To Really Learn Martial Arts There Are Three Things One Should Strive To Understand
To learn the martial arts one needs to come to grips with three things.
You will see these things in every real martial art in the world.
If you don't, then the fighting style you are learning might not actually be a real art.
The first thing to be learned are the patterns referred to as forms.
There are people who look down on forms, think they are only mere dances, and so on.
The truth of the matter, however, is that forms contain all the motions necessary to fighting, and they provide a learning platform which not only leads one to learn how to fight, but far beyond.
To do a form requires a stable stance, and that is the moving platform you will be using to deliver powerful self defense techniques.
By doing martial arts forms you will learn how to relax, and learn how that relaxation creates power.
Lastly, every time you do a form you are strengthening your body, even as you practice fighting techniques.
The second thing to be learned has to do with the self defense techniques themselves.
Self defense tricks teach one how to move the body, how to set up for action, how to stay calm in the middle of the fight.
The thing to remember is that every time you do a self defense technique you are doing a miniature kata.
Now, techniques aren't totally street oriented, and one may have to alter them to use them in a street fight.
However, the classical power you have developed will come out in your street defenses.
Your punches and kicks will draw on that classical martial arts power that occurs with traditional methods.
The third thing to be learned is freestyle, and this is where everything comes together.
This is where you get to try to use the traditional tricks, or at least tap into that classical power in a controlled environment.
Remember, freestyle training is as close as you can get to the chaos of street self defense as possible.
When freestyling you must learn how to control yourself and not hurt your opponent, and yet build the ability to inflict great damage should you wish.
This is a difficult thing to learn, but it is at the heart of the oriental disciplines.
Anybody can learn to fight, you see, but only a real artist can learn how to control himself in the middle of a fight.
In closing, one can learn how to fight easily, but that is not the point of it all.
What is important is to test yourself, strive to expand yourself, and learn how not to be a fighting animal, but a human being with great powers on tap.
This is the real reason one should learn Martial Arts.
You will see these things in every real martial art in the world.
If you don't, then the fighting style you are learning might not actually be a real art.
The first thing to be learned are the patterns referred to as forms.
There are people who look down on forms, think they are only mere dances, and so on.
The truth of the matter, however, is that forms contain all the motions necessary to fighting, and they provide a learning platform which not only leads one to learn how to fight, but far beyond.
To do a form requires a stable stance, and that is the moving platform you will be using to deliver powerful self defense techniques.
By doing martial arts forms you will learn how to relax, and learn how that relaxation creates power.
Lastly, every time you do a form you are strengthening your body, even as you practice fighting techniques.
The second thing to be learned has to do with the self defense techniques themselves.
Self defense tricks teach one how to move the body, how to set up for action, how to stay calm in the middle of the fight.
The thing to remember is that every time you do a self defense technique you are doing a miniature kata.
Now, techniques aren't totally street oriented, and one may have to alter them to use them in a street fight.
However, the classical power you have developed will come out in your street defenses.
Your punches and kicks will draw on that classical martial arts power that occurs with traditional methods.
The third thing to be learned is freestyle, and this is where everything comes together.
This is where you get to try to use the traditional tricks, or at least tap into that classical power in a controlled environment.
Remember, freestyle training is as close as you can get to the chaos of street self defense as possible.
When freestyling you must learn how to control yourself and not hurt your opponent, and yet build the ability to inflict great damage should you wish.
This is a difficult thing to learn, but it is at the heart of the oriental disciplines.
Anybody can learn to fight, you see, but only a real artist can learn how to control himself in the middle of a fight.
In closing, one can learn how to fight easily, but that is not the point of it all.
What is important is to test yourself, strive to expand yourself, and learn how not to be a fighting animal, but a human being with great powers on tap.
This is the real reason one should learn Martial Arts.