Jian Basics: Attacking Footwork

Hello, everyone and welcome back.

Last week I have posted some basic techniques in the form of warm-up evercises that can be practiced over and over.

Those exercises are done standing in one place with only one exercise that has some shifting back and forth- with one foot.

Sticking the blade into the other guy is simple when the other guy is within range and standing still. You will not necessarily want to start fighting from within range, though. Once you realise that you are in the kind of fight where not stabbing first means that you might not get to stab at all, starting from out of the opponent's reach and closing the gap between you when you have your chance to stab becomes an important skill to have.

Fencing with a partner will of course help, but you have to first prepare your body for the job that it has to do.

The first drill is actually a good way of getting into Wudang Kung Fu's footwork. You might recognise the cat/ tiger stance that I use in this video.

In Wudang martial arts you usually move from a stance in which your weight is placed on only one foot. The free foot can then be used to move in any direction that you may need.

You may recognise the cat/ tiger stance here. 

A common habit that I have seen with untrained fighters is that they tend to lean forward to reach their opponents without bothering to bring their lower bodies close enough. Most striking martial arts will teach you, however, that you are not there unless your lower body is there.

This drill actually teaches your legs and hips to get within reach and out of reach when you need to. That is also the most active part in this exercise- the lower body. The feet, hips and legs do all the hard work while the sword hand just extends when you are within reach.

The exercise basically consists of stretching out from cat stance into a long bow stance and back again.

Once you have  stretched enough you can practice stabbing at an imaginary opponent and  withdrawing before he can retaliate.

At combat speed it would look something like this:

Now- if you are in a fight and don't have an opening to go for, you will want to create an opening with a feint, right?

Well- one such way to create an opening would be to draw the opponent's guard upwards with an overhead slash:

Once your opponent's guard is raised you will want to get the tip of your sword clear from obstacles and stab the open target below. The video shows the movements at slower speed with visible advancing and withdrawing. To train the legs you lunge forward with the slash, withdraw as you prepare to stab and then lunge forward again to stab.

At combat speed the movement would look like this:

 

Once you have moved forwards and backwards into a double weighted position you will want to have one leg free so that you can move again.

In Wudang forms one leg is freed up with what we call a "following step". Lunging forward I tuck my back foot in close behind my lead foot, but without placing weight on it.

This is why I can shift back again. The back foot simply extends backwards and weight shifts back onto it once it lands where it should be.

The body might sink lower when moving like this, but the step should not involve any upward movement in the torso. When attacking in is natural for the lead shoulder and head to stretch past the lead foot, but you definitely do not want your head leaning forward past your lead foot when you are retreating.

At combat speed the movement would look like this:

From the one legged stance you can also move forwards some more or you could step to the left or right side.

Well... that is about enough to practice until you see me again next week.

In next week's post we will do some defense and counterattack work. Until then- stay well and keep training! :)

This post is the second in a series of posts written for Nicolas Killen down there in Mississippi, USA!

If you want to join him to train with me you can find me on Patreon, Facebook, Twitter and Wechat.