Martial Arts: It’s All About the Basics

Ask any professional how he got to be good at his martial arts skills and he will tell you to practice. Ask them what they practiced and chances are you’ll hear “the fundamentals” or “the basics.”

I once interviewed 13 great martial artists. What struck me was that each of them talked about how their first instructor was a traditionalist and asked them to study the basics. In other words, what made them great was the fact that they spent time on the basics.

Now the sad part of this was that half of them were not teaching the knowledge that they said made them good. They were into the flash and the shortcuts. While this is fine for them, it is not fine for their students. Remember that a shortcut is only one part of a move, but most moves are made up of many parts that can lead to shortcuts. Shortcuts lead nowhere. When a teacher takes a shortcut, he looks good, but when a student learns only shortcuts, he looks poorly trained.

Practice your fundamentals and I promise the fun stuff will get better, faster, and more functional. The basics are – postures and forms. If they teach you quality forms, then they are worth it. If the forms are just made up, it can teach you bad training habits that are hard to break. There are no excuses, if you want to master your art and your body then these must be perfect.

Postures: horse, bow, front, cat, high back and low back. They should be low and comfortable so you can move in different directions while staying level. Also, the lower you are in your stance, the more stable you will be.

Kicks: front side, rear and circular. These should be controlled and very smooth.

Blocks: high up, down, outside block, front fist, backhand and vertical fist. If these are perfect, your training can begin!

The above list works all of your major muscle groups, as well as all major defensive and offensive directions. If you had those perfect basics, you could master just about any art. Regardless of whether they use those moves they are not. The reason is simple, once you master your body you can make it do anything. A new style of martial arts is like learning a new dance. It can be challenging, but not impossible.