How To Learn Martial Arts Techniques Quickly – part 2

 

1.       Power

Once where happy with the form and speed of the technique then we can start focus on adding more power to the skill or technique.  To hit a target as fast as you can won’t have much effect in a real self defence situation if there is no power in your strikes.  To start adding more power focus on bending your knees slightly and digging your toes in the floor, it’s what boxers call sitting down in your technique.  To add power into your technique you need to hit targets, a kick shield, focus pad or bag will help in this area.  Focus your mind on going through the target with your technique and relaxing your body and only tensing your muscles at the exact moment of impact.

2.       Accuracy

In self defence situations it’s often not what you strike with but where you strike that has the most effect.  For example if you punch someone in the face it may not have as much effect if you struck someone in the throat.  So when practicing your techniques be aware where you are striking because muscle memory can set in, if you shadow your front kick and you strike the chest area it’s going to be a natural reaction to hit this area in a real situation as oppose to a more effective area to strike such as the bladder.

You can develop accuracy when shadowing by visualising your opponent and making it real in your mind and be aware of your target area you aim to strike.  Do it in your mind first by visualising, imagine striking with power, imagine what effect this strike has on your opponent or attacker, and then actually do it for real, you will see a big difference in your performance.

3.       Reality

Its important whilst you train that you keep asking yourself “am I training as if I am in a real situation?”  Are you just walking up the pad, punching it with no guard then turning your back and walking to the back of the line?  You would never do this in a real situation so why train it system, creating bad habits that can easily be changed to add more meaning to your martial arts training and increase your skills.  Always work in a guard.  If you hit a pad imagine that it can hit you back.  Don’t just hit the bag for the sake of it; hit it as if you are defending yourself in a real situation.

Repetition

This is the mother of all skills.  To do a technique once and expect it to work for you is not true in the slightest.  To really understand the technique and its concepts you have to do it’s in your subconscious.  It can be done anytime anywhere without even thinking about it.

Think how many times you do a jab in your training more than say a flying kick, the jab is repeated far more times as this will work in a real situation.  It’s repeated time after time so that it will work for you in situations and you become very comfortable throwing it.

When you have all six attributes then your martial arts techniques will really become good and you will develop your skills to become an excellent martial artist.