a fly on the wall and watching these comments. Here are some of my thoughts.

I am able to tell the level of someone's kata partially by watching the hands and feet, and seeing how much detail is there. I often point this out to young teachers so they can monitor a student's progress.

Getting the hand and foot detail down involves some degree of complex (not fine) motor coordination. It's more detail you need to do your job. A preliminary study on the survival stress response tells us that when people get into condition grey or black (they are red-lining it in their stress), that un-trained folks lose all but gross motor coordination. You will see them flail in gross-motor, simple arcing motions with floppy hands and feet. Further study (See Grossman's On Combat) reveals that training in many dimensions (technique, specific and general stress innoculation, etc.) can extend the physiologic range in which someone can perform complex motor tasks. This was something I argued futily about online for years, from my experience in systems physiology training. It seems the killology folks now are catching up with the basic science guys, and understanding what the choreographers of classic kata knew from real-world experience. That is, people who practice these kata religiously (as Tomoyose Sensei often preaches) can do some amazing things under the stress of combat. They'll never thread a needle, but they can train to do each and every Uechi technique in our kata. That would include all those hand thingies (shokens and hirakens as thrusts and grabs, finger strikes, boshiken thrusts and grabs, etc.) and our foot thingie (sokusens with or without a shoe on, foot blade kicks, etc.).

Let's get even simpler than a sokusen or ball-of-foot kick. I have problems from day 1 with beginners getting the ankles to synch with the knees and hip sockets, and various orientations of the hip tuck (for advanced kicking). It has forced me to choreograph a number of drills that I do and teach in my "remedial kicking classes." Actually I don't mind teaching those, as they help me brush up on what I do.

The more you do on this stuff, the more stuff you want to do. For those who want to go far with me, I have all kinds of ankle and toe exercises that work on range of motion, coordination, and flexibility of everything below the knee. It's more complex than you think. For a Bobby Campbell who for most seems to have come out of the womb doing everything perfect (I happen to know he worked hard for what he got), all this might seem unnecessary and you might point to these prototypes as not needing all the work. But most normal people need to keep on this just like they might want to do a bench press or pushups, or work on their splits.

The better you get at all this, the more the possibilities that lie before you. With or without shoes on, strong and coordinated feet and ankles can keep you out of trouble, and create a world of trouble for someone who doesn't know what you can do. I've been working more and more these days on sneaky stuff that works on the street, such as attacks to the folds in various joints and tripping/sweeping motions. These aren't the techniques that you can use in WKF sparring; that's its own venue with its own purpose and range of benefits. But they are things that both can help you be a better fighter and help you in general to be a healthier and more-capable person.

FYI

Bill
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