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Core Method of Martial Arts
By BIG Sean Madigan
What is the core of your method of training? At the core of your training should be the understanding of, and having the ability to, apply certain principles and concepts that you believe are vital qualities needed to be able to actively control and dominate your opponent. Not that I feel technique is meaningless, I don’t by a long shot. Without the necessary techniques, the principles and theories are just that, only theory. However, techniques without strategy is just punching and kicking, not martial art!
The “Core Method” of your training in the martial arts should be broken down into these three “subsets”.
The first subset, and in my opinion the most important is the understanding of the “use” of the concepts that are true in combat.
The second subset is making sure that you have the necessary techniques that you need to use in order to express those concepts in combat.
The third set is the necessary training methods needed to bring your ability to perform these techniques to the level that is required.
THEORY & STRATEGY – THE FIRST SUBSET OF YOUR CORE
The understanding of principles, concepts & theories are in a way the easiest to spend time on. They require no special training hall, and no special equipment. Hey, I spend most of my workday on this and my boss doesn’t even realize it! Silly him, he thinks I am thinking about work!
Fortunately for us, the subset that requires the most work is this one and because we can ‘train’ this subset anywhere, anytime, we can spend the time needed to truly understand it. What I like to do is find a concept that I ‘think’ I understand and look at it in a way that often overlooked. If you ever asked yourself why a technique didn’t work, or why a ‘concept’ that you think that you understand, sounds rather simple, but it doesn’t work for you the way that you think it should, then it’s time for you to reexamine that principle.
Look at the principle in the realm of combat. What does the principle tell you? What does it tell your opponent? Most importantly, how can you use that principle in the combative realm? That is the key, the how! I always thought that I “knew” the Five Ways of Attack of Jeet Kune Do. However, it was only after I was forced to really examine what I knew and tried to actively apply this understanding in a combative realm that I realized that I didn’t truly know them.
So, it is safe for me to say that the primary ‘core’ of my training is the reexamining of ideas that I hold dear. I have to make sure that I truly understand them if I am going to consider them a major part of my expression of martial art.
TECHNIQUES – THE SECOND SUBSET OF YOUR CORE
The second subset that you should have is the knowledge of the techniques needed to apply these concepts and theories. The techniques that I call my core are the ones that I have found that can be used to apply as many of the concepts needed. Let me explain, for a technique to be considered at my core, then I have to be able to ‘use’ it in a combative situation to express several of the principles that I wrote about previously. There are thousands of effective techniques, but you can not have every one of them as your core, you have to find the few that you can use in many situations. I have a few favorites, I have found that a “Low Jab” will tell me many things about my opponent. The straight lead seems to find its way into my training all the time.
It is a versatile technique that can be applied in more situations then are obvious. The lead leg hook kick as well as the Pak Sau and Lop Sao are all techniques that I would consider to be at the ‘core’ of my fighting system.
How did I come up with these techniques? First, they are mostly found in Jeet Kune Do, the martial art that I study. More importantly though, these techniques that I have at my core are all techniques that can be used to express the concepts, principles, and strategies that I feel I understand. If I come to new realizations, I then look to see what techniques are needed to express. As is often the case, I do not need to learn new techniques to do this. I need only to change the application or the training method of the techniques that I already know. Let me be clear that when I say these techniques are at the core of “my” fighting system (or expression of JKD). These techniques may or may not be at he the core of every practitioner of BIG JKD/Jeet Kune Do.
TRAINING METHODS – THE THIRD SUBSET OF YOUR CORE
The third subset that we must have is the training drills and exercises that give you the ability to perform these techniques in the ways that are needed to be able to apply the theories. (Nice tie in huh?)
Now, you have to give this some thought. You have to either know of or develop drills that work the techniques at your core. Why waste time on drills that work on perfecting the jump spinning hook kick if the jump spinning hook kick is not part of your core set of techniques? I look for drills that increase the attributes of many of my core techniques. I love to work the double end bag and I spend lots of time on several reaction drills that help me ‘use’ certain concepts. These drills make sense for me, because they work on the techniques that I hold dear.
If your goal is to become a better fighter, then you must be careful that you understand the cause and effect of each and every drill that you do. I do not perform drills for historical purposes, instead, I try to learn what the intent of the drill was, and if that intent falls into my ‘core’ then I use the drill. If I like the flow of a drill, but there are things in it that bother me, (i.e. go against my core) then I change the drill.
Keep your training on track by continually reexamining your core. The core method of your training should act as your guide through your growth within the martial arts.
Copyright © 2000--SEAN MADIGAN