"I am enjoying learning your lessons very much. As you said the internal movement especially gives a good feeling, even though I can only do just a few of them. I do have problems turning on the heels. It seems that I can not cleanly turn on the heel and some time I find that I am really turning on my front sole or the entire foot is in contact with the ground during turning.
I took several years of Karate before and familiar with several other martial arts, very seldom the turning is done on the heels. In fact, most of the stance is on the ball of the foot. I know you said that the power comes from the heel. Could you elaborate?"
MASTER HWA'S REPLY:
"Difficulties in turning from the heel are often due to the following factors:
1. Too large a stance or not sufficient knee bend. In this situation, when one shifts the weight to the front foot, the back footÃs heel will not be able to touch the ground.
2. Not able to lift the front of the foot off the ground. Lifting the front of the foot is not an everyday movement. Some people have difficulty in executing the lift in a timely fashion, especially when the leg is at an acute angle with the ground as in the case of the back foot when all the weight is at the front foot. Without the lift, one cannot turn on the heel cleanly. That is why the Tai Chi Walk lesson practices the lift movement.
3. Not using the power from the waist region to make the turn, instead of using power from the upper back."
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