Forget style names and find out what training methods suit your goals from training. This article compares martial arts and combat sports without mentioning a style’s name and only focuses on how varied styles train. It is purpose vs. method vs. results desired. Everyone loves to compare styles of martial arts and provide short descriptions of differences between styles. This is often done for a variety of reasons:
- To justify why your preferred style is superior, or another inferior.
- To educate others on the superficial aspects of each martial art in an attempt to break them down based on their differences.
- To analyse the different focus of each style to help educate people to choose a style for themselves or their children (i.e. to look beyond the marketing).
This article is nothing like that. This article does not compare or even name styles, it just highlights training method variations so you can be better informed about what you want from your training. To look behind the marketing, the uniforms, the belts, and the egos. If you are a trainer, you may learn some new methods to improve your style.
Any of the above methods are forced to limit the discussion to the name of a style. This can limit methods within styles, has an auto bias switch for stereotyping and oversimplifies things. To generalise, I have called every training centre a club, gym, or training centre. There is considerable difference between a style of the same generic name from one club to another, based on one instructor’s knowledge (and methods) vs another from a mainstream, franchised, often better-known training centre. The style name is often misleading and can lead to unfair over generalisation.
I have instead asked the following questions:
- What do you want to get from your martial art training?
- What are some training methods to achieve your goals?
- What is the difference between a combat sport and a martial art?
- What are the general things to look for to select your style.
I have also made some random observations on the topic.
A style name is there to label the brand. Within the brand there are doubtless hundreds of variations of quality and method. A name is the start of the decision. To help people decide what to train in order to attract people to that style. People will select a style due to recommendation, general knowledge, or location. I selected a style because of movies and dreaming.
The style someone trains at can determine the persons over all martial ability, however this is relative to their goals and if they are ever wanting to test them outside their training framework. What happens far too often is that people put too much stock in the style’s name and once they are invested in it, find it hard to change or adapt. It can be a problem if the style is not meeting the goals of the student beyond a superficial level, especially if the style has deluded the student into false beliefs about its effectiveness or practicality.
Style methods from club to club can vary considerably, as will standards, ethics, culture, and class structure – which will have an effect on an individual’s ability, education, and capability. Ability is also relative to goals and what people train for. Some people are not learning to fight or compete and are just trying to help with stress, or hang out with friends, so ‘effectiveness’ varies from person to person. The problem only arises when the style is advertising one thing but delivering another and gaslighting the student into thinking they are learning one thing when they are not. Integrity should be more important than business success.
Martial art styles are seriously over generalised to the point of ridiculousness, as if the style name is a franchised brand that has the same training standards and methods in every club. The martial art industry is unregulated, and anyone can open a school and be a black belt world champion expert. Any franchised style that is mass produced will have flaws in their standards compared to the those of a club or gym run by a quality-based, experienced coach. Large styles, like any large organisation, have levels, internal qualifications and standards that often have nothing to do with the external/’real’ world and do not translate from one profession to the next.
The internet (YouTube experts) and business marketing systems for martial arts have taught many people how to grow a club, keep members and advertise the benefits of their style to be a successful business. A successful business, 1234 members and 4678 Instagram followers does not equate to quality martial art students, as popularity is often the antithesis of credibility and honesty. Not always, but in martial arts, this is often apparent. The McDojo phenomenon has become a reality, arising from the growth in martial art popularity.
Selecting where you train and knowing why is essential, and far more important than what style you select.
Too many people go to the first place they find, or are recommended, and if it is a ‘good business,’ will be sold on the sales pitch and sign up. You should never do this, and a good school will agree with you. Try a few places and pick what is best for you. Remember this as a mark of quality and do not get sucked in and signed up at the place with the sales staff and offers to sign up now, as opposed the club that suggests and recommends you try a few styles or clubs.
Martial Arts are not hamburger franchises, even though some try to be. Within styles, the type of training can vary incredibly. The product (style) name usually gives the lay person a general stereotypical view of that style does and how it will differ from other styles. Between people who do not train and people that do, the stereotypical differences can be very large. Most people keep training for very different reasons to why they started.
If you go to the martial art style that is a franchise you will get a hamburger like you will at McDonalds, reliable, consistent and the same quality everywhere, but you will not get that speciality version you get from your local takeaway.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE FROM YOUR MARTIAL ART TRAINING?
