Yoda's Kali footwork

Hi Yoda,

Thanks for the footwork triangle footwork drills on your website. Ive been hitting them hard all month and my training partner has noticed a "shiftiness" already in my movement when we spar or do sumbrada. It's the 5 beat closed triangle drills I think. I know that my footwork lags very far behind my foot and hand techniques and I dont think I am the only one. Most people I have trained with just use the triangles to illustrate stepping out to zero pressure and dont actually have an organized progression of footwork skills like you seem to have. I was hoping that you could help me out with the next level of drills. I would greatly appreciate it.

Elbowblast.

 

Hi and welcome to MAP - thanks for coming

Sounds like you're making some good progress. I'm going away for the weekend (leaving as soona s I get home from work tonight) see the thraed "Yoda's comin to Glasgow" in General Discusion - so I'll put some footwork progressions up for you when I get back - in the meantime if anyone wants to add some feel free.

Heres a big tip - the next level involves integrating upper & lower body

 

I would be interested to know what you visualize during a replacement step in the lateral triangle drill. Is it pulling your leg out of range of an attack, and stepping over footsweeps? Or is there another purpose I am missing?

Elbowblast

 

Hi

The replacement step in all the triangle drills is used primarily to maintain rhythm but also to give you the ability to replace it somewhere else and introduce movement into the drill.

For example - in the female open triangle if you put each replacement step about 6" forward you will move 6" forward as you do the drill - this is how you add mobility into your triangular footwork practice. Try this...

Do the female open - and work on moving forward - back - left and right - each time using the replacement step rather than the step forward, to make a change in direction. Travel forward for as far as your space allows then back, left and right - then mix them up at random.

Once you have that down pretty well add circular replacement so that you can circle left and right but still maintaining the structure and rhythm of the female open triangle.

Do this with the female and male open triangles and you should have a pretty good level of ability in moving around within open triangular structure.

 

thanks yoda,

I have this field near my house, so I will be putting in some serious time shifting the triangles all around it. It will take a while to work my way across it as it is a couple hundred yards long. I may need therapy after that training session. For the open triangles, do you pick upward and downward figure 8's to incorporate into the steps........ and then do roof blocks and shields as a pair......and just keep picking one or two brother/sister strikes or blocks and work them for a while as you shift around in an open triangle pattern to start off?

Also, I read a thread that mentioned your stick strike notation but the link was broken so I didn't get to see what it looked like. I googled it but didnt find where I could learn the notation. I wouldnt mind tracking it down as I have been transcribing alot of drills from videos and classes and it is positively painful to keep up in a class situation.

thanks again

 

The 1st step (pun) to integrating the upper body into your triangles is to use a basic downward figure 8. Start by using what we call 1 for 3 - One strike for three beats of footwork - i.e. Step right & strike fh, replacement step, step back, repeat with bh. Then progres to one for one i.e. six strikes per full 6 count open triangle.

I'll post some striking notation .gifs for you.

 

Thanks Yoda,

Just what the doctor ordered. I have some work cut out for me I see. I'm socked in with snow this week so I get a few days off work, this will keep me happy so long as I dont wear a hole in my living room carpet.

Elbowblast

 

Go for it and let me know how you get on.

 

Yo elbowblast - you still out there? How's it going with the footwork?

 

Hey yoda,

its going real well actually. I have been doing one for one upward and downward figure 8s with the open triangles. Its getting really nice so I started adding in some forward and backward movement on the replacement step while striking one for one,,,,,,,the sideways and circular movement still boggles me a bit while Im striking but it is a pretty cool workout. Kinda like rubbing your belly and patting your head. I wasnt sure whether you usually do the drill starting with an angle one or an angle two when you step out off the N "middle" so I have been doing both, its got good and different body movement both ways so I figured it cant hurt right? By the way, have you ever did repetitive footwork/stick drills while watching a movie? It kindof gets you in a zen mode. My wife was talking to me and I totally didnt hear her at all,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you might want to try it sometimes, might come in handy. ;->

elbow.

