A few corrections if you don't mind. 1, in skiing you do not have your weight solely on either the front or the rear of the foot, your weight should push down into the ski through the centre of your foot. (you should push the arch of the foot into the ski) 2, it is very European to turn on the balls of your feet with the heels lifted and very Japanese to turn with your heels touching the floor. When I 1st started training in the early 1970s the Japanese instructors spoke very little English, so would have exercises for us to do that would force you into the correct posture because they did not have the language to describe their theory behind technique. As a result we ended up with many rigidly enforced practices that were born of ignorance rather than actual knowledge. Now that the world is a smaller place with much better communication skills available we have much more access to the theories behind the techniques 3, turning on the heel or the ball of the foot Is different for each movement that you are doing so the statement that to turn on the heal is wrong is too simplistic. 4, the ability of the skeletal frame to turn of the heel and maintain balance requires extreme flexibility of the ankle so for most beginners ankle flexibility is a big issue. (Hence the ignorance we had early on) 5, the statements made in the video over your balance point being forward of the heel is correct but your description implies that if your weight is not over the heel than it needs to be over the ball of the foot which is not always true. (a comprehensive lesson on the subject would take 2hrs so this video is a little bit too concise for clarity) Ps It great to see your videos with theory content that was not available to me when I 1st started training so thanks for sharing. Rob, 3rd Dan JKA & an accomplished Skier 😀

After training for years and speaking in depth about this with several high level karateka sensei, to include a university physical education bio-mechanics teacher and top uchi deshi of Masatoshi Nakayama (former chief instructor of the Japan Karate Association), a kinesiology academic, a physicist and a mechanical engineer, I can tell you they all said "it depends". They all agreed for basics, the 270 degree turns in the kata, etc. are most bio-mechanically correct if performed pivoting on the heel. But depending on the bunkai (throws, etc.) the turn is used for, it may bio-mechanically be more correct to pivot on the ball of the foot. So Glenn is correct. "It depends".

One of the reasons boxers are some of the hardest hitters in the world is because we fight on our toes. If you leave your heel planted you might as well cut off your calf muscle cuz your not using its full potential and mostly relying on your quads for forwarded momentum

From my experience it's one of those cases where "it depends". Heel turn makes sense some times and not others. Ball of the foot makes sense some times and not others. Why does everything have to be so black and white.

I learned in TKD(itf) to turn on the balls of the feet. This is the first I've heard of turning on the heal. Old school TKD is basicaly korean karate, which came from Shotokan.

Turning on your heels prevents hurting your knees. Specially your meniscus.

I have spent quite a long time going back and forward on this. I am now of the belief (at the moment) that both need to be used depending on the type of turn and movement required following. There is no right or wrong and both can be applied with benefits over the other. Without going into too much detail, I think in general an offensive movement following the turn would require heel power to allow the linear movement forward and the toe/ball if a more static/defensive technique was required following the pivot to allow oneself to 'dig in' to the ground.

I know some karate styles turn by heel but in over 30 years of Goju I have always been taught turn or pivot on ball of feet. This is what I teach my students. When moving sideways always slide over the ground never step as balance must be evenly maintained.

FUNCTION FIRST Situation and circumstance dictate what will and won't work. In this case, you have to consider the fundamental variables of: 1️⃣ Base of support 2️⃣ Center of mass - Line of gravity (weight distribution) 3️⃣ Movement intent - how and why your moving. How you pivot is related to where your weight is when you start the pivot. Your base of support and weight distribution determine what is the correct way to functional pivot in that situation and circumstance. If you're in a back stance pivoting on your front foot heel is no problem (it's functional and possibly even optimal depending on how you shift your weight) However, if you're in a forward weighed front stance you need to pivot on the ball of your foot. it comes done to use the right tool for the right job... and use it in a functional manner to achieve the desired result.

I just recently stumbled upon this matter when I started chinese martial arts (having trained shotokan karate some 14 years ago up to 4th kyu). And one first correction from my master was to have me give up the heel turn in favor of the ball turn. This in my experience allows for more flexible hip rotations whilst I am having difficulties keeping balance when executing powerful techniques...

