Range of Freedom: Ball or Heel (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

Range of freedom applies to everything in Liberation Martial Arts (LMA), including fighting stance and footwork. The L or J-stances are never static. Even if a practitioner starts sparring from L-stance, the stance should adapt throughout the round based on the situation. Furthermore, one practitioner's default L-stance will differ from another's based on body shape, comfort, fighting style, strategy, and material conditions (preexisting injuries).

Similarly, footwork must also adapt. When I step forward, I may step forward heel-to-toe and other times toe-to-heel. Likewise for lateral movements. It's all based on the conditions and context. For example, I may advance heel-to-toe if I want to inch forward and stay defensive against punches. The downside is my ability to retreat is slower.

If I advance by leaping forward and landing on the ball of my foot first, I can enter quickly, but I also have all my weight leaning forward, making me susceptible to counters—punches to my face and kicks to my leg. However, landing on the ball of my foot first means I can also push off the ball of my foot and retreat that much sooner. It's excellent for in-and-out movements. Heel-to-toe is great for pressuring and keeping whatever space I gain.

However, I can also lunge forward heel-to-toe, much like in fencing. This prevents me from leading with my face. I can also step back by pushing off my heel, but rather than leaping backward with both feet, I'm taking a step back with only my lead leg. If I push off my heel to take a step back with both feet, it's much more delayed than leaping back off the balls of my feet.

I can also slowly creep forward by keeping my lead foot light, landing on the ball of my foot. This is something you often see in Thai boxing—to defend against kicks or deliver a teep. The downside is that your ability to punch or rear-kick is limited. It's a defensive way to advance against a kicker.

For kicks, should you keep your foot flat or raise your heel? That all depends. If you raise your heel, you get greater rotation, height, and speed on your kick at the cost of stability. Since a kick leaves you on one foot, stability is that much more critical. If you miss, you're also more vulnerable. However, plenty of fighters have adapted just fine to this kicking style, just as fighters have adapted to fighting with their non-dominant eye. This is only a testament to adaptability and game sense and why you should train them—rather than training them only as a consequence of training a lot, which usually happens.

In your fighting stance, do you always keep your foot flat, or do you sometimes lift your heel? Lifting your heel preloads a movement. The downside is your opponent also knows you've preloaded a movement.

For these reasons, range of freedom (autonomy and self-determination) should be mandatory because only you can decide when to adapt a technique or movement. In a three-minute round, you will continuously be adapting techniques—unless your opponent is a stationary bag or a pad holder. What needs the most development is your ability to read live situations rather than perfecting any dead technique.

For instance, it's more important to know when to raise your heel or not rather than having practiced raising your heel ten thousand times. Many adaptations don't need practice. In our daily lives, we constantly make physical adaptions without having to practice first. The more we play in live situations where we're asked to adapt, the better we become at in-the-moment adaptations.

Practicing without context only improves your mechanics, but how often do we know how to do something without the ability to do it? You hear that in corners all the time. A coach asks, "Why aren't you doing this?" the fighter replies, "I'm trying." They know the mechanics, just not how to actually execute it in a live situation. But if you constantly dwell in live situations, the mechanics are relatively straightforward.

This is why some of the most adaptable can do but can't teach because they did something that was required at the moment—they never practiced it or consciously understood what they were doing, so they can't teach it. However, the technique isn't all that important. The takeaway should be getting as many live rounds as this person. Don't look for a magic bullet that can avoid live rounds. The magic bullet is starting the live rounds (safely and structured) as soon as possible.

Like your primary stance, whether you keep your heel down or raised is within your range of freedom.

– Sam