Of primary importance: the 1st walking exercise

Walking Forward

neutral position: standing feet shoulder distance apart

weight shifts as you pick up the right foot

The placement of the feet sets up the alignment for the structure of the form. To pick up the right foot, you must place all the weight of the body onto the left foot. Imagine you are stepping down onto a step beneath the level of the grass. The relaxed arms fall toward the weighted side of the body : sense the different distances that the relaxed hands are from the body.

As you pick up the right foot, sense how the ankle plantar flexes and lengthens...there is no tension holding the foot at an acute dorsiflexed angle (a right angle). All the weight is on the left leg.

lifted foot lengthens as it falls into plantar flexion

foot begins to dorsiflex 

The distance (not the diagonal distance) between the two feet we can call the width of the railroad tracks, about shoulder distance. The left foot always lands upon the left track, the right upon the right. Because left and right foot move symetrically, neither foot lands in the middle of the track. The diagonal distance between the two feet we can refer to as the length of the stride.

foot dorsiflexes before the heel touches the ground

The heel lightly touches the ground. Pretend it may be thin ice. Will it support you? No? Yes? Then roll the weight onto the right foot. Stabilize the weight between the two feet. This we call rooting. You are stepping on steps below the level of the grass. Down there somewhere!  Some systems weight the difference between the front leg and the back leg 70% front/ back 30%;  As in Aikido, Master Henry Wang in Comox does 50%/50%. There are benefits and deficiencies to both. The big toe of the lead foot, in this case the right, points exactly in the direction of the eyes, forward: toward the (target) point to which you are moving toward.

testing the ice with the right heel :100% of the weight is on the left foot

70/30 or 50/50...rooted!

foot rotates out 45 degrees

Now that your weight if firmly rooted, lift the ball of the foot up enough so that you can turn the foot 45 degrees. You have to pull your weight back slightly from the ball in the direction of the heel to pull the ball of the foot up off the ground.

Now step down into the rotated right foot and lift the left foot off the ground.
Following the same process, point the left toe in the direction of the eyes. The right foot will now be pointing 45 degrees. That angular placement of the foot stabilizes balance and is the foundation of a wall that cannot be moved by an inward coming force.

movement repeats sequence with the left foot

If you close your eyes, and walk toward a target, 15 steps down the line, you will be facing the target. If your feet move off the tracks to the left or the right, you will be walking to the left or the right of the target. Pretend you are walking toward the moon, place each foot precisely. If you are out a centimetre on the ground, the NASA engineers will be disappointed as you miss the mark of the moon by kilometres.

Thinking while you are walking? A no-no!!!! Everytime a thought arises, use the distraction as an opportunity to place your attention MINDFULLY on how the body moves. RELAX. Notice how the hands in the pictures are suspended from the shoulders...no innate tension holds them away from the body. Nor do we use the arms for balance...that is the responsibility for the centre core muscles.

Walking Backward
If you were walking on almost cured cement, the step marks you left walking forward could be used exactly again for walking backward. More on walking backward next blog.