The next level is to have no pattern. What do I mean by no pattern?
First we have to look at our feet. In both of these moves, you can change direction depending on the direction you turn your front foot. When you rotate your front foot outward about 45 degrees, you can safely move straight forward. Don’t open more than that or you’ll hurt your knee. If you rotate your front foot inward 45 degrees, you can move your body in a 90-degree turn to your original right side. If you rotate your foot inward 90 degrees, you can move your body to your original back side diagonally. And if you close your foot 135 degrees, you can turn all the way around, in an 180-degree rotation to your back side. First we must understand how to do this. Then we can continue with our freestyle “no pattern” practice.
When you practice with no pattern, your mind becomes sharp and it opens to everything around you while you are still focusing on the move. That’s the second level of practice. You can practice the pattern to improve your technique but with no pattern, you have to see everything. Your sensitivity has to open up. The feeling will be completely different. When you do it with a pattern, your feeling goes inward. When you do it with no pattern, your mind goes inward at the same time as it goes outward. This creates a dual feeling that requires you to find balance.
When we practice this continuity exercise in a limited space, we have to think ahead to do our best to not get stuck in a corner. If that happens, our mind does not grow, our feeling doesn’t grow, and our sensitivity doesn’t grow. If you are forced into a corner, you have to think of how to move yourself out of this situation. Don’t just step back out of the situation. That won’t help you develop your skill of seeing the upcoming path. Think about what options you have before you move and your skill will grow.
