back heel on the ground in kihon/kata - why?

No logical explanation from me.

The only time I have found zenkutsu dachi to be the perfect position has been holding a firefighting hose.

Gary

The heel on / heel off debate is one were there is not, in my view, a definitive “best answer”. Both have uses and I feel both should be practised. It is even possible to mix the two and have the heel flat as contact is made and then have it come off to ensure maximum follow through. It all comes down to context.

If you are striking during grappling (as you frequently are in the bunkai of the kata) then arbitrarily taking the heel off can be problematic as the loss of stability means you can be flung all over the place. The straight back leg means you can’t be pushed back. This gives you a base to strike from. How hard could you hit if you were grappling in roller skates? The less stability / root you have the less power you can generate “in clinch”. Heel flat and straightening the leg when hitting can really help with that. You often need to be able to “push from the floor” and you need stability when striking with “hands on”. The heel down also gives you a good forward drive off the back leg to get power into the shot. Taking the heel off can also “square the hip” which weakens lead hand thrusting shots from within the grapple (often used when the enemy is bent at the waist).

I’m not saying you should always have the heel down when striking and grappling; I’m simply saying that sometimes you need a base. If there is no immediate risk of being unbalanced, taking the heel off is fine. However, if you need stability, then the heel is better being down (and most people do that without thinking about it).

So I am I saying it’s better to keep the heel down? No! There are times when it is far better to take the heel off so that the hip is not tethered you can get more penetration through the target. My position is to practise both so I can make use of either depending on the context.

As an analogy, imagine you are pushing a car. If the car is moving along nicely then most people will naturally lift the heel of the rear leg off. This makes perfect sense and aligns everything nicely. However, if the car started to roll back a little, or its inertia has not been broken, then I’ll bet everyone would drop the heel and straighten the back leg in order to gain stability and stop themselves getting squashed. It’s a very similar thing combatively. If stability is not needed, then get that heel off for maximum forward drive. If the enemy (car) is pushing back, drop the heel so you can resist the force and develop drive from a stable base. If you insist on keeping the heel off, you’ll get pushed over.

My boxing colleagues and coaches are always very keen on ensuring the rear heel always comes off (more mobility and more power)… my Judo colleagues and coaches are very keen on keeping the feet flat at all times. That’s because stability is not needed in boxing (grappling not allowed) and because it is vital in Judo (no punching, but stability definitely needed).

Keeping the heel down – when it is not needed – as many karateka are prone to do, is not good as you lose a lot of power. Lifting the heel – when stability is needed – robs you of your drive and base and can also lead to a sub-optimum punch.

So for me, it’s not a case of one being better than the other. But using whatever is appropriate in the circumstances.

As regards health benefits, it’s never an issue I consider and if there are any benefits, they will be unintentional side benefits to techniques with a combative purpose. I hope that’s of some use?

All the best,

Iain

What you are saying makes a lot of sense, Ian.

Indeed most fights will get into a standing grapple very quick - and in those situations a boxer's footwork is not really asked for.

You are the only karate teacher I know of who puts the heel on/off issue into the combative context. Thanks for that. Thinking about it, I surely had the heels down in clinch or grapple but wasn't really aware of that - the elusive obvious. Basically common sense - boxing-like footwork in the standing open position (no clinch/grapple), and feet more planted (but not frozen!) in the standing grapple or else it will be ground and pound in an instant - with me on the receiving end!

Ian,

For dojo sparring without grappling - which is basically a form of kickboxing to me - do you focus some of your training time on developing the mobile footwork ? 

Boris

Hi Boris,

Glad that helped. It’s sometimes hard to get across without technical examples, but I’m glad what I wrote still communicated the gist of my thinking.

Boris B wrote:

For dojo sparring without grappling - which is basically a form of kickboxing to me - do you focus some of your training time on developing the mobile footwork?

Yes. That would be “fighting” as opposed to “self-defence” but for martial artist vs. martial artist striking only sparring (or other kinds of sparring before a clinch has been made), then highly mobile footwork is very important and we spend a good amount of time on it.

If has little relevance to the self-defence side of things, but there is some commonality with the “keep moving, hit anything that moves, get the hell out of there” footwork associated with the initial stages of escaping from multiple enemies.

All the best,

Iain

Boris B wrote:

most people do not activate their glutes enough when walking (due to our sitting lifestyle). This is then coupled/ leads to tight calves and lack of ankle mobility. 

Hi Boris,

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean by this. Could you please explain?

Thanks...Geoff

GeoffG,

thanks for asking. I got this idea in early 2009 by reading a book by Esther Gokhale "8 steps to a pain-free back".

This book explores common ailments due to poor posture in contemporary Western societies - the title goes for the omnipresent lower back problems but this book covers all aspects that lead to a healthy posture and movement style.

According to Esther, most of Western posture problems would be prevented by learning to move "like the natives" again - that is the natural way people walk/sit/sleep in traditional societies like Africa, Latin America etc.

