Chapter 6 - Balance in Walking
Everybody walks, or almost, but few walk well. We have all been taught to walk, but most of the time we have been taught badly. A child is taught to know how to walk when he can take himself from once place to another without falling. Only the result counts. How he does is not considered important. This is why every child develops his own method of walking. Whether this method is good, bad or indifferent is purely a question of chance. A little observation will prove this: One child walks with the points of his feet turned outwards, another inwards; one moves his legs from the hips, another from the knee etc. Of a certain number of children hardly two follow the same method. This is the reason why practically all of us have to relearn how to walk, ie. to walk well, in conformity with the natural laws of our species. Again, as in standing, it is a question of balance, of static balance and dynamic balance. The first condition of a graceful, natural way of walking, is static balance of the body and we have seen how to obtain this. The second condition is dynamic balance.
The natural way of walking for man is really a falling forward, continually arrested and renewed. It should not be, as it is far too often, an imitation of the walk of quadrupeds, which is a sort of creeping. Monkeys are climbers and even in walking in a horizontal line, as the primates do, they use the same movements as in climbing vertically. Man is the only real biped.
When we analyse the human manner of walking, we see that when the movement begins with the left foot, the weight of the body rests entirely on the right foot and that the body pivots on the forward part of the sole of the right foot as though it were about to fall forward. As soon as the balance is about to be lost, the left leg, slightly bent at the knee, comes forward to stop the fall and the weight of the body shifts to the left member. The right leg, which has remained behind, gives an impulsion in a forward direction and thus brings about another pivoting of the body, this time on the left foot. And thus the walk continues by successive transfers of the body weight from one leg to the other.
On flat ground at least, the progression is assured merely by a transfer of balance. The same is the case in walking downhill. Walking uphill is something else again. Here a supplementary effort is required and this effort should be a propulsion of the rear leg. Our legs correspond to the hind legs of animals, which are organs of propulsion. Yet another condition has to be fulfilled for the effort made in walking to be reduced to the strictest minimum possible: the rhythm of the movement of the legs should be in harmony with their length. The law of the movement of the legs corresponds to that of the oscillation of a pendulum, which is the same for a given length of string. For example, the oscillation of a pendulum a yard long is about one second. The same rule applies to the movement of the legs. The duration of each step should harmonize with their length. No arithmetic is necessary, however, in order to determine the rhythm of your steps. If you lean on one leg and let the other one balance feely, you will observe the oscillation and can regulate the rhythm of your steps accordingly. This is your natural walking rhythm which you should adopt and retain always, no matter how fast you walk. And this is what we mean by dynamic balance in walking. Walking in accordance with this law saves a lot of energy and will make you an excellent walker. The habit of proper rhythm must, of course become as automatic as a reflex action. A little practice will soon give you the idea. In dancing also, as in running, it is the principle of dynamic balance which plays the predominant role.
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