Movement

When you spar, if you do not move around continuously, you are a target. If you move, you are threat.

Tips on movement

• Keep moving. Never stay in one place very long.
  • It helps you overcome stationary inertia. It is easier to change the direction of a moving body than a stationary one.
  • It allows you to react faster.
  • A moving target is harder to hit.
  • Keep changing guarding positions to cover all openings.
  • Constant motion allows a smooth transition from one technique to another with minimum time.
  • Lets you easily evade.
• Shuffle rather than step. Move like a galloping horse, not like a hopping rabbit.
  
• Feel the ground under your feet for a solid spot before shifting your weight (not necessary on a known surface).
• Keep movements simple, especially when on unknown surface.
• Step in your own footprints, replacing each foot with the other like the way a cat stalks (not necessary on a known surface.
• For power, turn body as unit, not isolated parts.
• Always work from a stable base.
• Coordinate all movements to reach target with maximum effect.
• Do not telegraph movements.
• Practice moving in bursts.
• Practice leaping.
• Move in a circle when evading, not backward.
  
• Use stepping, shifting, twisting, and turning to avoid attack and set opponent up for a counterattack.
• Do not be afraid to move backward, if the situation demands it. Learn to attack while moving backward.
• Advance and retreat in short steps, then lunge.
• Advance, then retreat to draw opponent into an attack.
• Use feints to distract movements. 
• Side step to avoid attack.
• Use body dropping.
• Integrate punches and kicks into footwork.
• Learn opponent’s footwork and use it against him or her.
• When reacting to an attack, make a large movement to avoid the main attack in case the first attack was only a feint.
  
• Hourglass Stance. Occurs when you your rear foot is up on the toes.  It happens at the tail end of your cross. This is a dangerous but a necessary position to hit with power. Be ready to duck and cover. You should be ready to stay low and elbow block, weave under, or jab to correct your posture. Do not just stand there fully extended with nowhere to go.
• In your stances and movement, do not put more than 60 percent of your weight on either foot (except in brief extreme situations).
• One-legged stances, stilted, and straight knee stances, overextended forward stances, etc., are a big mistake both offensively and defensively.
• Do not dance around, or bounce up and down. Quick, short, even-keeled adjustments are what you want.
• Stay on the balls for quick range adjustment, but settle into your punches. You get your punching power from the ground, through the legs, and off the hips.
• When boxers step in to fire a combination, they often duck downward as they finish the last punch. In the martial arts this may become a problem since it exposes the head to a grab and subsequent knee to the face or chest.