RyuTe itself is very footwork heavy. Outside of Aikido, one is hard pressed to find any martial art with more than a rudimentary application of footwork. Everyone works hands. Boxers are known for the skillful use of their hands.
In one story about Sensei Uehara, on New Year's Day of 2000 he fought a televised match against Katsuo Tokashiki. Tokashiki, who was 39 at the time, was a former World Boxing Association light flyweight champion. Sensei Uehara was 96 at the time of the bout. The following excerpt is from "The Okinawa Program" by Bradley J. Wilcox, D. Craig Wilcox, and Makoto Suzuki, page 180:
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The old master displayed amazing flexibility and agility from the minute the bout began. He deftly twisted and turned to avoid the lightning blows of the powerful ex-boxer (mutubu-udundi focuses on avoiding confrontation, and striking only after all other options are exhausted). This went on for more than twenty minutes. Finally, when Tokashiki tired and momentarily dropped his guard, Seikichisensei landed one quick blow--and it was over. The young boxer, who was stunned but not seriously injured, left the ring in a daze, shaking his head in disbelief and muttering, "Yarareta, yarareta!"--"I can't believe it...he beat me...he beat me." When Seikichisensei later recounted the match to our research assistant, he laughed and said, "It was nothing. He was just too young and had not yet matured enough to defeat me."
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Sensei Uehara's footwork enabled him to evade a much younger man. Uehara said similar things about his instructor, Choyu Motobu. He recounted how he could not touch his instructor no matter how hard he tried.
Good footwork will enable you to defeat a stronger, faster opponent. On its face, it's very simple. If your opponent can't touch you, he can't hurt you. But footwork also enables you to attack from unexpected angles and to put your opponent into compromised positions where his balance and angle of attack are bad.
In my training, I spend as much time on footwork as I do on hands. I like to think, when I'm 96, that I'll have a little something "special" to offer a would be opponent!