Power comes from Hara (腹). It's the engine of all our mouvements. Arms, legs, hips even the heels are just tools. So instead of holding long discussions, we have to practice many times our kihon, kata and kumite and we will find out, how our body is working in the best way together with our mind and our breathing.

This has helped me a lot with my transitions from stances 👍👍

I don't know. When I kick a mawashi geri, my ground foot turns in the front part, not on the heel, when I advance, the weight also get on the front part of the foot, but turning, whit the heel seens to work better for me, being easyer and making my base goes a little bit frontwards. In Bassai Dai too, when I get in the heiko dachi and get my fists togheter, than punch, give uti-uke, turning to the side, than do it again to the other side. if I do it in the bol of the foot, I will stay in the same place, but if I turn with the heel, I'll move and get my body out of the enemy attack with less effort. Is what works for me, so I think that is a big DEPENDS. Information is always good tho, I'll keep that new idea in mind.

fight outside in the wet grass, loose gravel, or mud and you'll find centering on the heel keeps you from slipping and falling. When raw power is needed, power generated from the heel is stronger, but may need to be directed towards the correct vector using the rest of the foot. if your target is in line though, power from the heel is supreme.

100% agree and have been teaching this for many years.

Excellent explanation.

There is a lot of incomplete understanding of where the "ancient traditions" come from and where they are meant to be applied. When you turn internal martial arts principles into hard styles and take infighting/grappling principles and try to apply them to blitz style kickboxing strikes instead of blending parries into counter attacks you should be borrowing from different ancient traditions. Heel turning is for wearing shoes and is usually about changing direction or as part of a whole body shift for blocking/parrying/throwing and for tai-chi style strikes that use the body as a whip instead of firing strikes straight like a bullet from a gun. If you practice on bumpy/uneven ground in regular clothes and with work shoes it requires a little different footwork principles than competing on a smooth floor or mat. The footwork this guy criticizes isn't suppose to be for moving forward to attack, it is for sliding to an angle in response to an attack and changing direction to drive directly into the opponent.

Please sensei, do a video with explanations on turning and stepping in stances as well as changing between stances. 🙏🥋

Very good point !

I tried Heian Shodan on my heels and on my toes while turning... Lost balance several times on my toes and was faster on my heels... Incorrect, yet effective?

Great stuff!

Interesting. In our dojo we were always taught that the proper pivot point was just behind the ball of the foot so as to minimize lateral movement.

Certainly worth thinking about. The most compelling part of the argument is that everything about the human foot is biomechanically evolved/designed to transfer energy from the heel to the ball of the foot when moving forward (even backwards for that matter).

This explanation by Lucio Maurino is a sort of milestone: now we know what to link to when the usual "heel vs ball-of-the-foot" debate rises!

Shotokan Karate was invented in Japanese universities in 1950s (traditional?). It has many strange things and heel turn is one of them. In traditional Okinawan Karate you turn on balls of the feet 99% of the time.

I was always told that if you turn on the balls of your feet and fall forward, your toes catch you, and if you fall back, your heel can catch you. And any time i accidentally turn on my heels my instructor asks what would catch me if i lose balance and fall backwards

Power doesnt come from the heel..nobody says that. Power starts from the heel and goes up to the hip and with the rotation of the hip body shoulder you put more power to the punch. So it starts from the heel ( ground).

hmmmm....cool! i'll give this a try on the tatami! so used to turning on my heel, not sure if i can 'unlearn' it?

