The Floating Foot

The term may conjure up images of something out of a teen age mystery novel but the reality is that it is one of the principles of Shou' Shu' that flows through each of the seven beasts.

I've scratched my head over this one quite a bit and I do believe that I am pretty safe in saying that the floating foot principle is prevalent in some way or another in every motion in Shou' Shu'. I'm aware that stating an absolute is dangerous and just wanting of being disproved. But the principle is so prevalent in the art that I think anyone will have a hard time finding a point where it does not exist.

There are minute transition points where the floating foot principle is not at play. Each of the seven beasts utilizes these points but they are generally only momentary. Generally they are a change of direction, a transition through a stance, or a passing through center.

Examples would be:

• The bear will plant on both feet. It is actually his weakness. He utilizes floating foot when moving linearly (which is how he moves most of the time). But the bear can touch the foot to change direction. When doing so he'll touch flat footed.
• The Tiger because of his softness in his stances can oftentimes have both feet planted. This allows his fantastic ability to pass through stances and is definitely one of the strengths of Tiger. More than any other of the seven beasts the tiger will have both feet on the ground. However his non driving leg is so soft that it is very much like a floating foot.
• The stutter step utilized by the mongoose. The stutter step is a principle used by the mongoose generally used for a drastic change of direction. It allows the practitioner to set the foot on the ball and not be committed to any direction. Since it can reinforce forward, backward, or in a circle it allows for quick direction changes with formerly being committed to that direction. It can be found in a few of the belt techniques such as Side Hand Staff A,B, and C and also in Passing Mongoose among others.
• The crane can root both feet. There are a couple different unique instances of this. The first is when he'll plant both feet with the pressure towards the insides of the feet, essentially wedging into the ground. The second is when he'll plant one leg onto the other. Even though only one leg is planted onto the ground, the feeling is as if both are.
• Preying Mantis utilizes momentary planing of both feet in a circular fashion. Even though his motions seem linear he can push internally in a circular manner. For instance the front foot can push in a circle towards the back foot which circle all of the energy forward. Since it is internal it is very difficult to perceive. But as soon as he lunges this energy goes into the floating foot principle
• Cobra will touch the front foot to complete a circle and change direction. He can also plant both feet in constricting motions.
• The Imperial Dragon will touch both feet as a transition. This allows for coils in either direction and throwing weapons such as tails in any direction

But all of these instances are momentary transitions. The majority of Shou' Shu' motion the floating foot will be the dominant principle.

So what is this principle? I think it is one of those principles which is fairly easy to define yet extremely difficult to master. Simply stated the floating foot principle is that of constantly being in a stance yet one foot is barely floating above the ground or simply not exerting any pressure onto the ground. The practitioner is constantly in or transitioning between stances yet not immobilized by that stance.

An important aspect of the floating foot is that the stance is very good. The brain will try to balance out the body by weakening the stance while learning the floating foot. This is one of the things that makes it difficult to learn. If it's a horse stance the weight must be 50/50 and the centerline perfect. Any deviance and the floating foot loses it's power. While each stance will have different weight distributions and possibly centerlines they both must remain the same whether the foot is floating or on the ground.

Done properly the foot will not have the tendency to go down but to float lightly above the ground. If the practitioner is not driving the motion will be downward ad the foot will have to touch. If the practitioner is driving the motion will be on a horizontal plane and will continue until there is a drastic change in direction or the stance has run out of drive.

Easily said but hard to master.

If you've studied Shou' Shu' for any length of time you have worked with it constantly. It is one of the principles that strongly defines Shou' Shu'and makes it what it is.