Do you turn on your toe or on your heel?

[SanHeChuan]

I'd turn on the heel to shift from horse to front. No part of my foot leaves the ground. It took a while to be able to do it smoothly, which probably turns alot of people off.

For those that would turn on the ball, how do you keep your back heel from moving further away from your target? You could lose a several inches of reach like that?

Stand in a front stance with your fist touching the wall, perfect stance, perfect posture. Shift into a horse stance, now shifting back into a front stance on the balls of your feet, can you still touch the wall? Are you leaning more than you did before? Try shifting back and forth several times, how far away from the wall are you now?

[Ben Gash]

You don't. It increases the range of hip rotation, which has a positive effect on reach anyway.

[YouKnowWho]

Shuai jiao guys spin on the heel when throwing.

SC guys also spin on the ball of the foot. The reason is you can "hop" to adjust distance if needed. Please reference to the horizontal line (represent the ground) and foot position on all 3 pictures.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1379/heelup1.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9499/heelup2.jpg
http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/3053/heelup4.jpg

This principle in SC is called "支(Zhi) - support" that you support both your and your opponent's body weight on your "toes" for very short amount of time.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8125/heelup5.jpg

[Lucas]

which makes sense in the throw, more dynamic control that way.

[Ben Gash]

I was always taught to generate power from the heels.

While this may make perfect sense to you, it's biomechanically impossible to generate power from the heels. The heel is a bone, and a fairly isolated one (I think it only has one ligament attachment). Power in TCMA (indeed pretty much all MA) is derived from the Kua (core). All sayings about power from the floor etc are really about engaging your quads and glutes to power movements.
If driving off the heels was the best way to generate explosive power then olympic sprinters would do it.

[JamesC]

which makes sense in the throw, more dynamic control that way.

Why would you not want dynamic control in your punches and kicks too? Not to mention your footwork for entering, exiting, etc.?

[YouKnowWho]

For those that would turn on the ball, how do you keep your back heel from moving further away from your target? You could lose a several inches of reach like that?

In the past 2 days, I have tried to turn on my heel for at least a 100 times. everytime I have the feeling that my foot was "stucked" on the ground as if somone is pulling on my leg back. It's not a good feeling at all. Also I don't know how to generate power from my heel because I cannot "spring" like an olympic sprinter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74LHTEQ3EZY

Also the baseball preacher doesn't generate power from heel either.

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4...owbaseball.jpg

You don't move your hell back. You just re-adjust the direction of your foot. In the following 3 short clips, we can see the turning on the toes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Q4J9HPIvs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9heeLEeir4c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqTA0M4jTdw

[JamesC]

If driving off the heels was the best way to generate explosive power then olympic sprinters would do it.

Exactly.

[Darthlawyer]

While this may make perfect sense to you, it's biomechanically impossible to generate power from the heels. The heel is a bone, and a fairly isolated one (I think it only has one ligament attachment). Power in TCMA (indeed pretty much all MA) is derived from the Kua (core). All sayings about power from the floor etc are really about engaging your quads and glutes to power movements.
If driving off the heels was the best way to generate explosive power then olympic sprinters would do it.

Olympic sprinters don't start off of a flat surface. They start from a block that is at an angle to the direction that they want to go. Additionally, power and speed are different animals. The heel and center of the foot are more stable and allow you to generate more power from your core, rather than from your legs. I'd say that they push from both their heels, then rock forward and push from their toes as well. When you only worry about moving in one direction, you can do that sort of thing.

[bawang]

If driving off the heels was the best way to generate explosive power then olympic sprinters would do it.

mma fighters do it

[Ben Gash]

Olympic sprinters don't start off of a flat surface. They start from a block that is at an angle to the direction that they want to go. Additionally, power and speed are different animals. The heel and center of the foot are more stable and allow you to generate more power from your core, rather than from your legs.

SO much wrong with that. So what exactly are they doing for the other 98 metres????
Pushing off the heel pretty much exclusively uses your quads, the ball of the foot activates your posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, lower back) AS WELL as your quads. Which do you think generates more power from your core?
Power and speed are indeed different animals, but power and acceleration are the same, which is why we're discussing sprinters.

[Ben Gash]

mma fighters do it

What MMA Gyms have you been training at????????

[bawang]

mma fighters fight flat footed mang
everybody kno dis

[Ben Gash]

mma fighters fight flat footed mang

Most don't. Again, like I said, having your weight on the balls of you feet does not mean being on tiptoes. Your heel can still be down with the weight on the ball.

[bawang]

if u meant that yeah mang u r rite. as long as u dont pivot all the way up u b fine