Standing, moving, Chinese kung fu master, and how is it going in MMA
It is a trend to say that footwork is the basics of any martial arts, and as basics, it will be the first thing you learn and also that one thing you will keep coming back to work on. I am also one of those people saying this. But what does it actually mean, “footwork” in martial arts?
Photo by Metin Ozer on Unsplash
A quick search on YouTube will spit out some videos of how to stand low (when talking hung gar kung fu) or how to pivot around cones (when we talking MMA, boxing).
I would like to highlight here, that footwork is not how low you stand (The Shaolin Temple, 1982, has lied to you.)
I have a very good friend in Hong Kong. He is in his 60s and used to work in the police department. He trains some of the traditional martial arts systems and loves to show off his knife scares and tell stories of his street fights. He is surely one of the last kung fu masters who actually fought on the street. And the lessons he gave me were some of the most demanding ones, most painful ones.
He has a great understanding of biomechanics and is ready to show that embodied.
Once, I asked him a question about a stance (mabu/ sei ping ma, 4 levels/horse stance) and he sent me a 10-page essay about it works and its biomechanics. Not joking.
Because it really is not that simple.
A big portion of internet footwork wisdom, mostly in traditional martial arts, is on how to stand. How deep, how high. How long the stance should be. The angles of the feet. Etc.
Then you start walking.
Here come all the bands, cones, ladders… Endless rows of moving from stance to stance, or shuffling in a guard or boxing steps. Boxers love this part and the YouTube is my witness.
But that is still not the full picture.
Because footwork, that isn’t only
how to stand
how to move
But also
where and how to transfer power
The footwork is a vehicle. Without footwork, when punching, it would be only the power of an arm. Footwork will transfer the power of the entire mass, including the arm, and throw it forward. This is a very important point because often one would break the path here, and even though they are moving somehow, the power is still just an arm.
That is a big issue I have with modern wushu, because you will see that the footwork knowledge just isn’t there. And “well footwork, from this stance to this stance!” but the roots are gone and the force is broken or nonexistent. Although I understand that modern wushu never had “force production” as one of its objectives.
In traditional wushu/kung fu there is a saying “Your horse is dead!”. That is when one’s stances do not work.
Making it all work like a Lego is the key, and you can really spend years polishing it. I have learned and taught how to use kung fu stances, and then I had to face my own gaps and breaks in biomechanics when I moved to MMA. Because if you don’t test it, you don’t find them.
But one is sure, no matter what issue I am focusing on (power of my cross punch, takedown defense, mobility, readiness, pushing opponent forward or moving to the sides…) it quite often comes to polishing my footwork.
And so again and again I find myself in front of the mirror, slowly moving forward and backward.
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