Basic Martial Arts Footwork Tips and Drills - Part 1 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00howdy ando here from happy life martial
2. 0:03arts
3. 0:03today i'd like to take a closer look at
4. 0:06your footwork
5. 0:08now i'm not talking about anything fancy
6. 0:10here i mean your
7. 0:11basic footwork you see i'm old school
8. 0:15could you tell from the gray hair i
9. 0:18believe a lot of martial artists
10. 0:19jump ahead to fancy footwork way too
11. 0:22soon
12. 0:23they don't spend enough time drilling
13. 0:24down deeply into their basics
14. 0:27and my friend at some point that's going
15. 0:29to get you into trouble
16. 0:30i don't want you to get into trouble so
17. 0:33let's go over a few details
18. 0:34that i think will be helpful to any
19. 0:36martial artist of any style
20. 0:38or really any bipedal animal grab some
21. 0:41water
22. 0:42make some space and let's get moving
23. 1:02here we go now please remember watching
24. 1:06is one way to learn but doing is so much
25. 1:09better
26. 1:10so join me let's do this together
27. 1:13standing up tall
28. 1:14how about a quick warm-up stand up very
29. 1:17very straight
30. 1:18get your feet ready and let's just jump
31. 1:22just jump all right that's good enough
32. 1:24you're fine footwork
33. 1:26here we go i'm going to start with one
34. 1:28foot in front
35. 1:29and one foot in back and let's just
36. 1:32start on a straight line
37. 1:33moving backwards and forwards
38. 1:37all right however much space you have
39. 1:39use it
40. 1:40just moving forward and backward now
41. 1:43right off the bat
42. 1:44i want to show you something you're not
43. 1:46going to see me today
44. 1:47doing this i'm not going to step and
45. 1:50drag
46. 1:51step and drag step and drag i'm not
47. 1:54saying that that's not a great move
48. 1:56listen very carefully to me i believe
49. 1:59every
50. 2:00human movement has a place and time
51. 2:02where it can be effective and useful
52. 2:04but as a drill for today i would like
53. 2:06you you to keep both feet
54. 2:08active in your awareness so
55. 2:11one foot in front one foot in back and
56. 2:14you're moving
57. 2:14just on this straight line let's put
58. 2:17your hands up
59. 2:18all right you don't have to put your
60. 2:20hands up like a boxer or any other style
61. 2:22right now
62. 2:23let's just make the hands a non-issue by
63. 2:26keeping them up
64. 2:27that's a good habit and let's just focus
65. 2:30back on our feet
66. 2:31all right so forward and backward both
67. 2:34feet are active
68. 2:34no dragging hands don't worry about them
69. 2:37anymore
70. 2:38there they are and let's talk about
71. 2:40another little detail here
72. 2:42i want you to see keep going i want you
73. 2:45to see that i always have a tunnel
74. 2:47through my legs whether it's from this
75. 2:49angle
76. 2:50on the side or if you're looking at me
77. 2:53straight on
78. 2:54all right i would like you to keep this
79. 2:56space no matter where you go
80. 2:59can you imagine that you are holding a
81. 3:02watermelon between your legs
82. 3:04whoa cool okay so
83. 3:07pretend you have this watermelon right
84. 3:10between your knees
85. 3:11and you're squeezing it i don't want you
86. 3:13to think about crushing this watermelon
87. 3:15i don't want you to take a big step and
88. 3:17drop the watermelon i want you to keep
89. 3:19that watermelon
90. 3:20right between your legs little steps
91. 3:22little steps
92. 3:23forward and backward keep the watermelon
93. 3:26right where it is
94. 3:27okay so that means
95. 3:31our feet should not come together right
96. 3:33now
97. 3:34our feet are not going to crisscross and
98. 3:37our feet
99. 3:38are not going to line up again all good
100. 3:41moves but not right now
101. 3:43so stay with that watermelon little
102. 3:46steps
103. 3:47hands up if you want to switch your lead
104. 3:49foot at any time
105. 3:51go right ahead all right i believe you
106. 3:53should be fluid and controlled on both
107. 3:55sides of your body
108. 3:56so take these steps here we go
109. 4:00now another tip as you can tell right
110. 4:03now my head is
111. 4:04straight all right i'm not doing
112. 4:06anything fancy with body movement or
113. 4:08rolling
114. 4:09no shucking and jiving right now i just
115. 4:11want you to see if you can keep your
116. 4:12posture straight
117. 4:14float your body weight right in the
118. 4:16middle wherever you're going
119. 4:18and just leave it there okay it's
120. 4:20actually harder
121. 4:21than it sounds most people are very
122. 4:24content
123. 4:25to straighten their legs and lean side
124. 4:27to side back and forth
125. 4:29and again there's a time and place for
126. 4:31that but as a drill
127. 4:32i want you to break this down and
