Tony, thank you so much. You are a tremendous gift to this forum and I really appreciate you taking your time to explain this in detail.
I did not know step #4. All my weight goes onto my right foot and the left slides forward weightless. Then I jump out pushing off the right foot. I can play one more ball from there, but the momentum of the jump then carries me further out. And further out is death with short pips.
I will shadow your half a step to put weight back into the left leg. That is completely new to me.
Any time and happy to help where I can.
That half step is very important in many footwork movements. I see Euro footwork focus more on shuffle, but Chinese footwork has a lot more half step. Many times the half step and next movement is together, but it is actual 2 steps in 1 movement.
That is why I call it half (because it isn't a step on its own but need to go with another step to be beneficial).
I think once you practice number 4, then you can try going random (fh ball/bh ball etc)
get a feeder to do that, and once you can balance well enough, then going left or right is back to the normal way for you.
Oh and btw, if I give her another short ball after my first ball, she can still come forward to her right feet and do another attack (even though we all think she is moving back - if she is still on the half step, she can push the weight forward again).
That side step needs to be natural movement for you, no matter if the next ball makes you come forward, left or right or back. It will guide you into the next correct step.
So it must be your new best friend.
