Striking is Easy, Footwork is Difficult
Principle #4
This series of essays deals briefly with Chinese Martial Arts Principles and Sayings. These sayings have been developed over time and are meant to direct your daily practice. Adhering to them will help you develop a proper mindset reflective of a true martial artist. They also reveal distinctive fighting concepts, strategies, and training precepts contained within the Long Fist school. They are not meant to be merely glanced over but instead require diligent study and should be incorporated in your thinking and practice.
I will provide the Pinyin, for those of you who are interested, as well as the English translation.
Striking is Easy, Footwork is Difficult – Da Quan Rong Yi, Zou Bu Nan
Chinese martial arts theory is full of adages that stress the importance of footwork. The saying “Da Quan Rong Yi, Zou Bu Nan,” which means Striking is Easy, Footwork is Difficult, indicates this importance.
Posture and Stances play an important role in developing proper footwork. It is imperative that posture and stances be properly developed before proceeding to any of the various footwork methods. Posture refers to the position of the upper torso. Stance refers to the position of the feet and legs. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to give little attention to developing proper posture and stances. Some people even believe that stance work is useless. Labeling stances as useless is often due to a lack of understanding or possibly from bad personal experience.
On the other hand, some people overemphasize stance work. Holding stances for excessively long periods of time can build durable and strong legs, but this practice can also lead to a static rigidity that can be limiting in actual fighting.
Since footwork requires both stability and mobility, the principles of diligence and balance must be adhered to during training to produce the proper results.
Stances should be held long enough to develop a root and build strength in the legs but must be augmented with exercises that promote agility and speed, otherwise one risks sacrificing mobility. It serves little purpose to have a powerful base if you cannot take the fight to the opponent or evade attacks.
Like everything else in martial arts, stances have both strengths and weaknesses. Some stances offer more stability while others provide more mobility; what works in certain situations may prove useless in another situation. Trying to fight from a horse stance against an accomplished fighter is suicidal, but when used properly, the horse stance can be effective in a self-defense situation.
Jumping rope is an excellent exercise for building coordination, agility, lightness, and quickness in your footwork. It should be incorporated into your stance and footwork training program. It has been used successfully in boxing, kickboxing, Sanda, and other combative arts for generations, so its value should not be taken lightly.
Plyometric exercises are another excellent means of developing explosive footwork. Plyometrics involve having muscles exert maximum force in the shortest possible time. They make quick explosive movements that are designed to build bursts of speed and explosive power. Plyometrics are practiced in three phases:
1- The eccentric phase consists of rapid muscle lengthening
2- The amortization phase consists of a short rest period
3- The concentric phase consists of explosive muscle shortening movements
Repeat this three-part cycle as quickly as you can.
Keep an open mind and train diligently, and you will come to understand the saying Da Quan Rong Yi, Zou Bu Nan.