2022-10-05

2022-10-05, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I had a student ask me why we do a particular warm-up exercise today and, while I’ve never had that kind of question before, it was a good one. Specifically, she asked why we turn our ankles. For the exercise in question, we sit on the floor with one leg out, bend one leg over the top of the other, grab the ankle and toes of the bent leg, and rotate the ankle in circles, in both directions. Clearly the exercise is designed to warm up the ankle joint, stretch it out a bit, increase range of motion, etc., but why is that important for karate?

I often say that, if I could go back and talk to my yellow-belt self, I tell myself to forget about doing the splits and work on ankle flexibility instead. The ability to dorsiflect the ankle is important because it allows for a deeper stance while keeping more of the foot in contact with the floor. Likewise the ability to plantarflect the ankle permits mae-geri keage to be applied to higher targets than would otherwise be possible.