Learning how to walk, budo style

[tsudamisao]

A better way to walk

How do you walk? After initially learning the skill, most people do not seek to improve their technique. Once humans can walk well enough to serve their purpose (getting around, going to work) they stop improving their technique. This serves its purpose well in today's environment. There is little need for highly developed walking skills in the modern world. Some obvious exceptions are speed-walking, dance, and budo.

In budo, walking correctly is a required skill. As a skill used to approach your tori and change the area, it is very important that all the principles are in place. The body must be lined up pefectly (seichusen) and the body must go into the movement from a relaxation/minus movement. The body has to "fall" into the step to maintain the line. The body must move as one (juntai).

Humans cannot walk in a straight line because humans walk with two feet. If you watch anyone walk along right now, you can see each sway and thud of each step. Think of a big giant's steps, rocking and heavy. This is what regular people who do not practice budo seem like to those who learn to see. The movements are so loud.

Kuroda tells us how to do this "musoku no hou" (the way of no feet/step). He says that you must absolutely never kick/push off the ground at all. If you do, the movement will always be two beats. Your weight going down, then being pushed by the ground, stopping, and then pushing off again. Much too slow. If you kick, you cannot have absolutely fast movements. You have to relax into the step, minus movement.

This becomes easy when in actual keiko. Your body is always lined up on seichusen, and you are constantly aware of moving with quality movements. The problem is when we walk around, go to work, walk to the bathroom. To gain skill, one must always move with the principles in place. Budo is not just in the dojo.

One of Kaiso's students inquired at busen as to whether or not the students were being taught Kaiso's walk. Our instructor had not heard of it and after learning it talked about it. Kaiso's walk was like Marylin Monroe, the student had said. He said that each stepping foot was placed directly in line with the weight-bearing foot. Keeping the body relaxed, the step would obviously lead from the toe. The seichusen remains absolutely straight. This step causes your hips to sway. We were also told that Kaiso could walk through a crowd in a straight line. I would suspect his walking technique has a lot to do with it

I never liked the Kaiso walk, as I think it was a convinient walk for Kaiso, especially as it is easy on the body. But for bujutsu, I think a different style of walk is needed. The reason for this is that the hips sway in Kaiso's walk. The hips must remain level.

I have yet to see how Kuroda walk, but Kono reportedly walks as a samurai. Walking with the hand with the leg on the same side as opposed to the normal scissors movement. This is incredibly awkward, but this would enable a straight walk. I would think that as they mastered the technique, their movements would become smaller and less obvious. It requires great mastery of irimi.

Yamasaki sensei walks very quietly. Very slowly. Very straight. His head is a bit forward, and his body is completly square, with only the legs moving. The steps were always kind of shuffling.

I have found Yamasaki's style to be more useful to sk. I have been using this walk for some time now, and the urge to walk normally is decreased. The walk is becoming more efficient and softer. I believe this is correct at this time. Each step is simply to keep from falling down, and each step occurs by weight transfer.

The correct point of contact is always the ball of the foot, but this is obvious (except obviously in kagi ashi, ect).

I believe that this walking practice greatly improves your ability to hide your kehai, and improves movements in every aspect.

Walking is such a common movement that if we apply the principles, the sheer amount of practice greatly increases your proficiency.

Has anyone been taught how to walk better? If so, what are the points, and their rationale.


I welcome your well thought out comments.


tsuda misao

ps: let's think about kehai! what is it? how do we hide it? how does this work? is it bs? does anybody really know? let's think!

[Tripitaka of AA]

I have an urge to make flippant, facetious and shallow comments about my study of Samurai Chewing, Budo Blinking and controling my farts from tanden.

I... Must... Resist...

[tony leith]

Our resident international Man of Mystery does have a point. Mizuno Sensei lately has been stressing using your centre of gravity to move without effort - specifically for example in sashi komi ashi, rather than having any component of your motion being 'wasted' in springing upwards, to more or less allow your body weight to 'fall forward', with your front leg basically just preventing you from falling flat on your face. I've been experimenting with this for the last few months, and I'll let you know how it's going in about twenty years.

Sensei used the analogy of comparing the form of marathon runners using a conventional running style with the way that Japanese heralds used to run a couple of hundred km a day continually. A dynamic running style would be impossible to sustain, so their solution was to use the falling forward trick, i.e to set their bodyweight falling forward and have the legs just keep up.

The point of this in a Shorinji Kempo/self defence context is that any muscular tension (which you need to 'spring') in the body may well generate more power, but will slow down your reactions dramatically. For an art which is premised on evasion and accuracy, this is obviously counterproductive.

The extent to which we should be trying to do this as we walk about in daily life I don't know. I suppose by extension the more practice you get the better, but consciously trying to emulate Senseis even to the extent of copying their walk is taking things a bit far for me...

