Drills for foot work

[Stacy Clifford]

I've never danced, but floryshing without a sword is about the only vigorous exercise I can do in my apartment, and I agree it's a good one. I suppose you could mix the two a bit. Play a good rock song on the radio and try to follow the changes in tempo as you florysh, and try not to stop until the song's over. 3-1/2 minutes of AC/DC oughta getcha goin'. <img src="/forum/images/icons/cool.gif" alt="" />

[ElizabethPangerl]

My two cents on dancing -
Having some dance background (years of jazz &amp; tap and later dabbling in ballet, ethnic, and ballroom) has helped me insofar as increasing my awareness of whether or not I am positioned correctly for the task at hand. However, I'm not necessarily more coordinated or actually positioned correctly.

You see, I find that I am trying to separate dancing habits from fighting ones. For instance, one often dances on the balls of the feet, but it makes for an unstable and very poor fighting stance. Another bad habit I have is automatically retreating or being weak at the sword when my husband pushes toward me in sparring -- I'm "following" his ballroom dance lead.

I think dancing is a wonderful hobby that may increase one's sensitivity to how the body is placed, but IMHO, I don't know if I'd recommend it specifically to help with fighting. The fundamental differences in foot positioning, weight distribution, etc. for dance may prove to be an added obstacle in developing good footwork habits for fighting.

[TimSheetz]

What I found interesting when training a few dancers is that they are MUCH better at watching what you do, then replicating it. I think it comes from years of learning dance choreography and being able to do what a coach/director is telling them.

The less developed parts are always the psychological and learned mental habits. Developing aggressiveness is sometimes a challenge. I have taken to having folks who otherwise would never consider hurting anyone imagine that the scenario is their opponent is going to kill their family unless they stop them. That helps.

Peace,

Tim

[M Wallgren]

I´m going to try this idea that i dreamt the other night. I will build a sparring doll. My future brother in law is quite good at welding so he will make the "skelleton" out of ironpipes and we are gonna base it on a heavy socket of some sort. Then I´m gonna padd it with old cloth and stuff so we dont damage our swords and waisters so much. Now the good part. The arms of the doll will be plased as if it stands in a plough, and two larger diameter pipes will act as "hands". This will abel us to attach any weapon in the hands of the doll, and will force the person who drills to move around the point of the dolls weapon.

Will tell you how the experiment worked out later.