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Kevin Wilbanks · 07-01-2003, 09:58 PM

Sorry Brett, but that sounds a little crazy to me. Since there is no way to put most or all of your weight into one foot with the heel slightly off the floor for more than an off-balanced moment, that pretty much limits you to stances where your weight is somewhere between both feet. While this may be a good position for cranking and twisting, it's a position of virtual immobility. In order to step or slide, you need to be able to let your weight sink completely into one foot, probably mostly in the heel or in the mid-foot. If you don't plant your whole foot, or at least mostly solidly through the heel, you simply can't move, except to lurch or stagger. The only other way to attain some balance on the ball of one foot is to raise up into a ballet postion. This is just basic physics.

In general, I would say since mobility is what makes Aikido work, nitpicky details about how one stands two-footed are more important for quasi-static and slo-mo drills than for actually doing business in a dynamic scenario/event. In a fluid situation, one's weight will almost always be on one foot or transitioning from one to the other.

07-01-2003, 09:58 PM	#6
Kevin Wilbanks Location: Seattle/Southern Wisconsin Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 788 Offline	Sorry Brett, but that sounds a little crazy to me. Since there is no way to put most or all of your weight into one foot with the heel slightly off the floor for more than an off-balanced moment, that pretty much limits you to stances where your weight is somewhere between both feet. While this may be a good position for cranking and twisting, it's a position of virtual immobility. In order to step or slide, you need to be able to let your weight sink completely into one foot, probably mostly in the heel or in the mid-foot. If you don't plant your whole foot, or at least mostly solidly through the heel, you simply can't move, except to lurch or stagger. The only other way to attain some balance on the ball of one foot is to raise up into a ballet postion. This is just basic physics. In general, I would say since mobility is what makes Aikido work, nitpicky details about how one stands two-footed are more important for quasi-static and slo-mo drills than for actually doing business in a dynamic scenario/event. In a fluid situation, one's weight will almost always be on one foot or transitioning from one to the other. Last edited by Kevin Wilbanks : 07-01-2003 at 10:01 PM.