Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Shifting Weight and Keeping Kua Relaxed

A common mistake of mine is to think too much about using the back leg to push, to the extent that my back leg's kua becomes stiff towards the end of the push. Too much power is generated by the back leg and that actually upsets my centre of gravity, resulting in something that can be exploited.

Stances are always about how much weight to put on each leg. 40% on front leg, 60% on back leg; 70% on front leg, 30% on back leg, and the list goes on. Every time, it adds up to 100%. Weight, in this case, is actually the amount of force being generated by your legs. What this means is that as you shift your stance, the force generated by each leg changes, with one leg using less force while the other using more.

My mistake is to use one leg to take up more of my weight, while using the same force from the other leg... which means the resultant force is more than 100%, which means there is a resultant force that continues to move my centre of gravity (instead of maintaining it within my two legs) and thus something that my opponent can exploit to upset my balance. Especially in pushing. When pushing, as you push with the back leg, the front leg will take up more weight. Which means you are supposed to push with less force from your back leg as the front leg takes up more weight. If you don't, you end up overextending the push (which is my common mistake).

Another thing that arises from this mistake is the kua of the back leg won't be able to remain relaxed if your back leg continues to push with the same force even as your front leg is taking up more weight. The back leg's kua becomes stiff. So as you push, focus on keeping BOTH kua relaxed; that would take away the force from the back leg as you shift your weight forward, keeping your centre of gravity within your two legs.

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