rojcewiczj wrote:I definitely believe that footwork is very valuable, but that the only way to know if the footwork is useful is to understand the footwork as facilitating the position of the back. The better your footwork, the more easily you can maneuver your back, opening up more tactical freedom. Often I find CMA people practice a lot of stances and stepping patterns but, because they don't understand how a stance change or step effects your position relative to an opponent, they end up misunderstanding or, more often, throwing the traditional stepping out entirely.
How many Taiji people know how to use the "stealing step"?