Keys to succesful clean, fast, smooth, and effortless footwork

I get a lot of questions from bboys around here about how they should clean their footwork up, or looking for critiques and such so I thought I would take a shot at making a small insight article. There are plenty of guides on how to do moves, but not on how to make them clean.


One of the big misconceptions on footwork is that you need to drill it. This is wrong, however you should still practice it thoroughly. If you have poor form or are not yet strong enough it will not do you any good to drill that bad form in to your muscle memory.


First off, don't ever think of footwork in terms of speed, as you become more comfortable speed will begin to happen subconsciously. Think of your footwork in terms of how clean and smooth it is.


A big fundamental part of footwork that people miss it that your arms are the key to success not your legs. To throw your legs around you smoothly you need to have almost all your body weight suspended on your arms. You should focus on your arms holding you up and your legs being able to just lightly move around you.


Staying on your fingertips or inner knuckles isn't just to make you higher off the ground, it allows you to move faster, same goes for being on your toes instead of being flat footed. It requires a larger and longer motion to move all of your flat foot or whole hand that it does to just move off your toes or finger tips. Being on your finger tips and toes will definitely cause you to move with a greater fluidity.


Stylistically speaking, to make your footwork better you can try to throw your feet out more and move around a bit. If you are standing in one spot and just doing your footwork its not too intimidating, but if you are explosive and moving around aggressively you will effectively be battling your opponent with that raw style.


Don't just focus on footwork, maybe take a week off and practice freezes on both arms, or practice your power. The stronger your arms are the more weight you can hold up on your arms and the less on your feet allowing you to move easier.


My biggest footwork improvements occurred after taking small breaks to work freezes or power. When I started doing sets again my foots were much more explosive and powerful.


Another common question is on how do you develop style, well there is the obvious answer of time, but also before you can develop style you need to have a very strong foundation. You can't force yourself to develop style, it happens completely naturally. If you consciously try to have a style it will just appear as though as your trying too hard.


This guy here really knows how to flow, I present Bboy Blanka (Floorgangz Crew)