Footwork

Basic stance, 45-45-45 or kendo stance, where the fighter stands with the hip line and shoulder line at 45 degrees to his opponent and the feet at 45 degrees but slightly angled outward. The fighter is loose and his knees are slightly bent. His posture is almost straight but ever so slightly forward.

From this position there are 4 types of movement commonly used:

The Step

What most people generally do when they fight. Often starting with the front foot, the stance is widened and then returned one foot at a time. This is most commonly used to close in short distances or adjust to outside the range of an opponent. This is how most fencers move in the sport of Olympic style fencing.

The Step is great for advancing a shield wall on a bridge or when they need to move a short distance and are not too worried about time. It does have some negatives. Often new fighters, when in single combat, choose to step when they should be using a different type of footwork.

The Pass

From our basic stance described above, the Pass is the reversal of your fighting stance. It can be used in the forward or reverse types. It involves one foot passing in front of the other and all limbs and angles being mirrored as the fighter advances.

The fighter’s average single strike is based off of this motion. Strong strikes often start from the first motion of the foot finishing when the foot touches the ground. Any feints or fake outs usually occur in mid step. This is a great piece of footwork so long as it is followed through with another Pass to return the fighter back to their original stance, or a traversal out of the range of the opponent.

The Complete Pass

From the basic stance described above, the complete pass is very similar to the Pass only it is two steps and during the steps the lower body may mirror the original stance but the upper body will do little movement maintaining the original stance the whole time.

The Complete Pass is used to close large ranges of distance when fighting, each step if in range should have a dedicated strike or set of feints, strikes, or blocks as the fighter advances or reverses.

Traversing

Traversing refers to any footwork that is not linear that maintains a normal stance or a mirrored stance. A prime example of traversing is strafing while in a stance.