Would be cool to test this on a punching machine. I think turning on the ball of your foot will create the most power as you are moving more mass towards the direction you're punching however, driving from your heel is good for countering. This is because turning on the ball of your foot will be very slow with backwards momentom as you have to then throw alot of weight forwards. A sudden straightning of the back leg (through the heel) will stop all that momentom going backwards and you will be able to deliver a powerfull strike fast and with power. In short, turn on the heel when going backwards and turn on the toes when going forwards.

in Taichi we can turn on the heel or the toes depending what we want to do. for push or punch hip and heel turn will leave posture higher and turns faster. hip and toe(Ball of foot really gives a deeper slower posture and movement. for spins we use toes if we are spinning toward the centre of our body and heel if we are spinning away from the centre of our body. to develop balance skill the body needs to be challenged to balance on the heel sometimes.

I find that I maintain less balance when my heel is off the floor.

I do not agree. There's not a general rule: it depends on what you intend to do with your upper body. Some Karate schools use "soft" blocks, generally associated with backward movements. Other schools, Shotokan, for example, uses blocks as an attack, so turning on the top of the foot will make you to go 10 - 15 cm backward , reducing the effectiveness of the block. Shotokan's Unsu Shiho Tsuki combination is an example

Just now seeing this, and I am curious? would love to see a demo of the heel turn you are talking about. Growing up, turns were always on the balls of the feet. Like you said in the comment below the video, yes a front stance, the heel stayed on the ground, but the foot (entire) was the focus of gripping the ground, and where the push came from. If the heel had to come off the ground, it was usually an indication the front stance was to long. So I am curious about this heel turn you talk about?

Soke Inoue must be in a lot of pain hearing this, in heaven

I'm glad we are talking about this. We need to always improve on our form so Karate is always relevant to today's requirements.

I will disagree. We use different parts of foot for different turns. No one puts weight on their heels in ready stance or when they drop, no one I know anyway. No one puts weight on heel of lead leg and only people that don't understand the stance move the foot and then step rather than load. While there are always exceptions to each rule we do majority of forward turns on the ball and backwards turns on the heel. I will give the example of heian shodan. Take one of the 180 degree turns. Are you telling me it is natural to keep your weight in the ball of the foot of the support leg in that turn? Even people favoring the ball of the will do part of turn on heel and then when moving forward switch to ball, but that allows heel to kick back a few inches. Only way I can see ball only working for such a turn is if you put leg through to finishing area first and then turn. Not something we do here.

in my shotokan nakayama line the ball of the foot is allways were you pivot , never the heel, also when you move the ball of the foot allways contacts first, damn even in mawashi gueri, raise toes turn hips contact with ball of foot ( front 1st third of foot)

See carefully when Luca Valdesi do for example Gojushiho sho, a spin in the middle of the kata after nukite, he turns ofc. lightning fast, but on the heel.

Pivoting and balancing on the heel doesn't sound like a very ancient concept, taking to account the old saying that a Karateka should always stand so that a piece of parchment can be slid under his/her heel.

I interpereted the turning as on the sharper point of the heel with the smaller surface area then driving the ball of the foot with the calf and the tilting of the foot as the strike closes in to the snap, or kime(?) Would be the obvious choice as it uses all the muscles of the foot while turning on the smallest point while still connecting with the more solid base of the whole foot being planted

I've always been taugh that in goju-ryu heel-turns are the exception. Just look at the katas (done correctly) and try to find heel-turns.

There are still some valid reasons for learning the heel turn. There are times when you definitely want the rear heel down. The force for a blow tends to flow from the leg opposite the striking or blocking arm. So when doing a gyakuzuki it is not that important if the heel rises on your rear leg at impact. Most of the force comes from the other leg. But when doing a standard block or oizuki the rear heel must be down for there to be any force in the technique. Plus when doing a spinning backwards 270 degree turn or even 180 it feels much faster with the rear heel down. I have not timed the two, but it seems more energy is transferred into the technique. In kumite these sort of turns are rarely used so I would agree that then not using it may be more effective.

This is awesome and makes sense but I'm assuming when performing kata in order to get correct detail it's heel turns?

Agree 100 % with Sensei Maurino. Turning on the heel is wrong and puts unnecessary strain on the knees.

in boxing, muaythai, shorinji kempo and silat, they don't nail their heel to the ground, they lift the rear heel a bit and leave a little room. When they strike, be it reverse punch/strait or jab, the rear foot of the ball (zen shokutei) is pushed backward as the driving force to start the whole body mechanic, sending the drive to the hips and then to the limbs/striking arm.

