Martial Arts - It's All About The Basics

Ask experts how they have improved their martial arts skills and they will teach you practice. If you ask them what they practiced, you will probably hear "basic" or "basic".

I once interviewed 13 great martial artists. What surprised me was that all of them talked about how their early instructors were traditionalists and let them study the basics. In other words, what was great about them was the fact that they spent time on fundamentals.

Now, the sad part of this was that half of them were not teaching the knowledge they claimed they were good. They were in a flash and shortcut. This is fine for students but not for students. Note that shortcuts are only part of a motion, but most motions are made up of many parts that lead to a shortcut. Shortcuts do not connect anywhere. They look good when the master takes shortcuts, but when students learn only shortcuts, they appear to be poorly trained.

Please practice fundamentals. We promise that fun will be better, faster and more functional. The basics are-stance and form. If you are taught a quality form, it is worth it. If the form has just been created, it will teach you bad training habits that are difficult to overcome. There is no excuse. If you want to master art and body, these should be perfect.

Stance: Horse, bow, front, cat, highback, lowback. They must be low and comfortable, so you can move in different directions while maintaining the level. Also, the lower the stance, the more stable.

Kick: Front side, back, round kick. These must be controlled and very smooth.

Block: High ascending, downward, outer block, front punch, backhand, vertical fist. If these are perfect, you can start training!

The above list works for all major defense and attack directions as well as all major muscle groups. If these basics are perfect, you can master most art. Regardless of whether or not to use those movements. The reason is simple. Once you master your body, you can do anything. A new style of martial arts is like learning a new dance. It's challenging but not impossible.