Footwork When Not Training

Footwork When Not Training?

Yesterday there was a training, but my mouth was still killing me and I didn’t go. 

So I practiced footwork at home. Wing Chun again, mostly, with a bit of Eskrima on the side. 

Eskrima footwork is pretty straightforward to me. I watch the videos and remember what SiFu taught us and then I do the same. I need one repetition maximum and get it right, then repeat many times. Or so I think. 

Wing Chun, however, is another beast. I already talked about the J step. I did my favorite exercise of going forwards and backwards, making sure I land with parallel feet each time I do it. While going forwards, I did Tan Da or Kwan Sao, and while going backwards Bong Sao. 

Needless to say, that right side wasn’t always parallel. The rest was easy to coordinate, I’ve done this many times. 

I got frustrated, and when I get frustrated I need drastic measures. 

I thought of something SiFu told us back in 2022. He was talking about a teacher of his, I think, and how he used Wing Chun footwork even when not training. 

Specifically, he told us about the guy just standing up from a place he sat down and how he turned his legs the Wing Chun way to do that. 
So I now have this idea of turning with the heels and landing parallel even when I’m not training. 
Since today I was a couch potato, like SiFu wrote in the group, I just did this while standing up to go to the bathroom or otherwise do something in the house. 
Of course, the right side was still not parallel… 

Lesson of the day: use Wing Chun footwork even when you don’t train. Make it second nature and maybe you’ll always land parallel someday.