Tony leith

[David Dunn]

Tony... indeed, and as zero mentions to keep the same hand forward as the leading leg - "samurai walking" as sensei says.

[tony leith]

Presumably the 'samurai walking' thing would also have been to facilitate ready access to/use of weapons as well. I don't have a problem with that as a point of historical interest - I think it's very likely that several of our juho techniques for example derive from bujitsu techniques for dealing with people arresting your weapon hand (e.g. ryaku juji gote - 'You're not drawing that sword! -arrgh I find myself face to the dirt with my wrist in excruciating discomfort - what's that "schiing" noise - decapitate with one deft slice). Possibly also tsuki nuki, now I think about it, with the freed hand able to bring a short blade into play and emasculate/disembowel the opponent. Even soto uke dan zuki would be more comprehensible with a side handled baton being used to deflect an incoming weapon, with the point of the thing going right into the floating ribs. Nice.

Oh dear. Is it all too evident I spend too much time thinking about this kind of thing ?

Tony Leith

[Tripitaka of AA]

Time that you could have spent learning how to walk the Budo walk!

[shugyosha]

i've tried the Samurai walk for some time, but found it very unconfortable too, i prefer the calm and slow walking.

[Tripitaka of AA]

I apologise for my rather negative comments earlier. I really do attend this noticeboard with a desire to learn. I want to hear about these things, even if they are near impossible to describe without being mistaken for a kook.

I don't study people's gait but I have noticed some things. I have long been aware of the differences between Japanese and Western young ladies' walking style. I had put this down to footwear and the custom of removing shoes on entering a house. People in Japan wear shoes that are easy to slip on and off, they tend to have a shuffled walk instead of high strides. Knees tend to stay quite close together with little relative movement of thighs, all the movement taking place in the lower leg. This is during normal day-to-day life, when I'm oggling, -- sorry, observing --- the Office Ladies as they trek through the crowded streets of the busy city. Westerners tend to keep their shoes on all day, and typically pick styles without considering the ease (or difficulty) of removing them. Consequently, the chosen styles are more likely to be "fixed" in position and unlikely to slip off at the wrong moment. Western girls walk without fear of losing their footwear, and the gait is visibly different.

I had always considered "Samurai Walking" to be influenced heavily by the choice of footwear. What did Samurai wear on their feet?

[satsukikorin]

My sensei, Hiroshi Onaka, has talked to us on several occassions about something called Naniwa aruki which is apparently all the rage as a topic of study in coaching/training circles in Japan--not just for martial artists, but for athletes of many stripes. Naniwa is an old name for Osaka, and aruki means 'walk' or 'gait'. I think this is the same "samurai walking" that has come up repeatedly in this thread: the walker moves hand and foot on the SAME SIDE forward when walking, rather than left hand synched with right foot and vice versa, the way we naturally walk. If I recall correctly, the walker is supposed to use gravity far more than muscle power when making each step.

Ostensibly the application of this motion can be observed in video of Michael Jordan (basketball icon). From a standing, jockeying position, rather than pushing off to run past or around an opponent, he (reportedly) sort of falls past them. Further details are beyond me.

Maybe Mr Kehoe or someone else could do a little research through Japanese Google or the like. Apparently there is any number of articles and discussions to be found on the subject.

Another thing Onaka-sensei has spoken about is an old way for Japanese warriors to run: keeping one shoulder forward all the time. I think it was based on the principle of keeping your sword away from your opponent, but there was more to it that I have, sadly but typically, forgotten. Some principle of efficacy...

I have to admit that I'm pretty skeptical of a lot of what I've heard described. We move the way we move for some very good physiological reasons. I suspect it is a mistake to try to radically alter the way we naturally locomote, rather than to refine it as do, say, track runners. On the other hand, I can certainly imagine that other ways of movement can have great benefits on overall body control and in specific tactical circumstances. There's no doubt that doing a "gravity slip" here and there is a good solution--in fact, I think most of us who have played any kind of ball sport will have done it without ever being taught it. But walking is walking, and running is running.

Tony, what's this about heralds running hundreds of km's a day? I'd be interested to hear a bit more about them--Japanese name, time period and region of activity, etc. Honestly, I imagine that if they ran in a way significantly different from the way modern marathoners run, it would be because they were interested purely in distance, not in time. Their way of running would have been tortoise-like in contrast with the 'haring' modern runners.

These days there is a sport called ultramarathon. Does anybody know if practitioners use special techniques of movement comparable to what we are discussing?

[satsukikorin]

I think you're pretty far off the mark, David. Japanese women have two big influences on them that you seem to have overlooked: 1) a history of wearing kimono and sandals, 2) preponderance of pigeon toes.