128. 4:34literally just see if you can move your
129. 4:36body
130. 4:37move your body move your body with
131. 4:39perfect control
132. 4:41without slipping sliding or anything all
133. 4:44right so this is your challenge to just
134. 4:46do this
135. 4:47and then we're just speeding it up a
136. 4:48little bit now
137. 4:50you'll hear some people talk about how
138. 4:53if you're going to move forward
139. 4:54move your front foot first if you're
140. 4:55moving backward move your back foot
141. 4:57first
142. 4:58totally fine but sometimes it doesn't
143. 5:00work out that way
144. 5:01maybe you get you're moving forward you
145. 5:03get kicked on the leg but you still want
146. 5:04to move forward
147. 5:05so your back foot moves first i want you
148. 5:08to have freedom with your feet
149. 5:10to be able to do anything at any time
150. 5:12from any position
151. 5:13so don't worry about that too much right
152. 5:15now just
153. 5:16forward and backward worry about where
154. 5:18your hips are
155. 5:20just make sure your center mass is under
156. 5:21control and you're staying on that line
157. 5:24forward and backward okay now
158. 5:27let's make it harder if you can do that
159. 5:31take a break for a second if you can do
160. 5:33that the next level
161. 5:35will be to shift the weight from foot to
162. 5:38foot
163. 5:40now be very careful with this this is
164. 5:42where i think people get into trouble
165. 5:44like i said it's very easy to get caught
166. 5:46leaning with your body weight
167. 5:48and there is a great time and place for
168. 5:49that if you're doing a peekaboo
169. 5:52style or a philly shell there's all
170. 5:54kinds of times where you might want to
171. 5:55fade and roll
172. 5:56and move your upper body but if you do
173. 6:00that
174. 6:00without your legs under you you're going
175. 6:02to have a problem with your balance
176. 6:04you'll be very easy to get knocked down
177. 6:06swept or just slip on your own
178. 6:08so here's the trick as you're moving now
179. 6:12because i rarely move directly straight
180. 6:15or directly straight i rarely move with
181. 6:18my head on this one predictable
182. 6:20floating line where anybody could punch
183. 6:23me even if they had their eyes closed
184. 6:25they would find my head because i
185. 6:26haven't moved it it's right here
186. 6:28so i do want to start taking my head
187. 6:30offline and start creating
188. 6:32angles and these can just be small
189. 6:34angles for now okay nothing drastic or
190. 6:36dramatic
191. 6:37so as we're taking the same steps all
192. 6:40we're going to do is take that weight
193. 6:41which i know you can control because it
194. 6:43was in the middle and we've already
195. 6:44practiced that
196. 6:45and when you move your foot shift a
197. 6:48little bit more
198. 6:49and shift a little bit more so now we're
199. 6:51starting to create
200. 6:52a little bit of a zigzag you can see my
201. 6:55head now
202. 6:56is moving side to side a bit but i'm not
203. 6:59screwing up my posture
204. 7:00i'm not doing this right now don't be
205. 7:03don't get lazy in the legs
206. 7:05and just start moving your head without
207. 7:08controlling your center mass
208. 7:09okay so i'm just shifting my weight
209. 7:12not leaning my weight so try that of
210. 7:15course
211. 7:16you switch your feet anytime you want if
212. 7:19you would prefer to do this as a two
213. 7:20step one two
214. 7:22one two one two one two one two one two
215. 7:25one two one two that's fine if you wanna
216. 7:28just
217. 7:29bob from foot to foot that's fine too
218. 7:31but the main thing is
219. 7:33you're squeezing the watermelon and
220. 7:35you're keeping your back straight
221. 7:37now this can be a little tricky like i
222. 7:39said so let me give you another idea to
223. 7:41think about
224. 7:42can you imagine my friend that you are
225. 7:44holding
226. 7:45a pie awesome
227. 7:48okay so pretend you're holding a pie
228. 7:52as you're moving i don't want to tip
229. 7:55this pie
230. 7:56or spill this pie i don't want to bring
231. 7:59it back on myself
232. 8:00or dump it on my grandma's head i don't
233. 8:03want this to spill
234. 8:05so as we're moving around right now
235. 8:08imagine that you have this pie either in
236. 8:09your hands
237. 8:10or imagine it was up on top of your head
238. 8:13right or you could put a book on your
239. 8:14head
240. 8:15and see if you can shift yourself
241. 8:17keeping the pie
242. 8:18level does that make sense i know that
243. 8:20sounds silly but
244. 8:22imagine that movie magic
245. 8:26okay so let's put this all together now
246. 8:29hands up don't worry about them both
247. 8:31feet active
248. 8:33moving forward and backward on a
249. 8:34straight line space between your legs
