Footwork drills.

[cfr]

Howdy all. We taped our sparring the other night and then watched it after class. What I noticed the most from watching was that I want to stand in 1 spot and throw punches. So, I need to start working more on footwork. What footwork routines do you guys have? Any good links?

 

[Bigshadow]

Walking is really good!

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Try drawing or taping an "X" on the floor and stand at the center of it. Step along the lines while doing different techiques while shadowboxing is a good start.

Jeff

 

[morph4me]

In Shotokan aikido there is an exercise used to help develope movement. Here's a link, hope it helps

http://www.londonaikido.com/static.php?page=unsoku

 

[Bigshadow]

To be honest, I don't believe there is any drill that we can give you to help your foot work. Foot work is relative to the art. Foot work is not a disconnected function. Please don't take this as a slight, just giving my honest opinion... To me, it sounds like you have spent too much time sparring and not enough learning the basics and foundation footwork for whatever it is your doing. That is one of the problems with hopping from one art to another without investing enough of yourself into learning the foundation of any one thing.

By the way... Video is an excellent way to see how your moving.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Actually there are footwork drills that can help you. The first thing you must consider is where you want to be in relation to your opponent. This is called securing the angle of desired positioning. One method of doing this on your own is to spar an imaginary tree. Just imagine a tree is contantly falling right at you and you must get off that line. This can be accomplished by simply moving up the circle.{back foot moves from 6 to 4:30(L) or 7:30(R)}. When you transfer this to sparring consider you don't always want to trade punches, and you should constantly be maneuvering your self out of his kill zone. This in turn will force him to adjust to you. Keep a control of the distance and realize that he is either striking you or maneuvering to strike you, one of the two.
Sean

 

[King]

hoo boy. I'm a firm believer that footwork is the main foundation of proper technique. With that saying you've already lost a match if you trip on your own feet.

There's a few things I do to practice my foot work.

1. Practice walking while looking at a mirror. This way I can correct my form and check distance everytime I take a step.

2. Practice walking with a partner. Face each other and practice basic drills: walking forward, back and side to side. The trick is constantly maintaining the same distance and only move when your partner moves. The more advance partnered footwork drill is one becomes the agressor and one defends. The agressor tries to circle or trick the person into a bad position by consistently moving around him. The defender makes sure he/she would always face the attacker (much harder in practice if your opponent is fast and tricky).

3. Practice walking while listening to music. Find a song with a good downbeat and match a pace with it. Keep this pace for the whole song and repeat. This gives you a good sense for rhythm and timing.

I devote 10-20 mins on footwork alone before and after every training session.

 

[searcher]

Work around the heavy bag. Throw punches any time you are in range of the bag. When you start to get tired move out of range and continually work in a circle. Always work to circle when workign ona heavy bag and it can work wonders. Another thing is to start jumping rope, if you have not done so already. If foot speed is the problem you can always do a foru corners drill. Check out basketball drills. They are really good.

 

[still learning]

Hello, Just want to add a little more here....this is just the basic stuffs for most styles.

One: Always be on the ball of your foot.
Two: When moving forward the forward foot moves first, moving back the back foot moves first.

That video above was excellant materials.

Learning to move in the X is one of the best ways to learning avoiding/and attacking.

When moving on the ball of the foot...be as close as a paper sheet..at times practice bigger steps (higher too)

Plyometics works the fast twich muscles.....also practice going in circles too! ......Aloha

PS: Watch boxing and see how the boxers move there feet. Most of them have two foots (one on each side). Note: two feet is 24 inches.

 

[cfr]

Work around the heavy bag. Throw punches any time you are in range of the bag. When you start to get tired move out of range and continually work in a circle. Always work to circle when workign ona heavy bag and it can work wonders.

I did this yesterday with my main focus on footwork, it was a great learning experience.

 

[searcher]

I did this yesterday with my main focus on footwork, it was a great learning experience.

When you are doing this don't let your feet cross over or switch which side is in the lead. Yuo should use the step-drag type of stepping. Crossing up will end up with you on your back or knocked out. Be light on your feet and keep thwem moving.

 

[cfr]

When you are doing this don't let your feet cross over or switch which side is in the lead. Yuo should use the step-drag type of stepping. Crossing up will end up with you on your back or knocked out. Be light on your feet and keep thwem moving.

Agreed, that was my focus.