Its true that power doesnt come from the heel, but it is the axis point which makes certain all the generated power goes forward and not backward. It locks yourself in the ground. Just like its near impossible to generate power when on ice.

Hmmm I train Shotokan and we pivot on the ball of the foot NOT the heel.

I turn on a mid point between ball and heel (or may be I do half turn with each part)

its depend wihch situation you are .sometimes you do pivot on the heel some times not.

I agree with him. Heel turn is wrong, but when you punch you have to have the all foot soles on the ground, especially pressing on the heel of the pivot leg. In other words, you should move or turn pressing on the ball of your pivot foot, but once you get into your striking or blocking stance you should root your feet on the ground.

Actually many traditional Chinese arts emphasize the 'not lifting the heel' concept as well, and many old masters would judge a person not stable or powerful if their heel is up. But there are styles that lift to generate power as well. As with all styles it varies from person to person, due to anatomy, habit, practice. For example a practitioner with a stiff subtalar (ankle) joint may not be able to keep the heel on the ground because their bones wont allow it!. In that cause he/she will be more powerful if it is lifted. In the end, if you can generate good power and have good agility you can do it any way you want. Im sure some masters can throw a harder punch when they are standing on one leg, than when some people are in a perfect stance.

i agree,thank you for the movies...

If you do a roundhouse kick, you have to open the grounded foot outwards, hence you have to turn on the heel. But if you do a spinning back kick, the grounded foot has to turn inward, so it has to rotate on the ball of the foot. So whether it's on your heel or the ball of the foot, depends entirely on which direction you are rotating towards. This is clearly shown in Aikido's irimi tenkan footwork.

Jesse luto por essa teoria a anos,e ainda sim ótimos mestres insistem que é errado. Esse errado que a ciência defende e eu acredito me dá mais estabilidade. Ótimo vídeo como sempre,oss

I agree with the concept of acceleration of the hip rotation as the unbalanced force is equal the mass times acceleration. And I do hate sensei saying "power comes from speed."

Who but an idiot was turning on the heel in the first place? The idea of utilising plantar flexion is such a basic bio-mechanical principle, that it staggers me that anyone - let alone an entire style, would be teaching against it. This is exactly the kind of anti-scientific bullshit that rightly brings some aspects of karate into disrepute.

So the world champion Rika Usami is wrong because allegedly she turns on her heels, and Nakayama Sensei was also wrong (although he was a ski instructor as well!). But Mr. Maurino, well spoonfed by Mr. Aschieri, knows better! Perhaps turning on your forefeet is faster if what you are aiming at is a medal in a championship....please instruct Miss Usami, who keeps performing and winning in the old-fashioned way!

pressure then move - got it

I have read also your blog post about 42 advices from Inoue Yoshimi. He adviced you to turn on your heel on many stances. So who's right? (I think in many stances like Nekko ashi dachi is better to turn on your toe roots but perhaps in others in the heel).

Such a young Jesse.

about rear leg with tsuki. Yes, you can do it without rear leg support, using your rotation movement only (there's a drill for that). But it's a one side of a coin. You also can do strong tsuki without rotating you hips, using your weight. There's another drill for that also. Usually, you stand in zenkutsu, press your fist against the wall, and then lift your front leg. Hence you redistribute your weight, directing a part of gravity force forward. Boxers do similar thing by using short-step with their front leg in the moment of impact. So, it's another source of power for a strike. Why heel? I believe that's because people tend to bend rear leg when perfoming tsuki (it's just feels natural that way). So, to prevent this senseis tell you to keep kontakt between your heel and floor. In that case it's hard to bend your leg significally (unless you're very stretchy)

in ninjutsu, power comes from the ball of the foot. From the ground and in rotation to add power to the upper body.

