Footwork Fandango

Our last two training sessions have involved manipulating and disrupting our partner's footwork. Our own intent very quickly becomes an inhibiting factor to doing the work in that area. Everyone has a natural sense of how to recover balance and regain stable footing. Intent makes this occur more naturally. If I have strong intentions of doing a leg sweep type move on my partner, I will often project this intent well before I actually execute the movement. This projection is easily and often unconsciously picked up by my partner, who will shift their weight or move in such a way that I won't be able to do what I intended to do. I would imagine that from here, without realizing how intent is another dimension of work, that this problem would be solved by more complex itentions (fake leg sweep to groin kick, etc.) And finally, instead of doing any work, we all start trying to work various probabilities out on a piece of graph paper.

Relaxed movement is excellent at hiding, magnifying, or simply not working at all with intent. Those casual movements pass us by without notice. Pickpockets excel here. No one notices very much because the movements are very normal and do not attract attention. Techniques must be learned, and if they must be learned, then there must be some visible intent in using them. I'm sure that as training in these techniques goes on, the conscious thought process of execution becomes quicker and less noticeable, but that takes many years. Even after such training, there is still intent. This is not to say that technique is bad or wrong, it has its context in training. Why not just take the quick route and learn to simply do the work required (kick someone's leg out from underneath them, hit the arm holding the knife as the grip weakens for a moment, etc.)?

This is the type of work we've been doing. Disrupting the footwork becomes very difficult when attempting to do it from a mechanically timed perspective. And in this difficulty, more important matters (a knife coming for the throat) tend to be ignored. The first drill we did was to have someone kneel while the rest of the group walks around them punching eachother to take the focus off of the kneeling person. The kneeling person is simply there to observe and play. An easy trap in this drill is to try and take everyone down that walks past. The only goal is to observe. Push a little here, see what happens. Pull there, oops, that didn't work. Don't necessarily make mental notes of the observations--just get comfortable playing around with the feet and legs as they go by. From here, stand up, and do the same thing, but use the feet instead of the hands to push the feet/legs around. Every once in a while, a take down will happen with just a little push to someone's leg or foot. Don't get used to this happening, but do realize that even little movements can become effective in a gigantic way.

Now add an element of stress into the picture. The people that were walking around hitting eachother are now trying to hit you. Again, keep playing while escaping the strikes. Don't do anything with the strikes or the rest of their body other than escape them and play with their footwork. Keep observing what happens to their body with these little kicks. When this drill becomes comfortable, continue to break the form in other ways once you have disrupted their footwork. Don't necessarily get stuck in the pattern of "disrupt the footwork, then disrupt the rest of the form". You can break other aspects of their form first, then disrupt the footwork, then back to breaking the form... any combination will be fine. Work simultaneously on footwork disruption and other parts of the body. Be creative and keep intent out of the picture for now. Another drill that might enhance this work is the distance drill:

Have your partner walk at you. Move out of the way casually and follow them at a certain distance. This distance should be somewhere in the area of the "middle" distance. Vladimir describes this middle distance as being not so close that one is cramped for space, and not so far away that no work can be done. One way to measure this distance is to find where you are most comfortable striking somebody front to front. Too far away and you'll have to reach for it, too close and the strike will be less effective.