Why Footwork is Important in Martial Arts - Part 2 of 3

[Rex Cox]

Let's think about where Jujutsu comes from. In Japan two thousand
years ago, there were only weapon schools. They didn't have empty hand
martial art schools like we have going on today. They had weapon
schools back then. What did you learn in these schools of thought? You
learned how to survive deadly encounters while killing your opponent.
You learned the spear, the sword, the bow and arrow, the chain with
weights attached.
In all of these weapons schools you learned how to move your body by
moving your feet. You evaded a sword attack by moving your feet. When
you move your feet, you move your whole centerline, off the line of
attack that is threatening you at that moment in time. By learning how
to move while maintaining balance and learning how to swing, slash,
thrust, chop, cut, poke, hook, hack and whack at something with your
weapon while keeping your balance is what made you the warrior you
were on the battle fields back then.
Your armor only did so much back then. It really was your footwork
that kept you alive first and fighting skills second. When people use
weapons for real they are not standing still. Every encounter I had
where my aggressor had some kind of weapon, they were moving around me
trying to hit me without me grabbing hold of them.
It is because most people attacking you with a weapon, who are trained
in using that weapon, are not stupid. They know if you grab onto them
their chance of killing or crippling you decrease. If they do allow
you to get close to them and grab onto them, then they are in a
grappling type of wrestling match with you and they are trained not to
get into that type of situation. They are trained to be smart fighters
and to move around a lot making it difficult for you to hit them or
latch onto them. If you do grab hold of them, then they have failed.
You must be light on your feet to be a great fighter. My father was a
professional boxer back in his day. I heard from every one that knew
him, that no one could touch him; nobody could lay a glove on him.
They would tell me that his footwork was truly amazing. They all said
the same thing that he looked as though he was dancing out there in
the ring. They told me how graceful he was while hitting his opponents
at will.
That was all I heard about my dad from his friends that his footwork
was so amazing to watch. The first thing he taught me was his amazing
footwork but then I didn't care for it nor did I think it was all that
amazing. It's amazing to think what I knew then as compared to what I
know now.
My dad's footwork and my martial arts footwork coupled together has
made a huge difference in my life today and the way I think about my
martial art and my students safety.

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