250. 8:36like you're squeezing a watermelon
251. 8:38and now shifting your weight side to
252. 8:41side so that you're creating angles for
253. 8:43yourself
254. 8:44always under control with good posture
255. 8:46make sense
256. 8:47great take a breath for a second
257. 8:51now let's apply these exact same ideas
258. 8:54from side
259. 8:54to side right no big deal
260. 8:58so start off in your one foot forward
261. 9:01stance
262. 9:01one foot back keep your hands up and
263. 9:04put the watermelon in boom and all we're
264. 9:07going to do
265. 9:08is side to side
266. 9:11okay start this off straight back
267. 9:15nothing fancy just see if you can do it
268. 9:18you'll feel this i promise you in your
269. 9:20calves and your knees your thigh
270. 9:22you'll feel this now here's the little
271. 9:25tip we want to
272. 9:26share today while i'm doing this one of
273. 9:29the most common mistakes
274. 9:31errors would be that that back leg
275. 9:33starts getting a little tired
276. 9:35and so people start squaring up and they
277. 9:38end up crab walking like this
278. 9:41all right i'm not really interested
279. 9:43right now and squaring up with you
280. 9:46there's a time and place for everything
281. 9:47but not not now and not when i'm
282. 9:49thinking about self-defense
283. 9:51so the trick here as you're going side
284. 9:52to side is to maintain this tunnel
285. 9:55again put the watermelon there as you're
286. 9:57moving side to side
287. 9:59don't give up your stance this is a
288. 10:02little trickier
289. 10:03but you can do it can't you of course
290. 10:06you can
291. 10:07alright so side to side in your space
292. 10:10why don't you switch your feet
293. 10:12try it on both sides there you go and
294. 10:15again we're just floating
295. 10:17our center mass right there hands up
296. 10:20both feet active good alright
297. 10:24now here we go you know what's coming
298. 10:26you're smart you know it's coming
299. 10:29let's not float it straight
300. 10:32let's add a little shift to it and again
301. 10:36you can add whichever shift you want to
302. 10:37play with today
303. 10:39you can shift forward and backward as
304. 10:40you're taking these steps
305. 10:42or a little exaggerated side to side but
306. 10:45i'd like you to move
307. 10:46from your feet from your leg so your
308. 10:49back stays straight
309. 10:50pi stays balanced and try today not to
310. 10:53give up your good posture okay so one
311. 10:56foot in front
312. 10:57one foot in back side to side and now
313. 11:00maybe i think about
314. 11:02fading and maybe stepping in
315. 11:05stepping back a little bit and then
316. 11:06stepping in
317. 11:08shifting the weight forward and backward
318. 11:11as i'm moving
319. 11:12so this is manipulating distance between
320. 11:14me
321. 11:15my opponent if you're in sports or bad
322. 11:17guy if you're in self-defense
323. 11:20so just get used to this weight shift
324. 11:22forward and back
325. 11:23now my center mass feels mobile
326. 11:27okay good now you want to switch your
327. 11:30feet that's fine
328. 11:32same idea side to side always start with
329. 11:34that straight posture to make sure you
330. 11:36have that
331. 11:37i think that's the hardest one now let's
332. 11:40try
333. 11:40left right left right i'm already moving
334. 11:43sideways
335. 11:44but i'm just exaggerating how much i
336. 11:46move sideways
337. 11:48without giving up my posture so side to
338. 11:51side
339. 11:52side to side just a little extra weight
340. 11:54shift so it's a little extra work on the
341. 11:57muscles
342. 11:57as you can tell from my breathing
343. 11:59alright so here we go
344. 12:02right forward and back
345. 12:05side to side just adding that little bit
346. 12:08of a weight shift
347. 12:09so you can move your hips around and now
348. 12:11you're going to start having more
349. 12:12choices with your techniques
350. 12:15all right catch your breath
351. 12:18let's put this together since we can
352. 12:20move forward and back
353. 12:22side to side it's only natural that we
354. 12:25work
355. 12:26a square in future classes if i say hey
356. 12:30let's work the square
357. 12:31that's what i'm talking about let's pick
358. 12:33your space
359. 12:35figure out how big you want your square
360. 12:36to be if your space is small
361. 12:38and you just want to take one or two
362. 12:40steps
363. 12:41in every direction okay if you have a
364. 12:44larger space and you can take three or
365. 12:46four or five
366. 12:47if you're on a football field you want
367. 12:48to do 50 yard square that's up to you
368. 12:50but let's work the square and again you
369. 12:53can switch your
370. 12:54lead foot any time you want and i hope
371. 12:56you will do that
