ARTIKLER

The three fold of the human foot

Allow me to share some of my contemplations on the human foot.
Natural moments of the body starts in the food, goes to the hips and finally to the arm and finger.

The human food is actually not made for working on the ground. The is very little different between the foot and the hand of monkeys, as they equally used for climbing in trees.
The Human foot looks like the hand, but has lost all the abilities as many monkeys naturally still have.
If we should find the optimal “foot” for walking on the solid and rocky ground, the optimal creation is to be found among hoofed mammals, like horses, ox and goats. These “feeds” can stand all conditions and are never worn out. The human foot is too vulnerable, that men hade to rap them in skin for protection. Man had to create sandals and shoos to walk the earth.

If we contemplate the human foot, is constructed of three elements: the heel, arch and toes.
The heel is based on the ending of the lower leg bone. The arch of a complex combination of many small bones and the toes are terminals of bones in small lines.

These three elements in the construction of the human foot are basic for three different kinds of qualities in the movement of the body.

The heel and the hoof correspond to each other. When it is fixed in the ground the direction of the toes are determent and so the movement of the body. This is the aspect of Will. We see this quality used in the exercise of marching. Which are use to discipline all soldiers and armies thru history.
The bone of the heel is at such a point.

The toes are small lines. Mowing the body from the toes is use among dancers who want to expres the free movement of the body with out any resistant of weight. By touching the hot sand on the summer beach first with your toes you will not burn you feeds – and by testing the is on a lake in the winter, you protect your self from drowning. Our toes are expressing some kind of intelligence..

The arch is the elastics or flexible principle that create a unity between heel and toes or intelligence and will. Where this arch is flat, the walking of the person becomes duck like. The body is loosing its rhythm.

The threefold of walking

The step is also the manifestation of three elements.
When the knee is moving forward in to space, the heel is lifted a bit, and the food are lifted free of the ground. There by there is created an unstable condition of the body, as it for at second only is supported by one foot. This second movement a caring the body forward. The third part of the step is when the foot again are landing on the ground.
The relationship is made by landing on the heel or landing on the toes. The quality of the following movement depends on if the foot is touching the ground first by the heel or the toes.




Open and closed lines of the feet

The direction of the feeds when walking is also of important. If the lines or ankle are too open the walk looks like a clown – Charley Chaplin use this food position in all his performers and his walking made people smile – as he was a naïve fool. We have the impression that the person is falling backwards or falling “out of space” In other words such persons are badly incarnated or nor relay present in there body
If the ankle are too close, we often say that the person is falling over his own two feet and we have the impression that the person is falling in to space. If such a person kept on walking in that matter we could have the impression that he would walk down in to the earth or becoming smaller and smaller ending op like a dwarf. We cane say that such an attitude is the expression of persons why are to deep incarnated in there body. When this tendency become too strong we have the disease of spastic.

The open and the closed possession of the feet are here described in extremes, but it tells us also therefore how important the footwork in aikido is and especially when it comes to the Bokken and Jo work.

The movement and the quality of the footwork is mowing up in to the hips who are the balancing factor of the body and from there to the arms and out in the hands.

However by correcting the foot work of student is very difficult, because we here are touching profound resisters and instincts of the human mind.

I love to watch Sumo because all this is seen very clearly in this Budo.

Thank you.