# Foot work question



## K831 (Aug 17, 2007)

I study Kenpo primarily, however, I just started attending a local boxing club to cross train.

Anyhow, I came accross this little "how to clip" of boxing foot work and had a question. 






You'll notice, that when he first demonstrates going forward he moves his lead foot first, and when going backwards he moves his rear foot first - thats the boxing footwork I have seen. Then, when doing it as a skip or shuffle, he does the opposite. Is that proper boixng footwork? 

In Kenpo, we do both a "step-drag" and a "drag-step" but I was under the impression boxers 1.) don't cross over and 2.) lead foot moves first going forward, rear foot moves first going back. 

Just curious - I wont be back in the boxing club for a few days and it is bugging me.


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## jks9199 (Aug 18, 2007)

He's demonstrating 2 different steps; the first is a drag.  As he steps forward, back, or to the side, he pulls his other foot back underneath him.

The second step is a shuffle; he's sliding the foot that's "behind" the motion, to enable him to step out quickly.  Advancing, it can be a very deceptive motion; retreating, it pulls your body out of danger.


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## Sifu Mike (Sep 16, 2021)

All these are very useful in fighting, especially boxing or JKD. The invaluable lesson and thing to learn is to always have 1 foot planted for  balance, stability, and power. I believe your Kenpo training is much like most/all karate styles where you train in  a solid horse stance and are supposed to stay that way when you fight. However, many/most/"all" karateka bounce up and down trying to get timing and that costs them response time from an attack.


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## drop bear (Sep 17, 2021)

K831 said:


> I study Kenpo primarily, however, I just started attending a local boxing club to cross train.
> 
> Anyhow, I came accross this little "how to clip" of boxing foot work and had a question.
> 
> ...



The simple answer is you need to know the rules before you break them.

So there are cross steps in boxing but you kind of have to be good before you can play with those well.

So you generally get taught that they don't exist.


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