I've heard people call Wing Chun Lazy Man's Kung Fu. I know, shocking isn't it? They haven't experienced the pain of doing siu lim tau on one leg for half an hour and can't appreciate the inner strength involved in maintaing a posture for a length of time. Usually the classes I go to involve just this kind of strength - gong lik.

Last night though, sifu had other ideas. Last night was Wing Chun Cardio Workout Night, and it was designed to improve our footwork.

Footwork Exercise 1

The first exercise saw us pairing up with one being the leader and the other being the follower. The follower had to hold out a tan sau and the leader had to hold the other's elbow and lead them in random directions and at random speed (direction + speed is velocity, but that's a subject for my maths blog ). The follower had to ...yes, follow, but also maintain the tand sau and not show any inertia. That is, as soon as the leader goes, the follower is right there following the movement. Whilst moving, the follower had to use correct footwork. As well as footwork, this exercise used the follower's sensitivity too, so that the leader never had to push the follower too hard in the right direction.

Five minutes of running round the room in stance and using correct footwork left everyone close with heart rates clearly in the fat burning zone.

Footwork Exercise 2

In this exercise, the follower is at the centre of an imaginary circle using his/her bong sau and the leader is on the circumference with a hand (wrist contact) on the bong sau. The leader follows the circumference at different speeds and as the follower rotates/turns, they have to use correct footwork and remain in stance.

Footwork Exercise 3

Similar to the last exercise but this time each person is on the circle's circumference with the centre between them. Outstretched wu saus meet in the middle and the follower follows the leader as they make their random way around that circle. At this point, those whose hearts hadn't packed in did the last exercise:

Footwork Exercise 4

Two chairs facing each other.  The leader can go anywhere in relation to the chairs but the follower can only go round the outside of them. This means that the leader can go in between the chairs but the follower can't. Leader chases follower. Proper stance, correct footwork, both must be used.

I had a revelation this morning regarding my footwork practice. Previously I'd been 'shadow boxing' around an imaginary opponent, moving in, kwan sau, move to the left, bong sau etc, but I'd found it really hard. It was difficult to think of something spontaneous to do, so it was a bit disheartening to stand there thinking "what do I do next". The attention to both footwork and hand movements was too much.

So this morning after the usual hiatus between discrete movements (which shouldn't be so discrete!), I decided to break the task down to make it simpler. I decided to just forget the hands and concentrate on my footwork. There is a coat stand downstairs (this is at work before anyone else arrives) which I used as my opponent and practised my footwork around.

Moving to the left, moving to the right, advancing forwards - it was all so much easier now that I didn't need to worry about what my hands were doing. In fact, I was quite pleased with how my footwork was without that distraction. I imagine that after a few practisces like this, a newb like me would be able to introduce hand movements, once the actual footwork becomes second nature (does it ever?).

Footwork Details

What do you look at to determine whether your footwork is correct? Well, I was looking at:

• balance - probably the most important. If you are off balance - FAIL!
• foot spacing - just make sure that your feet are spaced maybe a shoulder width apart.
• foot direction - usually pointing inwards, but at the most parallel. Certainly not splayed out like mine invariably are.
• weight distribution - I was keeping my weight fairly evenly spread between left and right foot, sometimes with more weight on the 'back' foot.

When you start doing an improvised footwork routine you might find yourself looking down at your feet a lot just to check that their positioned correctly - don't worry. You need to reassure yourself that you're doing it right for an initial period of time, until the movements becomes second nature, and the feeling of your feet and legs becomes more familiar. Eventually you'll be gliding around like you were on skates, whilst keeping a close eye on your opponent.

When I chi sau it's like my feet are rooted to the floor. Even when my partner attacks I might move backwards but rarely do I deviate from that straight line between us. We face each other and trade blows! Duh. I know that I should create angles, move to the side when it makes sense to etc but at the moment you can have handwork or footwork but not both.

When it was drawn to my attention by one of the seniors that we should use our footwork more, my steps became exaggerated as though I was overcompensating. And because I was concentrating on my footwork and not my hands, I got slapped. Obviously the ideal is for the whole body to move as one; hands, feet and posture working together but before that becomes natural in chi sau, I need to practise this on my own.
I've been trying to think of exercises/routines I can do. So far I've come up with:

• forget the hands and just move backwards, forwards and sideways randomly whilst maintaing correct posture, stance and hands up in wu sau
• pick a focal point and move around that as though it were an opponent. This is much trickier. At work there is a pillar that I use for this before my colleagues arrive. I move forwards and do a kwan sau. Move sideways and go into a bong sau and then just mix it up randomly. There are pause between movements while I think of what to do next and the movements are very much broken down into discrete actions, but that's only until I become more familiar with the exercise and it becomes fluid. Wing Chun shadow boxing!