Interessante 😉

If the human body was only made to go forward, we wouldn't be able to rotate our hips. Skiing is not the same as walking, you have long pieces of wood, attached to your feet and boots that lock your ankles. But when moving freely, where the pressure is on our feet, can alter depending on where our body is in relation to them. If our body is forward of one foot, our weight will naturally fall onto the ball of that foot. The angle of the legs, the knee, the ankle, will all affect the position of the weight on the foot. Our feet are designed to distribute our body weight in a dynamic way and you have to look at the whole body when talking about the feet. As a general rule, weight on the ball of the foot leads to more mobility, weight on the heel, leads to more stability. But these are just generalisations and can be broken, depending on the use of the rest of the body, primarily through the compression of the knee and ankle. The body is like a musical instrument, different movements result in different expressions.

He tells that human "is for going forward", not to walk back. But human CAN do step back, jump etc. Keeping balance is great, IMHO, when you keep your weight over the centers of feet. On heel is impossible, on front is Ok, but I prefer centers, because it helps to keep bigger square for stable standing. Feet are nice to pivot on a balls-of-foot, so in Goju-ryu we almost always turn on toe. But! Sometimes rotating legs on heel is possible and comfortable too. Not only comfortable, but also not dangerous for knee and more powerful. Whaen I write "powerful' I mean some Goju, Shorin and Kobudo stances like shiko-dachi (turn to zenkutsu), when foot, knee and thigh rotate together with hips. In Shotokan probably another way because "closed" stances like kiba or kokutsu are used.

I agree with all these. Yet, in JKA, they would fail you for doing this

What? He uses a ski analogy to support that one does not move on the heel. You do if you ski off-piste in powder. It's so you can raise the front of the ski clear and allow control otherwise the skis go forward and downwards and you collect snow which puts you off the ski i.e. you fall. For me - albeit as a jitsuka - I move either on the ball or the heel depending on how I wish to move and where. The heel down is a factor when punching (some refer to it as 'kinetic chain') so it's about alignment to allow you to punch your weight. Raising the heel can be a factor when having to reach a target but you have to be aware of the danger of overreaching and always keep in Mind, the need to Re-Set. Anyway, that's my simple thoughts.

I think perhaps both ways to turn can be ok in different moments. I agree in the balance thing. Truning from your heel (but not moving the weight) can be good for positioning the toes to a new direction to go. I think in most positions at least one feet must point the way to go / attack and its knee must do so. In Zenkutsu it's the forwarded leg and in Neko ashi is the same. But perhaps I'm wrong in that is better or not this kind of turn. I will have to try and check. What I agree is the balance thing. I'm a zen buddhist and we have an exercise called Kin Hin, which is a slow walking putting all the weight of the body in the root of toes, not in the heels. When I apply this to karate I think is natural logical, because you use your calf muscle by moving your ankle pushing the ground with your toes. Next step is the knee jonit which sends the movement received to the tigh muscles (quadriceps) and then to the hips. If you push from your heel I think you are misusing your calf muscle.

As usual, arguing pure biomechanics without referral to variety in terrain or weapon use is a waste of time. Boxers try punching on uneven ground outside without gloves, your feet will plant flat as they seek stability. Heel rotation? Yes if you actually want move your entire skeleton/center line. Shift mid-foot? Ok if you can still hit a target and so on. Lift that back heel on an urazuki? Great, that’s a Tyson knock out. If you hold a weapon, my jodo instructor corrected me to NOT shift my heels as I step forward, because doing so ruined alignment between my center vs my target.

Seems so obvious now, but it's a fantastic point, very well explained. I've always done this as part of 'natural movement', so great to hear it from someone much more senior. Thank you!

I’d say maybe the title or the explanation of the Sensei could be not precise. Heel-turn it’s not the fact of having the heel on the ground when punching (as he represented), or it is? That’s a tradition form of tuski. Surely in real kumite you’ll lift up the heel, but as many are saying, energy comes from the infraction between heel and the ground. Heel-turn better example could be when you have to turn linearly 180 degrees in the last part of Godan (sorry don’t remember the names) in my humble opinion. Greetings friends!

