The Brilliance of Circle Walking Part II

[Anonymous]

One of my first posts was “The Brilliance of Circle Walking”. Having gone through the Bagau Mastery program once, I’m more convinced of the brilliance of circle walking than ever before.

I thought I’d add an observation that hopefully will make more sense of basic walking and literally help you with each step you take. I don’t know if this will work for everyone. It may be a result of a lot of practice, you’ll have to let me know.

Stand on one foot. Lift the other over the floor about 4 inches or 10 centimeters. Now try to twist the raised foot along the axis of the foot, the axis that connects the three major points in the foot (the gate in the ball of the foot, the gate in arch, and the gate in the heel). When you twist out and raise the arch, notice the natural extension/lengthening of the foot and toes toward the ball of the foot. When you twist in and “collapse” the arch, notice the natural contraction/closing of the foot toward the heel.

Circle walking helps you perform this action with every step. IMHO it is the foundation of the most fundemental spiral that we eventually create throughout the entire body. The single palm change and walking should help you develop this spiral along the central channel of the foot. The foot itself twists back and forth, but the spiraling action of the leg counterbalances and stablizes this action while making it much stronger.

I had a friend who had a martial art teacher that said the beggining movement of any form contains the entire art. For us this starts with our very first step and the curving outside step embodies the yang spiral which is at the core of the Heaven palm change. The double palm change develops the twist in the foot further while maintaining the primary spiral.

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