This is your base question. Your answer will also change over time. You have to answer this question to understand and determine which method is better for you. Every method* and style of martial training has benefit, but for it to work, it must have benefit for you. These benefits can be sociological, physiological, or physical. They could also be practical, work related, situation related or just the lifestyle you want to lead.
(I have excluded methods that include air ninja, chi force, death touch knockout blows through no touch martial arts as these are ridiculous to anyone that is rational and/or not part of a deluded cult.)
Fitness: Most people start training for obvious reasons including fitness development, self-defence, socialising, or the challenge of the training. Everyone likes something new to learn, meeting new people and engaging in something that you feel is beneficial for you. People keep training and develop a lifestyle from the training when they enjoy the training, the challenge, the people, and the development they feel. When the training becomes a habit and you are making life decisions around your training, you are becoming a martial artist.
Where does practicality and competence come into it? If you want to get fitter, do you want to be faster, stronger, aerobically fit or develop strength. You need to know this because martial art styles will deliver varied fitness benefits. None of them incorporate running, weight training, sprints, swimming, or body building unless the practitioner is doing these aspects to develop themselves to enhance their martial skills. The martial art itself rarely has these aspects in the curriculum. They will have sport specific activities that can be understood as interval training, balance, free body strength work, speed training and aerobic work, however if you want to enhance specific aspects of fitness, specific fitness training is usually better. If you only run because your martial style meets up and goes for a run together, that is great, but it is not the style of training that includes running, it is your group that you join that motivates you to run to enhance your fitness. That fitness will make you better at your style, but it is not the essence or core of the style itself.
The fitness aspect is a massive part of why people train, but is this is the main goal for you? Specific fitness training is usually better and done on top of your martial classes, or a part of warmups and class training. The martial training has to be more than just fitness to keep you training and be martial. Martial art training is more interesting and engaging for the people that do it than your standard fitness class. That is what keep them training.
Unlike martial arts, Fitness training is a regulated industry. Every fitness instructor needs a recognised certification. Martial arts are not regulated, and most instructors have been self-qualified by their style or industry body only. Many have nothing more than their own experience or YouTube. If you want fitness training, check your instructor’s qualifications to teach fitness-based activities.
Self Defence
Practical means usable and relevant. Do you want a martial art to be able to defend yourself? If so, from what? What threats do you face in your life and what environment do you live and work in? Everyone wants to learn self-defence; however most self defence is generic and simple. You can learn self-defence without doing a martial art and you can learn a martial art and not learn how to defend yourself. Of course, all martial arts will usually improve someone’s ability to defend themselves, as they all have some element of balance, protection, increased awareness and either strikes or grappling. But is this self-defence relevant to your threats and fears?
If you are a police officer, you will learn defensive tactics at work and have strict guidelines about what and how to use techniques. You also have use of force requirements and an ability to escalate or deescalate. You will usually have a backup, a team, and other resources and weapons available. You need police-specific training for your self-defence. Adding a martial art can help, but only if it does not contradict your police training. If you do spend more time at something, that is what you will resort to under pressure.
If you feel unsafe walking home and want basic self-defence to feel more confident. You can do a short course, read some books, or watch YouTube, as awareness is your first defence. There are many martial arts that will give a little more confidence and basic skills, however if you persist at a martial art that is unrealistic or doesn’t train you for a real threat, real fear, real consequences and include real pressure, you may develop skills that cannot be used and are not practical. You will not have competence for the self-defence you need. Depending on if you walk home in Mexico City, or you walk home in Canberra, will determine your real threat and self-defence requirements. Remember the majority of violence is committed by people you know, not random strangers.
For self-defence (protective behaviour) you need the following:
- Understand your real threat.
- Develop awareness of your environment and situation.
- Development of basic skills to a level of competence.
- Scenario training for realistic threats and constant training, as all physical skills are perishable.
- Consider the level of training you really want. Weapon-based self-defence or multiple attacker defence will take longer to develop competence at than being able to punch someone in the face with your keys if they try to grab you on the way to your car.
- Education in legal ramifications of your self-defence including use of force and escalation understanding.
Competition
What do you want to compete at and why? Many martial arts have competitions, and many do not. If you want competition, know what you want, as there is everything from non-contact displays, through to full contact limited rules fighting. Competition will enhance and test you and anyone that competes usually trains with more focus than those that don’t, however, you don’t have to compete to become competent at your chosen martial art. You can become competent at a chosen martial art but that does not mean you are competent at self-defence or could compete if you wanted to at any martial art, including your own. Competition requires more psychological challenges than any noncompetitive training. Competition is also not real if you are not competing against people you do not know in a structured organised tournament. People can be competitive in their own club, but this is not competition.
Socialising
You want to train because a friend asks you to come with them and you enjoy going, the people there and the social aspects. This will be a part of all long-term martial training but is it high on your goals? It does not matter what training you do if this need is met. If, however, you want competence, self-defence, competition, it has to come after those goals. You will develop relationships with the people you train hard with over time. That shared experience of joint suffering is more real than the superficial starting sales pitch.
Competence: What do you want to be competent at?
You can be very competent at your martial style but be completely unprepared for a knife attack. You can be a world champion at your martial style, but a beginner at another at the same time, whilst also being incapable of defending yourself against a pissed guy at the pub trying to punch your head off.
Challenge
You can get this from anything that tests you, forces you to face yourself and teaches you to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Developing and striving for something you cannot do now but want to do is a challenge. Challenges need to keep increasing and training that offers barely achievable challenges as routine is great for you. Just ensure the challenge you want is real. If you want to be a world champion, train at what you want to be a champion at. If you want to lose weight, train at a martial art that includes aerobic training and diet information. If you want to be tougher, train at something hard that tests you. If you want to be able to defend yourself, know what you want to defend against, and train at something that prepares you realistically. To be challenged, it is better to be a small fish in a big pond and always having people test you, not to be the king of a small group, which will only inflate your ego.
WHAT ARE SOME TRAINING METHODS FOR MARTIAL ARTS?
It is important to remember that each of these can be included in any one style of training. It is the deliberate practice of each method and the percentage of training spent on that method that counts. People usually revert to what they first did and have done most of when under pressure. People do not learn new skills under pressure or when very stressed. For example, bag work is great for conditioning, repetition, fitness, and aggression however it will not prepare you for someone punching you in the face and trying to kill you. You have to include scenarios training to prepare for scenarios you may face. Scenarios must also be specific to your goals not choregraphed movies sequences with actors there to make you look good.
Development is also critical as all methods have a purpose and must be transitioned out of and cycled back through for long-term development.
Style method breakdowns:
- Rote Learning and structured performance (memory-based development)
- Scenario training with reaction-based stimuli.
- Traditional martial art vs. modern sport coaching (combat sport).
Rote Learning and structured performance.
Rote learning is learning something by repetition. This is learning something by memory over time and repetition. Doing a sequence of moves that are set and choreographed and often repeated by many people. This is usually called a form or Kata but can be extended to any specific response to a specific attack in a pre-choregraphed response. This is a ‘like this, do that’ method of training. It can involve one or more people following a sequence.
Specific sequences can be especially useful for teaching groups of people basic skills. For developing potential moves required, balance, fitness, core strength, concentration, speed, and clarity of execution. A coach can easily determine one person in a group of twenty who is out of step or has an incorrect position. Specific sequence allows for constant development of the manoeuvres and enhancement of ability which can be easily apparent to anyone watching to determine level of skill or performance at the sequence. Accepted sequences across many clubs can allow for measurement of competence at the sequence. You can also compete at the sequence to determine the best performance of the sequence. You can be competent at the sequence and develop through different, longer, and more physically complex sequences to challenge yourself and develop your martial skills.
Rote learned sequences involving more than one person usually involve a choregraphed scenario and response to a specific attack. The response may have variety; however, the attack is usually known prior to allow for a sequence to be improved on and developed. There is nothing real about knowing what someone will attack you with.
Rote learning has a place in all basic development for new students and is required for large groups to develop similar movements. Rote learning will ensure practitioners look amazing at what they do and will allow them to develop skills to a high-level far beyond any skill that is required in an open unpredictable pressure environment. For self-defence it is only valuable or applicable if the moves are realistic and predictable. Repetition will give you a sub conscious ability to react but only if the attack and scenario exactly mimic an actual attack. This is where the big question is. You do not know exactly how anyone will attack you, even in sparring, unless you are psychic. Repeating the same sequence against cooperative people (or no one at all) is unlikely to work unless those same people attack you in the same way precisely when you are ready for it.
Learning to defend specific attacks is realistic when you only practice against components of an attack and not against a sequence of attacks beyond three moves. Specific components of an attack should be tested in random non-structured attacks, with the attacker allowed to combine attacks without the defender’s knowledge. Any attack with a long sequence not interrupted by the defender randomly is not realistic as no fight is tidy and organised, except in movies.
It can be nerve racking to perform in front of people and have people watch and expect something from you, however, that is not a good way to prepare for real stress of a violent confrontation. This type of training lacks any emotional development of someone’s ability to be competent under pressure with a real risk of injury. The reverse is actually true, unrealistic expectations from repeating unrealistic scenarios that are choregraphed will more likely lead to negative outcomes than no training at all. Adding natural fury and survival instincts to the situation and using instinctive fight or flight responses can often be more effective.
Pilots, police, and surgeons do not rote learn how to handle a crises or emergency. They rote learn basics and prepare sequences as a basic response training; however, their crises response is based on scenario testing and situational training involving decision making under pressure that is scenario dependant and the fault/situation is not known prior.
Rote learning is great for developing basic skills, performance, and many physical attributes. It is however lacking as a training method for realistic responses in violent conflict as it does not include reaction training, fight, or flight response management, stress reactions and the emotional physical changes a body experiences when under extreme pressure, which include risk injury or death. Motor skills and psychological capabilities are restricted under pressure. It is rare that someone can perform to any level of competence if they have not experienced the emotional and physical changes that occur in conflict. If you only practice in the air and only practice choreographed moves with cooperative partners, any skill you learn is highly unlikely to work under pressure with non-cooperative, violent and adaptive opponents. If someone believes their moves will work and imagines constantly positive pain-free outcomes, their delusion is likely to enhance the negativity of the outcome.
Scenario training with reaction-based stimuli.
Scenario training can include anything. It is important that the scenario is in line with the required objectives. Scenarios also need to be developmental and based on skill and response development. They must be designed to develop competence and be applicable to the skill level of the practitioner.
Impossible scenarios for beginners will ensure a lack of success now and in the future. A lot of self-defence is based on self-esteem and any damaging of confidence early on in training can take a long time to overcome. Practitioners’ ego can affect the training as sometimes they benefit from learning they are overconfident or underconfident early on in training. Humility is an aspect of all good martial training. Ego development is required for some to develop competence, in others it needs to be reduced for training to be effective.
If you are performing a sequence in front of a crowd, you need to practice that scenario to perform better. If you are doing a speech at school, practice in front of the mirror, the you family, then friends then some people you do not know and you are as prepared as you can be.
Scenario training can only work after solid basics are developed. If you do scenario training too early, you are not practicing development of skills towards competence. If someone spars on their first class or is asked to do one thousand kicks, they may give it a good go, but they will be reinforcing mistakes and engraining incorrect movement.
If you want to teach someone to defend a strike, you do not punch them in the face day one. This type of scenario training with an unprepared person will not often lead to any future success. These basics are usually done in a rote learning style with random elements built in early on. For example, learn a strike in the mirror, then on bag, then you do it into a mitt that is moving and presented randomly so you can learn to aim and know when to hit. Then do it with someone hitting you back and trying not to get hit. Then add other techniques at random. Develop in steps of pressure.
You first learn ‘how’, then you learn ‘when.’ When is much harder. You then learn ‘when’ under incremental levels of pressure. To learn to defend a strike, you first learn what it is and how to do it. You then know when the jab is being thrown and you are ready to defend it. Then progress to not knowing when the jab is being thrown. After someone develops defending a jab, they can then learn other strike attacks and how to defend them only combining them when there is a base foundation of attacks. When there is a base foundation of an increasing number of attacks, a person can learn to defend against attacks not knowing which or when an attack will be thrown. This is when you get to sparring. Sparring itself also requires development and stages – from light, to hard, to full contact. From sparring in your gym, to someone else’s gym, to a different environment to different opponents.
For self-defence, we have to go back to the threat. You build up competence in the same method as the jab, however defending a knife attack will take far longer, as the consequences require a much higher level of competence. For people who have to work with the possibility of knife attacks, they need the most time-efficient methods of responding to a knife attack. Anything that takes an unrealistic amount of time will not work and the skills required will not be able to be maintained. Therefore, sometimes it is better to go with what works more often, against most people, which is simple and repetitive, rather than spending too much time preparing for every possibility.