I don't really agree with that and I also think he mixes up power & speed with balance, they do depend on one another heavily but it's not the same thing. First off: Each to his own, right? I'm not bashing, just thinking now: The reason I don't agree is basically of the shorter link of heel-knee-hip instead of front foot-heel-knee-hip. Of course I agree with him that the balance is pushed a bit forward in some dachis and your center is moved, but that's only true when you're standing still because when you rotate you want your balance in the center. What's the difference between the famous knuckle push-up and a regular push-up? You have another joint to tighten; your wrist. The tenser we are the more energy is used, we get slower and our balance suffers. If we stand on the front of the foot we have to work more to keep our balance due to the rigid structure of that pose and so we gain more control/balance with the heel pushed down. If we move on to power and the tsuki he talked about, he said: "Power doesn't come for the heel but the rotation of the hip, if I lift my heel I'll get more power", but balance creates power: stand in a ready stance, lift your heels and punch, do you feel stable? Down with the heels and lift your toes, how does that feel in comparison? Imagine yourself standing against a wall; what's the fastest way to get away from it? Leaning forward and taking a step, or, pushing off of the wall? Pushing. What happens if you drop a ball on the ground? It bounces back up. That's the point of using the heel. Say you throw that gyaku tsuki and only rotate your hip, it'll be fast and you create a rotating momentum that adds to the power but you don't have to body behind it; it's only your arm that's going forward. So if you add the mindset of pushing against a wall and you're pushing with your back heel to create sort of a spring-like effect just like the ball getting compressed when it hits the ground before expanding and bouncing back up, then that force will come through the gyaku tsuki and you'll have the whole body behind the technique (I can't remember who said it but "it's not your arm that's doing the technique, it's the body"). It's a bit weird at first because it feels like you're pushing the energy in the wrong direction, but when you get the hang of it it's like a brick wall mounted on a high speed train. That's why the heel is super important in creating speed and power, both while and by maintaining balance. Three other points i think matters: The heel is smaller which means less friction; it's not loose as the front of the foot but goes along with the leg movement which eliminates the risk of tearing and snapping the knee; if you stand on the front part of the foot you'll either go up a bit in your stance or you'll have to compensate by bending you knee and as we all know, we only want energy to move in one direction. So that's my take on it and I hope it's understandable :) Have a great week with lots of karate!

Please forgive my ignorance, is this right ?

If tings won't evolve they will not get better and they will loose its affectiveness and then just fade away. So it is same case for Karate or any martial art were cool/strong back then. There is no absolute fact we are learning new thing every day. I see he has a point. look at boxing punch/movement strong and very mobile.

So we go in cat stance each time to turn I know that’s right because I am learning these steps you form a H basically

What Maurino says makes sense, just see how the Boxing works, but you need to understand the application of the art of karate. Karate was created to wars and fighting with multiple opponents, so it is very valuable strong and firm foundations. The basis of karate should be as root in the soil, to hinder his fall by the opponent. If the Boxing uses the rotation of the ankle / heel to give power to the punch, which works in a circular motion, in Karate that power is crafted in the "kime" using arm, shoulder and the hips. But in karate exemption to the heel turn to not lose the firmness of the base, ranging distributing weight in the front leg or in the back leg, and in the toes or heel (settling in to the ground). Sound the basis of Samurai ...

Not sure who was teaching weight on heels or heel turn. (30 years of traditional Karate training) We use a thin piece of plastic slid under the heels to make sure in stances that weight is up off the heel.

What Style is he representing? Karate Shotokan starts with Low Stance (Submitter), and Advanced Practitioners do High Stances. I'm learning people Defame other's and say what they do not know. As a matter of fact, why do I care about what you "think"?

