Walking Straight

步不活则拳乱，步不快则拳慢

Boxing is confused when one’s steps are not vivid, not fast when they are slow.

打人如走路

Hitting is like walking.

一步練錯百步歪

One step trained wrongly, a hundred wicked ones.

Posture and semi-static moves learned, one finally could walk. Walking knows a lot of different kinds of training some with tools, all meant to first provide the best balance and rooting while having one’s roots in motion and, of course, also power and precision.

Still And Straight

腰不動，足不發 

The feet do not emit if the waist doesn't move. 

勁從足下起，還得丹田足

The strength rises from the feet on the prerequisite the cinnabar field is full. 

For internal practices, roots are an active relationship between the feet and the waist. Hence, moving the whole body while keeping the feet still is a way to work and enhance such relationship. Semi-static postures in the three-steps training were paying special attention to two things, keeping the feet as still as possible and the pelvis as straight as possible. 

Posture With A Little Twist

要知拳精髓，首由站桩起

To get to know the quintessence of boxing, it first starts with standing pillars.

练功不站桩，等于瞎晃荡

Training skills without standing poles, is like blindly swaying.

練拳無樁步，房屋無立柱

Training boxing without stakes, a house without stud.

In old training, first came posture, then stepping. Posture was a very important basis of any training, a way to learn to put one’s body parts in the most beneficial angles. Feet, since their position basically has a great influence on the whole body, head included, were actually probably the most important part to train.

Know Your Foot

力由足起

Strength rises from the feet.

足太陽之筋，起於足小趾，上結于踝

The fascias of the Foot Uttermost Masculin, starts from the little toe, linking up to the ankle...*

In internal practices, working on the feet means first posture then motion. Still, before even exploring those, it may be opportune to describe exactly what has to be trained as far as the feet are concerned. For such purpose, the foot is divided into five parts.

Happy Foot

打拳容易走步難

Boxing is easy, stepping is hard

步不活則拳亂，步不快則拳慢

Boxing becomes messy when one does not step lively, slow when one does not step fast

One who has studied long enough old practices may have heard about a story or two describing the importance ageing masters paid to step. A typical one is probably the student being finally granted to see his master’s training only to end up walking hours with him. Beyond this type of story lies, for the least, two principles, “to each his/her training” and “feet go first”.

Light And Athletic Foot

手腳眼為根

Hands, feet and eyes for roots

足膝效法乎坤，取其鎮靜厚載*

Feet and knees model themselves on The Feminine, fetching its unruffled largeness which supports and contains.

腳為四肢百骸之舟楫，一身之領袖，稍有不合，全體之氣俱不入矣，不可不細為區別**

Feet are the oars of all the limbs and bones, what leads the body, just a little bit uncomfortable, none of the whole body vapours can enter! They cannot not be meticulously diacritical

With 26 bones, 33 joints and more than a hundred muscles, tendons and ligaments, the foot is a complex machine often overlooked in training.