Passive Advancing and Retreating Steps (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

Something I mentioned during the lateral Ali shuffles, lead with the foot closest to the direction you're going. This is a general but not an absolute rule. When going forward, lead with the front foot. Heel-toe. When going backward, lead with the rear foot. Have disciplined feet. Make sure your first and second steps are of equal distance, so you don't compromise your stance or balance. It's better to err on the side of small steps. Small steps mean controlled steps. To measure the length of your steps by feel requires internal awareness. To even know you're stepping with the wrong foot requires internal awareness. Once leading with the wrong foot or taking asymmetrical steps become habituated, it's hard to fix. This habit will haunt some fighters even into their pro careers. If practice makes permanence, then let's literally and figuratively start off on the right foot.

But it's not just about what's happening front to back. It's also about side to side. Ensure your stance doesn't narrow as you move where you end up on a tight rope. Maintain that stance discipline. It's also about up and down. Make sure you don't get taller as you move. Again, this goes back to internal awareness and knowing where your body is in three-dimensional space. Same for your upper body. Like a building, you don't want it tilting forward or to either side. I mentioned sitting slightly back with the fighting stance, but that's to counterbalance everything that will pull you forward. So to find equilibrium, you have to slightly pull back. It's the same principle I mentioned in the Treatise on Pedagogy; the martial artist leans toward progress to prevent being thrown into the past. To be centered, you must counterbalance because nothing in this world is truly neutral or symmetrical.

Now, your stance remains fixed as your feet move. A recurring concept in many of our units on equilibrium. Your equilibrium remains in the same relative spot within your body. It's just that your body happens to be moving through space. It's like walking with a cup of water. The water remains fixed in the cup, but the cup is moving through space.

Your body will want to stand tall to take load off of your legs. But why you stay consistent in your stance is because standing tall will mean less balance and less power. How do you prepare to jump? You bend your legs to load power for the jump. Staying low keeps your legs loaded like springs. Standing tall means no power like uncoiled springs. Why lose the energy you've been storing? This is why animals crouch.

You also need power to dynamically balance. That's why I keep referring to this as developing your sea legs. Standing tall is like standing on stilts on a rocking boat, you'll fall off the boat. Your feet coming close together as you move not only means being on stilts, but drawing those stilts together, being completely locked out, off-balance, and having no control over your direction. You leave yourself no options for movement. Having the proper stance gives you options.

You'll find this footwork identical to fencing footwork. Not because this is mimicking fencing, but because boxing and fencing have both independently discovered that this is the best and biomechanically the safest way to advance and retreat quickly in a straight line, with maximum power and balance.

The final thing I want to mention is about maintaining your L-stance. You want your feet in an L, heels shoulder-width apart. Your length is a little longer than what you're comfortable with. Your front foot points straight, and your rear foot is perpendicular to your front. This will maximize the reach of your lead arm, minimize your target area, and load up your rear attacks. Just as your legs are like springs coiled down, having your feet like an L also creates another spring coiled back. So your loading down and back. This gives you both maximum power and maximum movement. Again, options.

When I talk about disciplined feet, I also mean taking actual steps. Don't drag your feet. Dragging your feet creates drag. People do it because it helps prevent overstepping with your second step and keeps your stance from narrowing. But the problem is that it creates drag. It slows you down and glues your feet to the ground, limiting mobility. You wanted to be grounded but mobile in your stance. The drag also creates a crutch, so you never develop proper internal awareness. However, there will be times to drag. But that's when you're moving too fast and need that drag to slow you down. The drag isn't actually a step but a braking system. Sometimes you'll be too low to take a step; that's when you'll slide. Both of which are situational adjustments rather than consistent habits. Adjustments adjust your habits based on the situation but are not your habits.

Now, like everything else, make sure you do this drill on both sides. You can make each step slow and deliberate, or you can turn it into shuffles and make it part of the warm-up.

– Sam