2025-12-29

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

We had an epidemic of front foot “pre-movement” in class this past Monday, so we spent some time making it go away. We’ve all seen it … a student gets ready to step forward in front stance but, before doing so, rotates his front foot outward a few degrees. We also know why they do it … moving forward causes the shin to angle down towards the floor, which causes the angle between the shin and the foot to decrease, which can be uncomforable if you’re already a the limit of your flexibility. Rotating the foot to the side removes some of that pressure and, even if you’re not doing it consciously, the body eventually learns to make itself comfy on its own. Unfortunately, this is karate and “comfiness” is irrelevant.

So how do you fix it? Easy … just start with the knee bent sufficiently over the front toes in the first place. To put that another way, if the knee is forward far enough, it’s impossible to lift the ball of the front foot, so it’s impossible to rotate it outward.

In fact, that’s my “litmus test” for whether the front knee is far enough forward. We all know the front knee should be over the toes, but many people check by looking down at their knee and toe, which ruins their posture. Rather than bending to look, I ask my students to try to lift the ball of their front foot off the floor. If they can, then their knee isn’t far enough forward. It’s that simple!