We never turn on heel in NSKF Shotokan :)

i dont uderstand why but i always feel i should be this way . NOw i finally know that what i am doing is correct thank you

Depends if its kata or kumite i mean sport kumite depends

Heel turn is wrong and harmful? I don´t agree. If you use the forefoot for turn, the biomechanical moment of the center of gravity of the foot is forward while you are raising the heel; in this time, the ankle tends to do an inversion, and ankle sprain is more likely, so, this is harmful and dangerous. If you turn in your heel and distribute differents contact surface while you moving, you will not have this problem.

Only real athletes understand. Heels are 99% = Losing in a physical contact activity

The movement forward and the turn are in control from thr centerlube of the body or the hara...using the feet for bakance is weak as it is the connector to strength not the source. Karate movementsbresult from pisting the weight from one foot to snother, this is incorrect the movement should always come from your center

Don't tell Taira!

0:20 Okay, who briefly thought that guy in back climbing the step ladder was going to hang himself in the background? Nobody? Just me again? I'll leave.

Bending your knees does not increase the pressure on your feet. Pressure is simply force divided by the area on which it's applied. So, I don't know what the Sensei is referring to, but the term "pressure" is being misused here. Oss!

mr maurino had been learning karate the wrong way..

I don't doubt the blackbelt understands whatever principle he is trying to convey but his explanation isn't very good. Rather than the emphasis on heel turn or not to, a better cue to keep in mind is the Hips, delivery of attack should derived from the hips and the focal point of balance should also be about "sinking" of the hips towards the ground which in most instances is where the center of mass is.

In turning kick, if your feet don't shift in the long run you'll need a hip replacement operation. Some ways are used for over more than 3,000 years, even study the blood pressure in certain parts of the body that is effected by the sun and moon gravitional force before delivering a fatal blow at certain meridian of the human body ie: Dim Mak @ touch death. The art are refine by generations of studies where not all are explained, research or can be discuss in the modern way of science. As an example an Oriental or Asian Masters are humble and do not even bother to explain to a westerner who is arrogant. Humility is more respected than being correct, just for the sake of discussion.

Dr. Lucio Maurino. He must know something about biomechanics. He is a Doctor in Motor Science.

If you turn on your heel you can seriously injure yourself

OMG! Ι am so sorry to hear this!! In order to win the tournaments you can change anything you want (WKF is not actually karate), but if you try to convist people that your mistake is the correct way,then we have a serius problem here! Totally wrong examples... There are so much questions.. Keep your balance when you are still or in a movement? you want just to be balanced or you want to hit (strike) someone? you want to keep or change the distance? Are all movements the same ? Of course not! turning in which angle? And so many many things... I am sorry to say that but i wish Mr. Maurinio to be better in skiing... And just for the record i was a former Kata and Kumite champion, practising 30 years shotokan and still teaching, and have studies in biomechanic of body movement.

Speak to Hokama Sensei regarding this. You will delete this video afterwards.

If an attacker is rushing in at you, you can easily execute a reverse-punch and absorb the impact into the heel of the rear foot. However, if you are throwing an offensive punch, as in Boxing, it usually makes sense to turn the rear foot up onto the ball of the foot. Being as Karate was originally designed to defend oneself against an attacker, maybe the concept of keeping the rear heel on the floor makes sense. The modern concept of "sparring" with an opponent has changed the dynamics because there is now a need to move forward offensively, instead of only striking against an aggressive attacker - as in the traditional focus of training...

i have no idea what i am talking about. but i know that i have right. M. Ali.

it's an interesting coincidence that i stumble upon this video at this moment, since not later than a couple hours ago i was watching this taichi video ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o5qTlrGQ3r-vnHU.html ) in which master Wang sorts of give his own insight on this subject at 9:25

Or we can all say what works best for you!

I disagree with this concept because the heel is a contingent anchor, which roots the mechanics of the hip whip which creates the power. I respectfully contend that though the effort of great force is linear, as he explained, but the F= ma, where a=circular power generation of the hips. Osu.

wth is a "Kata champion" LOL... "Scientifically" proven on your soft mats with your weak feet and ankles and wobbly knees...