Ashibumi (Opening your legs)
Ashibumi is the important thing to keep a good posture and shoot a arrow straight. It is necessary to use the whole your body muscle because the bow is longer. At this time, draw a bow on the extension line of the target position.
The old archer disassembled the movement of pulling a bow, and people with various schools solved the importance of stepping. Some explained that “stability of stepping represents stability of the torso, which leads to stability of the upper body”.
The following is a summary of what should be done when stepping on a foot.
・ Step forward halfway toward the left foot
・ Put the port finger ball in the middle of the target
・ Target-Place the right foot on the extension of the left thumb ball
Points to keep in mind
① There is a center of the extension (on the line) connecting the thumbs of both feet.
(2) The distance between the fingertips of both thumbs is about the length of your own arrow.
③ Make sure the foot angle is within 60 degrees (not strictly determined)
(Quoted from Modern Kyudo Course Volume 2 and Kyudo Textbook 1)
Perform the status of ~ ③. With this, when the bow is drawn and the meeting is reached, when viewed from above, the position of the arrow almost coincides with the tip of the left thumb of the foot and aligns with the center line of the target. If the right fist leaves the line of the arrow as it is and the arrow flies straight, it will be in the middle. However, although there will be a slight deviation depending on the body shape and physique, step on the feet so that the position of the waist and shoulders is aligned with the position of the legs as seen from above.
In the old, the center of the target was determined by one’s own eyes and the center line was determined. Most of the archery fields are marked at the end of the range so that you can see the center of the target. Marked with a small ledge or sticker at the boundary between the shooting range and Yado.
However, the center of the landmark and the target, including the private dojo, do not always coincide. This is because there may be misalignment between the center of the target and the launch site. Or, it is human beings that do the target, so there will be some deviation.
For this reason, if you want to step on the center precisely, it is important to have the feeling of stepping with your own eyes, rather than relying much on the landmark.
Reason to align your feet while opening your legs
Eiji Urakami, who learned the Hioki style in the second volume of the textbook, explains that the position of stepping on the right foot is changed depending on the aim of the skilled person. I will explain this lesson as “the mid-level of Gonsho”.
If you are very knowledgeable and confident about archery, you may want to practice this kind of teaching. However, beginners, including me, shouldn’t mind this and keep their feet together.
The reason for this is that by aligning the tips of both feet, the skin tension on both shoulders caused by the heels of both feet is equalized. This makes it easier to align both shoulders and align them in parallel on the target line. This prevents muscle tension around the shoulder joint and joint twisting.
In the “Modern Kyudo Course”, the angle of opening of the left and right foot may change when stepping on the oshu bamboo forest’s shooting explanation. If the angle at which the foot is opened changes, the fit of the shoulder joint with the arm joint changes.
For example, if you step on your right foot, your right shoulder will be stronger after the draw. If the number of kg of the bow is large, the joint opening angle may be changed to correct the joints.
The width of both feet is written as the length of your arrow, but some people may not meet this standard. The appropriate width of your feet depends on your height, weight, and skeleton.
In addition, citing Yazuka’s teachings by Norita Tomita in the third volume of the textbook, the length of the arrow is determined by the length of his arm. If you have an arm that is too long for your height, your legs may be too wide. This creates unnecessary strain on the leg muscles.
On the other hand, if the opening width is narrow, the back muscles are too tight and the upper body tends to shake. When thinking about the appropriate width of the stepping here, it is important that the upper body muscles have no wasteful strength.
In other words, it is necessary to check how to open your feet in detail and find a leg width that does not have unnecessary strength in the upper body.
From the above, I think that I have understood the basic knowledge of stepping. Based on this, let’s understand “how to put proper weight on stepping” and build a stance that can draw a bow properly.
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