Mud-Stepping
Air Avatars Know Nothing About Mud Stepping
Published Friday, October 17th, 2008 by Steven Smith
Many Baguazhang Styles Avoid Mud-stepping—It’s Difficult
Mud-stepping is a peculiar method of gaining….[doh! the why and what-for of mud-stepping is for a different article].
How-To-Mud-Step seems simple—
- Slide your weightless front-foot forward,
- Quickly step onto it,
- Swishing the old back-foot past the new back foot,
- Never pick up your back-heel before your back-toes.
It’s not a sequential order because it all happens so fast!
It’s tough at first. There’s a nnnrrghhing sense of lifting the foot without lifting the heel first. How do I do it? You’ll wonder. Doesn’t it seem natural to push from the toes?! Then you’ll fake it, pretending to not-lift the heel before the toes, gently pressing from the toes.
Many (I bet most) Baguazhang styles and even more Baguazhang instructors never bother with mud-stepping. That’s fine; many versions of Dong Hai-Chuan’s Baguazhang exist, thrive, and produce martial artists. Tension, difficulty, and lack of understanding drive folks to avoid mud-stepping.
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