05/02/2025
TaiJi and XingYi For Self Defence Part 6
With coordination between above and below, the opponent will hardly find a way in.
In this line the importance of agile and balanced footwork is stated as is the importance of making sure that the footwork and hand techniques are coordinated and complementary to each other. Footwork makes important contributions to our fighting strategy in two crucial ways; control of distance and control of angle, that is to say the distance and angle between our opponent and ourselves. The importance of footwork was mentioned in an earlier TaiJI classic; Wang Zongyue’s TaiJI Boxing Treatise. The earliest known written version of this Treatise was published around 1880, it covers many strategies but to keep focused on footwork, distancing etc. I’ll look at just three short excerpts.
