![]() Often, even with advanced practitioners, by not raising the toes there's a tendency for the arch of the foot to collapse, which can create an inward roll of the ankle so that the weight ends up being carried on the inside of the legs. It also allows for optimal hip position and this combined alignment from the feet through the knees and legs to the hips provides the proper koshi stability for swordsmanship. This then allows the outside muscles and tendons of the legs to carry the body’s weight and ensures that when the knees bend they do so in the direction towards and directly over the feet. It raises the arch of the foot and engages the use of the outside of the foot which inhibits inward ankle roll. In terms of the riai, or underlying rationale of this essential fundamental that I was taught, the raising of the toes does several important things.įirstly, it creates a proper foot tripod for ideal stability. He said Musashi’s teachings were not alone in describing such footwork Ishida sensei was taught similar principles in both Owari Yagyū Shinkage-ryū and Enmei-ryū (2). Therefore, Ishida sensei would always teach that the toes should be raised, especially the big toe, and the heels be attached to the ground. He went on to instruct that while keeping the toes down, raising the heels and bouncing on the balls of the feet to push off from or rotate from might seem natural, traditional Japanese swordsmanship stemmed from a battlefield art that required wearing of Yoroi (armour) that weighed from 20kgs (44lbs) up to 30kgs (66lbs). In fact when I asked Ishida sensei why raising the toes doesn't seem to be widely used in Japanese swordsmanship, he said it was not very common in koryū nowadays because of the influence of Kendō, Gendaibudō and other modern sports, and that particular way of moving was rarely taught anymore. Truthfully, until I met Ishida sensei I had never seen any shihan or practitioner, especially within Musashi's school of Niten Ichi-ryū, use this characteristic that Musashi admonishes, let alone any serious reasoning behind it that, in my view, had any merit. While these ideas may be true, they do little to explain how raising the toes affects the biomechanics of your body and movement, and its impact on important things like stability and weight distribution, and possible power generation through the heels. Such as, it may be easier to step on and trap an opponent's foot or to avoid stubbing your big toe on a rock when fighting outdoors. When I spoke with various senior practitioners and teachers in my early years of koryū kenjutsu training, about why Musashi instructs us to raise our toes, various theories were suggested to me. Now let's consider Musashi's comment "you slightly raise your toes and push off your foot from the heel". This is important when considering Musashi’s statement that "the way of moving is no different from normal walking on a road." The ipsilateral or namba-aruki movement has a profound impact on the human gait, and the way in which parts of the feet are used to maintain stability and generate power, that are uniquely suited to Japanese swordsmanship. This is why Bushi, centuries ago, learned to change their method of walking to an ipsilateral way, called namba-aruki, where the arm and leg from the same side of the body move together, rather than opposing sides using a natural contralateral way.Īdditionally, the contralateral movement includes a heel-to-toe walking motion, where kinetic energy transfers or rolls into the ball of the foot as the heel strikes, and then allows for pushing off the ball and toes of that foot, rather than the heel. However, within the use of weapons, especially Japanese swordsmanship, we seek to use and allow rotational trunk and aligned whole body movements to initiate and generate power, after which it's typically converted into forward momentum. It has also been shown that the contralateral arm swing has an essential role in increasing the stability of walking by preventing rotational trunk movements. The key feature is the contralateral swing of the arm and leg, along with a twisting of the waist, that results in reduced energy consumption while walking. So let's consider the second above-mentioned statement first.Ī universal feature of a human bipedal gait is an autonomic process consisting of coordinated movements of the upper extremities, lower extremities, trunk and pelvis. ![]() ![]() ![]() Musashi commented, "To move from one place to another, you slightly raise your toes and push off your foot from the heel, forcefully," and stressed "In my strategy the way of moving is no different from normal walking on a road."(1) Collage of Nitō-ryū from a 1661 Denshō document
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |