Teaching Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Martial Development

Students: Burn The Ships, Not Your Martial Arts Contracts

A contractual relationship with your martial arts school could end miserably; former classmates and I know this from experience. Despite this experience, I believe that the potential benefits of a contract to the student outweigh the risks.

Before I explain the benefit, let me tell you the tale of an Aikido dojo gone sour.

Should You Sign a Karate Contract?

So you visited the local Karate dojo. You enjoyed the free introductory class, and you’re ready to enroll. One minor detail stands between you and black belt prowess: The Contract.

Do You Have Black Belt Envy?

Let me tell you a dirty little secret about black belts. They have no particular meaning at all.

What Makes a Good Kicking Warm-Up Exercise?

Last week, I attempted to describe one of my favorite lower body warm-up exercises. Online and offline feedback since then indicate that my description wasn’t as clear as I intended.

The particular choreography of this kicking exercise isn’t so important. I recommended it for its general characteristics. To explore those qualities, let’s contrast the exercise with a more common kicking drill:

3 Ways to Make Tai Chi Form Practice More Interesting

Chen style Tai Chi Chuan practice

Attaining competency in Tai Chi Chuan requires hundreds of hours of correct form practice, and mastery requires thousands more. One impediment to sustained practice is a lack of interest: Tai Chi forms are too boring to perform daily.

Perseverance in the face of boredom builds character; however, feelings of boredom may be a sign that your learning has stalled. To keep your practice fresh, productive and fun, try performing these variations on your standard Tai Chi forms.

Mimicry is Not the Path to Mastery

Mastery is efficiency. A master of their art simultaneously exerts less effort, and achieves greater results than others. Wouldn’t it would be wonderful if attaining mastery was as easy as defining it?
It is that easy, and that difficult.

Qigong is the New Yoga

Pro blogger Darren Rowse asked me to make a prediction on what the new year will bring to the martial arts community. I expect that qigong will continue growing in popularity, and that within ten years it will be as ubiquitous as yoga is today.

The Four Stages of Effective Martial Arts Training

Attempts to categorize the various styles of martial arts practice typically place them into one of two groups: striking or grappling, soft or hard, internal or external, etc. But this type of classification is overly broad and misleading; all comprehensive martial arts transcend simple dualism.

Here is a different model you can use to describe and analyze your training. This model is based upon four distinct stages of movement practice. Each stage contains unique challenges, and attaining mastery at each stage confers specific benefits.

Scarcity and Abundance in Martial Arts Instruction

A martial arts school is defined primarily by the skills and the personality of its teachers. While technical ability is important, and universally known to be so, the importance of a teacher’s personality and attitude is often underestimated.

Teachers invest far more time and effort sharpening their martial skills, than in improving their attitude. It is attitude that determines how much they are willing to teach, and what they expect from students in return.