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I’d just like to post about my experience with mud walking so far and see what others may experience.
The core of it that I have found is in the feeling you get when you come off your back foot. It actually feels like walking in shallow mud when your foot leaves the ground evenly. Sort of like a suction cup feeling. After getting that working I’m now starting to feel the effect of that suction vibrate up my legs to my lower dantien, such that when my back foot comes up I can feel it (very slightly) in my lower dantien. I believe this is the start of the “whole body connectedness” that we’re after, where you can control your whole body from the way you use your feet. Either that or I’m reading too much into it.
Does anyone else have any subtle points that might be worth mentioning?
Hi Cameron,
I have a similar experience with the mud walking sensation your describing here. Maybe this is a different way of describing the same thing… (it’s so hard to describe these subtlies).
My instructor likes to say that the walk has a sense of walking backwards, while still moving forward. This is primarily because of the way the motion of the rear leg is propelled forward while the front leg is transitioning from full to empty, then causing the rear leg to be “sucked” forward and flow into the next step.
As I transition from full-rear-foot to the empty-front-foot and the weight exchanges, the rear-foot seems to come from under the ground while transitioning to the next position. I have the sense of literally walking through the mud as the name implies, which I feel from just below my knees to my feet. In the straight line it’s much easier to feel.
I’m also getting more of a full-body-thing, and a twisting-thing happening rather that a dantian-thing when I’m walking the circle. Here, the power of the circle walking is forcing me to twist inward as if I’m being torqued from the central channel to face towards the middle while I walk, rather than just maintaining the straight-ahead circle walk, which I normally start out with. The torque of the inward/ko step seems to drives this. The same leg, as it “unwinds”, seems to drive the other inside/straight-step-leg to pump forward as well.
Anyway…
Just sharing my “work in progress”.
Steve
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