Voiding

一步練錯百步歪。

One stage trained wrongly, a hundred wicked ones.

The more professional and elitist one’s training was, the more attention was paid to details. After all, the rule remains the same nowadays in the real martial world, commando training has nothing to do with regular troops instruction. Therefore, martial artists, in the old days, paid particular attention not to the benefits, but to the defects of their training. Quite the opposite of nowadays leisurely schools with their “if you do it correctly then it’s all good” motto.

Healthy Craft

拳講三術，技、醫、藝術。

Boxing stresses on three methods, skills, medicine and craft.

Skills deal with body and mind techniques.

Right Path

一步練錯百步歪

One stage trained wrongly, a hundred wicked ones

Apart from an external understanding, there is also internal understanding of such saying.

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.

Unreadable

縱橫逆順，直復不聞

Vertical or horizontal, against or following, straight or turned over is not made known.

縱 vertical, to jump in the air

橫 horizontal, at a right angle (as opposed to 縱), unrestrained

逆 to oppose, to go against, backwards, contrary

順 to follow, along

直 straight (as opposed to 彎, 曲 crooked), simply

復 turn round or over, to repeat, to return to an original state, hexagram 24th of the Yijing

不 no, not

聞 hear, smell, to make known

This last sentence seems to stress on the need to be stealthy, to avoid having one‘s intentions uncovered.

Tightrope

一步練錯百步歪

One step trained wrongly, a hundred wicked ones

See Light And Athletic Foot.

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.

Mind Your Step

打拳容易走步難

Boxing is easy, stepping is hard

To compare with 我教你一手，不教你一走, teaching you a technique but not how to move.

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”.