This book shows ample photopgraphs of "native" people during their everyday activities. The aspects that I mentioned is lesson 8 in this book: "Glidewalking. Walking as a series of forward propulsions, not falls."

I'll give you some extracts from this chapter:

for many people in industrial cultures, walking consists of a series of forward falls blocked abruptly by the forward leg.

the buttock and leg muscles contract strongly to propel the body forward, thus getting the exercise they need while the back is spared unnecessary wear and tear.

One of the benefits of glidewalking is that it strenghtens the buttock (gluteus) muscles. Strong gluteus muscles support pelvic anteversion, which is key to healthy posture. Strong gluteus muscles also play an important role in keeping one's balance and preventing falls.

In most people in industrial cultures, the gluteus muscles are underdeveloped.

Glidewalking provides one of the few opportunities in daily activity to stretch the psoas muscle. A tight psoas sways the low back and contributes to back pain.

Glidewalking helps preserve the health of the hip joints in serveral ways. 1. Psoas stretch. 2. glidewalking includes a relaxed "swing phase" in each stride.

--

Basically, this is the background to my "theory" that kata movement in general if done not too fast and not crazy-combative like may lead to a more graceful and relaxed movement style in everyday life.

As far as tight calves and lack of ankle mobility is concerned - I think that is the result of "not glidewalking".

Hope that helps

Boris

Hi Boris,

Thanks for posting this. It sounds like an interesting concept. I tried to find some video's of glidewalking to get a better understanding of it, but what I found looked like an excerpt from a Michael Jackson video. I certainly don't want to belittle glidewalking because I'm not sure the videos are an accurate representation. Can you post some links to video's showing it so we can get a better understanding of it?

Thanks...Geoff

Geoff,

I spent the last 40 minutes or so on youtube looking for "glidewalking clips". I couldn't find one, sorry.

So I'll try to explain it the way I understand it - hopefully some words make sense.

First of all, glidewalking is not a new patented way of walking but according to Esther Gokhale the way that people in non-industrial societies tended to walk (think Europe pre 1900) or still walk (think thai people / latin americans / africans/... in the countryside). So, it is definitely nothing new and fancy - and therefore not a Michael Jackson moonwalk :-)

Esther says she has given this way of walking a name not because it is new but because it has been (largely) forgotten. Think about "glide-walking" as opposition to "foot-stomping".

The idea of walking is to send the moving energy forward and not down into the ground. No reason to stomp the earth. Sounds very logical, but if you think of the "drop-step" for power-punching often times a forceful stomp into the ground is done.

Glide-walking is the opposite of forcefully stomping/falling with the landing foot on the ground - this is done by contracting the butt of the standing leg as long as possible - this may be considerably longer for the "average" trainee including myself in my experience - however, if you are a natural athlete or had an instructor who knows his stuff that may be old news to you.  

 an idea: stand in front of a partner - double lapel grap of his gi - than move in with a sanchin dachi-like stance and set a foot behind the partner's, coordinating the setting of the foot with a double arm push/punch to the chest. This should unbalance him. The idea would be that you have to have control of your moving leg through the entire motion. Maybe your partner tries to unbalance you a bit while doing so.  In order to successfully exexute this move, this can (I think) only be achieved with a contracted gluteus muscle of the standing leg.

Long talk short lesson: this should be standard stuff of judo players for example - or people who study Ian's pragmatic approach to karate. Again, the term glidewalking may seem new but even the creator - Esther Gokhale - says it is not, and I think that glidewalking is (very) closely connected to proper use of stances. That was my idea / transfer of the non-combative way of walking to karate stances and kata. A rose by another name to many of you I hope. However, I have seen black belts move and been taught exactly the wrong way, and as we know, the quality of instruction does vary from excellent to piss-poor.

Examples of "civilian" glide-walking: I am a simple guy (beer, babes & boxing) and give you the best example: if a girl moves gracefully, she has a great butt and uses it while walking, there is a great chance that this  could be glidewalking. Think about a brazilian girl walking or an African girl walking (maybe with a basket on her head). While googling for this topic I found several pages where glidewalking is recommended for females as a way to get their butt in shape - go figure.

Hopefully, this clears the situation somewhat - glidewalking is just a name, don't fuss over it (as Bruce would say :-))

Boris

ok not a catch all answer but one that comes to mind (and I think not mentioned thus far)- grappling application (agree with Iain's comments on striking within grappling of course).

I'm talking locking, strangling, keeping base, lifting etc etc.

The front stance as a functional tool in everyday lfe? Only when pushing my car from being stuck in the snow...

And then my heel hits the ground because of the weight of the car pushing back into me, or for use as a kickstand to aid in keeping the ground I have gained.

Haven't come up with a good reason for use in punching yet though.... now wrestling its a different story, but I think Iain covered this already...

Thanks mate. Much appreciated. Sorry for the delay in responding.