372. 12:57there's so much variety just in this
373. 12:59basic drill
374. 13:01i really hope you'll drill down into
375. 13:02this uh and get the most out of it
376. 13:05so let's say i start over here on a
377. 13:08corner of the square
378. 13:10first time around the square maybe a few
379. 13:12times again let's challenge ourselves
380. 13:14just keep those hands up
381. 13:16keep the watermelon keep the pie don't
382. 13:19shift the weight around see if you can
383. 13:20just float your hips in the middle
384. 13:22and just take these little steps on each
385. 13:25part
386. 13:26of your square all the way around
387. 13:31and if this feels a little stiff that's
388. 13:33okay
389. 13:34as i'm talking to you i feel a little
390. 13:36stiff i can i notice that
391. 13:38as i turn off that part of my brain and
392. 13:39i start loosening up a little bit
393. 13:41my feet become a little more flexible my
394. 13:44center becomes a little softer
395. 13:45i need to work on that so there's
396. 13:49there is your straight square now
397. 13:53feel free start adding a little bit
398. 13:56of the shifting from your front foot
399. 13:59back foot
400. 14:00moving that angle a little bit so that
401. 14:02every step you take
402. 14:03your head is not in the same place
403. 14:06it's not even that predictable your
404. 14:09head's a little farther away than they
405. 14:10thought
406. 14:11it's a little closer than they thought a
407. 14:13little to the left little to the right
408. 14:14it's a built-in slip on every punch
409. 14:18okay if you haven't switched your feet
410. 14:20yet
411. 14:22do it other lead foot other back foot
412. 14:26hands up watermelon pie this is the
413. 14:29picnic
414. 14:31picnic style kung fu if anybody asks you
415. 14:34what are you doing
416. 14:35you look ridiculous you say picnic style
417. 14:38kung fu
418. 14:39i'm ready for my family picnic i'm
419. 14:41bringing the pie and the watermelon
420. 14:44all right so right now back straight
421. 14:48head straight both feet active
422. 14:52this is not easy if you're only watching
423. 14:54and
424. 14:55grimacing and mocking well that's why
425. 14:59because you're just watching come try it
426. 15:02if you haven't reversed your square
427. 15:04go in the other direction with the other
428. 15:05lead foot so you can have a right foot
429. 15:07lead going one way
430. 15:08and a right foot lead going the other
431. 15:09way then you can switch your feet
432. 15:12and you have a left foot lead one way
433. 15:13and left foot the other way that covers
434. 15:15all the basics of your square all right
435. 15:19did you add in the shifting yet one more
436. 15:21time around with a little that
437. 15:23shifting of your weight forward and back
438. 15:25left and right
439. 15:27just having fun with it play with it
440. 15:29yeah there you go
441. 15:32cool does all that make sense
442. 15:36now like i said this is basic right
443. 15:39you're not going to have a hard time
444. 15:40remembering this
445. 15:41but your body might have a hard time
446. 15:42remembering how to move
447. 15:45so of course i'm not telling you to go
448. 15:48back and practice
449. 15:49hopping steps and jump steps and cool
450. 15:52diagrams on the floor all these
451. 15:53different
452. 15:54shapes hey i'm a fan of dominic cruz i
453. 15:57love all that stuff
454. 15:58what i'm saying is as you start your
455. 16:00workout as you start your practice
456. 16:02session
457. 16:03start with this really check in with
458. 16:06your posture
459. 16:07your breathing your tension levels
460. 16:11your balance where you set your feet
461. 16:14turning on your awareness
462. 16:15where your feet are in space being able
463. 16:17to control it when it's really difficult
464. 16:20and then being able to start controlling
465. 16:21it and moving it around a little bit
466. 16:23and then the next level would be to
467. 16:26start
468. 16:27shucking and jiving and start doing some
469. 16:29real fancy stuff
470. 16:31but please do yourself this favor don't
471. 16:33set yourself up for trouble
472. 16:35always come back to the basics first
473. 16:38okay before i go and attack that pie i'm
474. 16:41going to record a part two
475. 16:43to this footwork video so if you enjoyed
476. 16:45part one grab a sip of water and i'll
477. 16:47meet you over there for part two
478. 16:49if you didn't enjoy this video and you
479. 16:50hate my guts well that's okay too
480. 16:53good luck to you but really every time
481. 16:56you watch a video or leave me a comment
482. 16:57it means the world to me
483. 16:59especially in these crazy times so thank
484. 17:01you for being here
485. 17:02until i see you again keep moving my
486. 17:04friend and keep fighting
487. 17:06for a happy life
488. 17:18you