I learned this drill from my teacher, Maestro Eric Myers:

• Start with a right foot forward guard.
• Take two advances
• Take one retreat
• Repeat until you run out of space
• Take two retreats
• Take one advance
• Repeat until you’re back where you started from
• Switch to left foot forward guard. Do it again.

Not so fast! These things make this worthwhile:

• Change of direction is the crucial part. It’s not how fast you can do the two advances, it’s how fast you can transition from advances to retreats. (Without cheating on the second advance – finish it before you start the retreat.) If you don’t make change of direction the focus, then I don’t think there’s much value in this exercise.
• Don’t cheat on the change of direction: the second forward step must be complete before you begin the retreat. (This was worth repeating.)
• Keep your shoulders completely level throughout – they should not bob up and down at all.
• Keep good foot position throughout – at the end of every step, your feet should be exactly the same distance apart.  Your feet should be in a correct guard position.
• The first foot to move on each step should be very even speed (as fast as you can do it right), the second foot should move like lightening to return from the step to proper distance.
• Stay focused while doing this – emphasize martial crispness.

Having done this a fair bit in the past, I can say that it really improved my coordination between my feet, and made my whole movement smoother.  I’m starting to add this back to my daily practice, and I’ve started adding a new variation on this:

• Start with a right foot forward guard.
• Take two gathering steps forward
• Take one gathering step backwards
• Repeat until you run out of space
• Take two gathering step backwards
• Take one gathering steps forward
• Repeat until you’re back where you started from
• Switch to left foot forward guard. Do it again.

For me, right now, the gathering steps are really hard! I find it incredibly difficult to not transition to advances and retreats at the change of direction. Which means I need to practice this more.

Have you done these drills? What other super-simple footwork exercises do you do to work on basics?