Of course the kimono background doesn't mean they all learned to walk in kimono?\but their (great-)grandparents did, and they developed a certain gait that was then a model for posterity.

Think about it.

[Ade]

Just as an aside

Average walking speed is 3 miles per hour

using a conversion factor of 1.609 = 4.827 kilometres per hour with the stated aim of hundreds of kilometres per day

100km at this slow (walking) pace would take them 20.71 hours
= 20 hours 41 minutes

average running speed over long distances is about 7.5 mp/h
= 12.07 km/h

100km at this pace would take 8.28 hours
= 8 hours 17 minutes

All sounds fairly easy doesn't it?

I tried running 100 miles once, in 1988, at 25 years old, around the range road at the Sennelager ranges in Germany when I was in the army.
It was hard at the start, for about the first 3 miles, then you settle into a natural gait, which has no thought or effort, lasts about 50-60 miles, then it hits you, believe me, by the end of it we were all shuffling like little old men, it's not easy by any means or gait.

I don't believe that the way we walk is any more "a correct skill in budo" than a postive and alert mind set wherever you walk.

And I'm certainly not going to start copying the way any one else walks.

Unless it's John Wayne.

Ade

[tsudamisao]

Excellent contribution, Collin.

Michael Jordan:

If you are using gravity over muscle power, you are moving efficiently. In a book on Kono's bujutsu (fuantei dakara tsuyoi), they also talk about Jordan. They say he uses bujutsu style movements. That is why he is so fast. He does not only fall past them, but he moves in a very efficient way. If you fall, you are going in an absolutely straight line, which is the closest, therefore the fastest. He moves differently from other people.

Samurai run:

I have often thought about the best way to run. I think there are two ways. The ninja, and other guys who had to run very fast would run straight. They would fall into each step. This seems the most natural and best way to move the body from point a to point b, without worrying about an attack.

I think samurai also ran this way, when they needed to get somewhere, without the fear of attack (you could argue that samurai are always on guard forever, but...). If you watch Kurosawa's seven samurai, when they run they all run with very still heads and are tilted very far forward. I don't think they moved their arms much either.

But if was a fighting situation, where a samurai had to run and chase the lord to kill him, or run after a samurai, he would need to be able to draw in an instant. Then it might make sense for the body to be in hanmi and run sidestepping. I think this would be difficult to sustain over a long distanse, as the legs are not used to continuous side-stepping like that. Doing it this way would ensure going down the straight line. He could not run with his shoulders in line and have his legs and hips facing forward, as this breaks the rule of the non-twisting bujutsu body. You can never twist your torso.


Collin:

I am interested in what you are skeptical about Are you saying that agree with the theory, but don't feel the benefit? Or do you not believe in the theory? If so, which part? And why? Would you agree that ideally we should always move like that to gain greater technique? Would you agree that the bujutsutekishintai (martial arts body) is superior to regular movement in all sk situations (not running a marathon like a pro athlete, that might be just as efficient, if not more). or only some?

Does your instructor walk that way? Would you be able to find his source?


Walking culture:

I have heard that the setta/zori(sandals) had a great influence on the way everybody walked. I don't know if geta are very good, because they introduce corners to the movement. Do we walk like our parents? If so, is it because we have similar bodies, or because we copied their style?

I also can't see everyone in old Japan walking like this. Farmers had no time and no one to teach them. I think just the arts, no?

[Tripitaka of AA]

Originally posted by satsukikorin
I think you're pretty far off the mark, David. Japanese women have two big influences on them that you seem to have overlooked: 1) a history of wearing kimono and sandals, 2) preponderance of pigeon toes.

Of course the kimono background doesn't mean they all learned to walk in kimono?\but their (great-)grandparents did, and they developed a certain gait that was then a model for posterity.

Think about it.

The footwear to which I referred would be the sandals. The pigeon-toes would be from sitting in Seiza.

I shall be quite happy to continue my observations for further evidence ...

[shugyosha]

I have often thought about the best way to run. I think there are two ways. The ninja, and other guys who had to run very fast would run straight. They would fall into each step. This seems the most natural and best way to move the body from point a to point b, without worrying about an attack.

in the gorin no sho, musashi describe the footwork for run and walking and runing while fighting, and he obviously tested it, however its not sideway but straight, the heel of the foot firmly rooted on the ground, he goes on noting the importance of never jumping, so that would be a running with very short step.
have you seen Sas walking, they use very short and balanced step as well.
side way appear to me very impractical...

[Tripitaka of AA]

Have you seen the way Jet Li runs in "The Shaolin Temple"? He rides a horse the same way.. sideways torso. I assume it is to reduce the visible profile to anyone dead ahead - smaller target, less chance of an arrow hit.


Movie Wu Shu is hardly a reliable historical source... but almost as relevant as Michael Jordan!?