The 45 Degree Foot

I have been working a lot lately on stances and stance transitions. Trying to get my head inside the fundamentals of the internal mechanics that release your power working from the core or center out. I have to put things into a mechanical view in order to sort out my thoughts and apply the changes necessary or troubleshoot an unknown area I cannot quite comprehend, it's just how I am wired. One of the things I discovered that hinders transitions, creates huge resistance throughout the body, compromises grounding, and impairs speed/power, is the back foot at a 45 degree angle, a bad habit that is hard to break.

This alone effects a ton of things and reduces your power by a huge margin. How is it possible to engage the hip fully and achieve maximum power and efficiency of skeletal alignment and transferring into full release when you basically have your hip tied back so to speak? How is it possible to move smoothly through forms and various applications and still have power through execution when you are bypassing your target and placing huge restrictions on the ability to achieve full definition? You can't. By moving the back foot forward slightly and straight, (as we were taught) I noticed a lot of changes. The hip begins to lead the technique or application and smooths out directional changes. This in itself increases the power and speed and a full body snap driven by your center as opposed to isolated muscle groups, in other words, your whole body becomes involved and the first half of the six harmonies becomes smoother and less forced because your already in position to do so. No adjustment is required and forced movements are no longer present because the alignment is correct as is the removal of resistance in your core. Now you have unrestricted torque that becomes obvious as movements and striking power are increased substantially. Power created with full body torque to me becomes very smilier to a clock spring. 

Keeping this all in mind while practicing forms has changed other areas where I have noticed less resistance and better control and/or maintaining center throughout. Instability is drastically reduced during stance transitions and there is way less torque on the knees and hips as well because you are lined up correctly so it becomes a lot easier to settle into the stance and apply full body torque. To me a lot of the pauses or choppy areas of forms start to disappear. I have a long ways to go on all of this but things are becoming clearer and these new discoveries are what keeps my training exciting. 

So as try to gain a better understanding of the external and internal aspects of the six harmonies I created a goal/tool to work on that I think will advance my knowledge somewhat or at least keep it interesting. I will start by shattering boards that are suspended, not supported and work my way towards jumping in the air and shattering them with a punch. If I can get a handle on this I will work towards a kick. We'll see how this works for now. 

Other than that I have been battling some injuries that are causing havoc but fortunately there is a ton of things to work in Kung Fu so the training only stops if you let it. See you at the Kwoon.