"Dead time": pitfall of natural stepping
Introduction In my article " How the internal arts work: Part 1 " I discussed the issue of "dead time" as it occurs in natural stepping. I also alluded to it in my recent article: " Reversing momentum: "dead time" or useful tactic? ". The topic of "dead time" is so central to my own martial theories, particularly those of the internal arts of China, that I thought it best to make this the subject of a dedicated article. After all, as I will explain in future articles, the internal arts go to great lengths to deal with "dead time" and other issues arising from natural stepping. Meanwhile practically every other traditional far eastern art also avoids natural stepping as much as possible, preferring what is known in Japanese as "yori ashi" ("okuri ashi" in kendo) and "suri ashi" - ie. shuffling steps where the front foot advances first, followed by the rear foot. Nor is this avoidance ...