2024-05-06

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

Barely a night goes by that my classes don’t end up in at least one unplanned discussion. Tonight’s unintentional topic was keeping the back heel down when moving backwards in zenkutsu-dachi. This is a very common problem. It’s not that lifting the heel, in and of itself, is bad. Rather, it’s that lifting the heel shifts your weight forward, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to be doing when you’re trying to move backward. So how do you fix it? It’s easy. The best way to keep your heel from coming off the ground is to put enough weight on it that you can’t lift it in the first place. To do this, just shift your hip backwards, almost as though you’re changing from zenkutsu-dachi to kokutsu-dachi. The trick is shifting the hip backwards immediately, almost as though you’re trying to load the rear leg. This isn’t some fancy trick that depends on flexibility or skill, it’s just a timing thing. Move the hip first and the heel stays down. It’s that simple.