Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

Lately I have been working a lot on the walk. Been trying to get the bumps out and stay on the balls of my feet. I came across something interesting. Staying on the balls of my feet put a lot of fluidity into the walk. At first it felt very unstable and not balanced at all. The more I do it though, the more stable it has become. I get the feeling that I am catching my center during the walk. By this I mean it feels like I am inducing an off balance, but at the end of the step balance comes back and my center seems to be "caught". The more I work on this, the more unstable it feels to be on my heels. This weekend Jim Ellison was telling me the walk is a continuous motion and that seemed to fit with what I was feeling. I was wondering what other people felt while doing the walk.

Over the years I've experimented with a lot of different things. Big vs. little, fast vs. slow, and continuous vs. pausing.

Currently, I have a slight pause at the end of each motion where I come back to complete 50/50 balance. Right now, I am finding this pause to be beneficial because it helps me monitor my posture and weight distribution.

I've done the walk where you never quite come to a complete stop, and found it to be a beneficial practice as well. Staying in motion where your weight never really 100% stops can be a difficult practice.

Regarding weight on the balls of the feet, remember it's OK for your heels to touch so long as they aren't bearing weight. You might think about it like, "Can I slide a sheet of paper under my heels and have it freely move?" The heels touching can provide additional stability.

I have been working on the Tenkan Ashi step in the walk for a while now and need some help. In the transition coming out of the right side forward step to the left side backwards step I always find myself having trouble making it feel smooth and fluid. This step seems different to me. Anybody have any thoughts?

Have you checked out the video on this movement in the walk? I can't watch YouTube at work, and can't remember if this might be addressed in the video or not.

I would say look at the size of the step and how you're getting there. It's common to step too big throughout the entire walking kata. Also, focus on the turning action coming from the hip. This movement in the walk is nice because it covers both opening & closing hip functions. Preturn the hip and move it through space, then let the foot land under center. I know it sounds a bit strange, but just move your hip over there and your foot will find the right spot. Moving in this fashion will also help with the size of the step.

I also think it's important to regain balance fully at the end of each stepping action, living in the full moment of that action. We often don't regain balance & let our weight fully settle in the movements; instead, we are concerned with the next movement in the series that we allow our bodies to begin the next action without fully completing the one we're in.

At this point in my path I do not believe in putting all your weight on the balls of the foot.I focus my weight there, but I still have contact with the heel and the third balance point of the foot.

Is natural body posture to have all the weight on the ball of the foot? Something tells me no.

Here is my take, with a lesson from Lowry Sensei after it commmenting with his views.

Link to original article:
http://tomikiaikido.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... -feet.html

So the exploration of the stance we take in the Walking Kata continues. The stance is Shizentai, or a natural body posture.

As a young'n I was taught the Waking Kata. From the very beginning we heard "yoi" which was our command to rise up on the balls of our feet. As I recall we were taught that you should be able to slide a piece of paper between your heel and the floor. The entire kata, indeed the entire art form was to be practiced this way.

At this point of my development I would like to challenge this idea of constantly floating on the balls of the feet. The first point I would like to point out about riding the balls of the feet is this required the calf muscles to be firing constantly. In my humble opinion muscle tension just to remain standing is inefficient. Second, riding the balls of the feet causes "floating" to happen much easier. Floating is a balance break when your weight shifts forward and you become pinned on the balls of the feet as a result from body rise.

The New Idea - How to distribute weight on the feet

Stand normally and relaxed on your feet. Now focus approximately 60 percent of your weight on the balls of the feet, and let the remaining 40 percent dissipate through the rest of your foot. Your can keep weight on the heel. Just make sure more weight is on the ball.

This is how the foot works. Don't reinvent the wheel...er..foot.


Why not use your entire foot? It is natural, the way we were evolved to walk. We can through training make it more efficient. The old way of focusing your weight solely on the balls of your feet means you are balancing your entire system on two points, one per each foot. The human foot was evolved to carry weight on three points per foot! 1 versus 3. Which sounds more stable?

How weight is normally distributed.


Look at he above picture. For Aikido purposes switch the focus of weight (most weight) from the heel to the ball. Switch the (second most weight) to the heel, Otherwise this picture stands as a good example of what we should be doing to be relaxed dynamic and NATURAL.


Try the old way too, and use what works for you and your practice.

To which Lowry Sensei replied:

the problem with putting weight mostly to the heel is that you go to a resting condition-- wherein the body weight starts resting on the bone structure and the knee straightens-- we dont really want our knee to straighten because when striaght it is much more vulnerable to injury and it also adds a lag in terms of our potential responsiveness -- you are right to note that the calf muscles stay enganed when weight is largely on the ball of the foot and this also fits in with tomiki's ideas on "preparing the self" -- entering into shizenhontai is not total relaxation - but more like zazen -- aiming for an alert and engaged form or postural relaxation-- and yes you are right --it is "unnatural" it requires conditioned practice to make it your reactive default--shizenhontai is work not rest--
the whole foot in contact with the ground is good beacuse you get to use the heel as an extra stabilizer-- i think tomiki's sheet of rice paper analogy was an attempt to describe a dynamic feel in which the weight is bourne mostly by the ball of the foot (around bubbling well point) but that the heel brushes the floor and is still useful as a secondary stabilizer-- many folks have carried it to an extreme and tried to take all weight off the heel like a cat stance almost which is precarious and leads to the instability problem you mentioned -- more properly there is weight on the heel but the load of the body is predominatly carried on the ball of the foot -- the heel feels light and mobilized which in effect keeps your knees slightly bent which in effect keeps your hips and center engaged and your spine upright and relaxed-- alternatively: weight on the heels, knee(s) straighten, hips disengage, spine starts looking for something to lean on--time to go to sleep-- very relaxed but not very good for responding to threats-- what we seek is the best part of relaxation and naturalness with the best part of alertness and responsiveness