everything wrote: I love taijiquan as much as about anyone, but it doesn't seem famous for footwork (like say, baguazhang is).
But footwork is the foundation of taijiquan.
"If correct timing and position are not achieved,
the body will become disordered
and will not move as an integrated whole;
the correction for this defect
must be sought in the legs and waist."
Steve James wrote:I think that brings up some points.
One can turn left while advancing left or right.
How do the spins fit into the system?
Consider the movement from cross hands to embrace tiger return to mountain. Is it advancing diagonally to the rear?
So getting into these questions a little...
How DO the spins fit in? You've got inside spins and outside spins, on one foot or using more distinct stepping. If we're looking at it from a simple "direction of rotation" perspective, then the outside spin would be "look right" and the inside would be "gaze left".
What is Embrace Tiger? Is the step to the diagonal getting around a leg, reacting to a rear attack, training the kua, all of the above? More? In terms of steps, is it both look right AND advance? Does it have to be?
This is part of why I think it makes more sense to look at the five steps (powers) as mental energies or strategies than physical footwork. The form itself, then, as with the eight gates (powers) can be fueled with any specific combination of those energies in the context of a particular expression, and the transitions between them occur constantly in intervals of microseconds. Considering the strategies like this is similar, to me, to the Micheal Jordan video the other day discussing how to get around a defender.
Considering them just as the directions is perfectly valid too, I just think it gets a lot harder to stay consistent with it as you progress through the movements. Kind of like the first movements in the form that bear the name of the energies as good representations, I think the five steps as steps is just a sort of low level getting the idea in at a gross level that practice and study refines. Ultimately all words fail to transmit the experience, but what else do we have?