 

Sounds good - as a general rule you want to hit the angle 1 as you step with the right foot.

Next try using 6 count double stick - 1 for 1 with your 3 beat triangles.

 

Hi Yoda/elbowblast,

I've been reviewing and practicing my footwork patterns a lot recently too. Thanks for raisiing the issue elbowblast and glad you're doing well with the drills.

By the way I like the movemtn with the replacement step as opposed to the forward step - adds a different flavour. Can I just ask a question:

With the circular motion are you circling 180 degrees as in the numerada drill (i.e to bring you behind the opponent) or varying degrees to offset to a greater or lesser extent?

____

On a similar note I was watching two of the Dog Bros' tapes this weekend as I have 'flu. Series 1 - Footwork & Series 2 - Combining Stick & Footwork. Both are excellent and I wish I'd watched them more previously. I made notes and will be putting some practice in when I feel a little less like death warmed up.

Funny to see how things have changed between the filming of the first and second series i.e. the Sawtooth has now been renamed the upper and lower canine depending which way the triangles point. Also l very much liked the 'snaggletooth' progressions (I think you mentioned this in another post Yoda).

How is you DB training going by the way Yoda?

Cheers,


Dred.

 

I use a small rotation for circular footwork using the open triangles - anything up to about 45 degrees per step but often less. For 180's I use a variation of the closed / running triangles that I call the quadrant drill

Cool - do you have "Attacking Blocks" from series 2? It goes pretty much hand in hand with the combining stick & footwork tape - the Snaggletooth Series & the Attacking Blocks drill merge at a higher level - although the tapes only scratch the surface of the material.

Actually it hasn't - the term sawtooth is still used when combining the forward & rear triangles. The upper canine is generally refered to as the snaggletooth these days.

My DBMA training is coming along very well. With my current injury I'm getting some quality time at the moment in reviewing the reams of notes I took in LA - and using the tapes as reference to back it up & stir my adled brain I'm having to be very careful actually drilling the stuff - but I got a good 3 hour slot with in the other day with one of my senior Eskrima guys.

 

Hi Yoda,

There was a really good article on Doce Pares in the new "Filipino Martial Arts" magazine a couple weeks ago. I think I would like to take a peek at that website you made for Doce Pares, I will message you about it when I have the time really give it my full attention, how did I get so busy?

I have been interested in Silat as a parallel training path to Kali, thanks to a few posts here and some mpegs put up on websites. So I got a buddy to bring over his Kalasag Kuntao Silat by Roberto Torres, and I was really happy to see so many similiarities and reference points between the two arts, and different slants. On the footwork section I noticed Roberto did some lateral stepping that was almost exactly the drill on your webpage, is your Silat footwork almost interchangeable with your Kali/Escrima? I am wanting to get a hold of the Maphilindo tapes by Tucci and either Mande Muda or Bukti Negara (still got some investigation to do). Do you have an opinion as to which art, Mande or Bukti, would supplement the Maphilindo tapes better for a simple kali guy like me? And do you know of any silat footwork drill progressions out there to supplement the ones I am doing off your webpage and posts? Ok, that was a lot of questions all jumbled up so I better leave it here. The footwork is coming along real well. Talk to you soon.

elbowblast, master of the flying spinning headbutt.

 

Hi - glad your footwork is coming along

I don't really do Silat -so much to do so little time.

I'm sure Mike (Pesilst) will be able to help.

 

Hey! dont leave me out wheres the site maybe theres somthn i can add to my routine

 

Nothing you won't have seen before I suspect...

http://www.cea.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ceaweb/kali-footwork.htm

 

yes that maybe true but im always looking for new drills to keep it active and alive it was nice to see that you offered so much info. on the site i liked that GREAT JOB!! and ill pass it along to others thanx

 

How well do you think this would transer over to other styles of weapon fighting?

My foot works isnt the best for moving side to side only backwards and forwards, and mostly backwards.

 

I think it would translate very well.