Dec 10 2007
The basic nature and essence of Martial arts is fighting. Long before Martial arts became a sport, a form of fitness, a dance and beautiful art form, it was a practical means of self protection. Recently I just returned to teaching and as I meet more new students (advanced and beginners) here are some reminders to help the average person learn a lot faster. Hope it helps.
1) Philosophy in martial arts is from direct experience; martial arts is not as intellectual pursuit - Fighting by its very nature will show you alot of things about yourself such as your fears and anger; training provides a opportunity for you to examine negative emotions and a way to overcome them if you are open to that pursuit. While this is a wonderful thing, a common mistake is that some people think that it is possible to gain the psychological and philosophical changes without the physical training. Nothing can be farther from the truth, there's a world of a difference between thinking about fear and imaging that you are confident compared to actually training and facing your fears head on. Likewise, there is a huge difference between reciting a philosophical poem about peace compared to feeling one's anger in fighting and doing supplemental training to actually calm the central nervous system while progressively developing the skill to relax under fire.
2) In order to find what works for you in fighting, you must be ready to accept the facts in front of you even if it is not how you think things "should be". For example, someone once told one of my student that grappling will beat anyone, anytime, no matter what. To make a long story short, my student shut this person down 5 times straight and then ask him if he still thinks the same. The reply this person give was that he still thinks that grappling will work 100% of the time and walked away! Another example was a student of mine said that grappling is useless, I proceeded to shoot and take him down with grappling 5-7 times in a row. He responded by saying that not everyone is as fast as me; the truth is there's lots of people faster than me. So if he can't even stop me, what is he talking about? In order to improve your fighting ability, you must let go your beliefs in how you think a fight "should be" based on your favourite style's advertised concepts and instead face what actually IS through trail and error.
3) Martial arts cannot be learned without effort; there is no magic system, skills development requires hard work. Even though this is common sense, many individuals have said that they desire to learn how to realistically protect themselves in a fight only to slack off in class. You have to realize that all attributes and skills requires intensive repetition and that all training is a progressive step by step process. Unless you are willing to sacrifice some time and effort, no training program will help you. I am honestly still surprised when some lazy students still think that just because they think they know martial arts moves, they can defeat an big aggressive attacker in a real fight. People want to make you feel that learning martial arts is easy, without effort, so they can make money off you. The truth is martial arts, like any other skill requires hard work. If you are considering learning how to protect yourself with functional fighting skills, I suggest you think long and hard if you are willing to train hard. Don't waste your time and money. Martial arts is really one of those things where you either do or don't. A half ass effort not only wastes time and money but it will get you killed in a fight and at the same time it will drag down the proper attitude and atmostphere in a training hall.
I hope these tips will help the average person learn how to fight faster.
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