Emotional responses to conflict must be developed parallel to the physical skills required. As scenarios develop, you must spend more time on each level, as each level is exponentially harder and will take longer to develop competence. Styles of training that are too linear or derive from a different scenario will be flawed outside of their environment. For example, a military style of self-defence adapted to a street situation when you have removed the weapons and team the military person normally has in their basic training. It is unrealistic to expect it to work the same in a 1-1 physical confrontation, or in competition.
Reaction-based stimuli is learning to react appropriately in scenario-based training. Your reaction will depend on the next move and then next one and it will happen very fast. Scenarios must flow and adapt to the reactions of both practitioners. Learning to react must be done in training where you do not know what the attack is in advance. You learn to defend a specific attack, then you change when and options and still have to defend the same attack. You keep increasing the options and changing the ‘when’.
Risk of injury in training for lethal force.
You cannot train with the same risk of injury as in reality, especially if lethal force is an option. If you try to, your training will have a lot of injuries, and this will dramatically reduce effectiveness and progression. It would be completely commercially unviable as well. Staying uninjured is essential to linear development. Training realistically is essential to preparation and competence. Balancing these two diametrically opposed factors is essential. This takes a very deliberate training program and developmental plan. It takes an experienced coach and the ability to constantly evaluate training and take steps back when confidence or injury occurs.
Realism v’s injury prevention
Scenario training correctly and progressively designed is how you do this. Military and police forces do this all the time to varying degrees of success. Police are not able to train daily or even weekly as their predominant role is live. Their training is a base level only with scenario training key to time efficient training. I think many people overestimate how often police get to train and the basic level of their training. Like the military, self-defence is very low on the priority list for work knowledge. If you run out of bullets in the Military, the situation is extremely dire. Any unarmed combat is usually for character, in basic training or physical fitness in units with no systematic approach due to the lack of priority in modern war.
Reality is the best trainer. Soldiers will always listen to someone who has been in combat with more attention and respect than someone who has done 20 years of exercises and never been shot it. Padding is important for sparring so you can do drills, over and over, with less risk of injury. Varied levels of intensity are required. Repeat realistic drills often, but always add in reactions and decision making so the defence is not based on memory and expectation. Use of random and varied opponents who are at a level above the practitioner is important so they can act out varied scenarios and defend themselves. Confidence development is required against less competent opponents and all of these variances need to be trained over time, routinely and consistently. Any 3-day course will not work for realistic and advanced skills. Constant mid-level work within the practitioner capabilities is where the vast amount of time should be spent.
The constantly training barely achievable challenges method is a great way to develop a person’s capability in conjunction with a focus on deliberate practice and constant evaluation. Always go back through the cycle and constantly do basics in a safe environment and repeat the foundations constantly. Keep rebuilding from the ground up and never just stay at complicated scenarios, or the practitioner will get stale, overconfident and will not develop the pathways required for adaption and subconscious competence. Rote learning can help here as you cycle back through basics, but should be left here, to progress to effective developmental scenario training.
Traditional martial art vs. modern sport coaching (combat sport)
Go back to your goals. You may not want to compete but need to understand the long-term benefits and differences between a combat sport and a martial art that does not compete, or only competes with itself. A martial art can be a combat sport and a combat sport can be a martial art, but many martial arts are not combat sports. Some combat sports are not martial arts’ but are effective for fighting and self-defence.
Combat sports are legally defined by state legislation and are usually martial arts that have a formal system of competition with an agreed ruleset. Some are amateur, some professional. Some are very specific to their style, and a few allow any style, as long as they follow the rules. Combat sports with professional – entertainment – competitions that attract crowds and are watched on TV/YouTube by spectators (not just the people who do them) are growing worldwide. Combat sports are in the Olympics, and these are specific to style. Some are not in the Olympics and are based more on a professional circuit. The main difference here is the level of spectator support, due to the popularity of the sport in the public domain. Professional versions of a sport are usually the full contact, physically demanding versions of a style.
Styles have versions that have the same name but differ widely if they are in the Olympics or compete professionally or not. So, a name of a style does not mean it is generic as the training method is more defined by the way the martial art is competed at. The more financial gains affect athletes and clubs, the more the style adapts to the requirements to win and be popular. Same as for winning medals, some style’s methods are focused on that style of competition only. There is not one style of combat sport at the Olympics that translates into a professional combat sport without training a different method and developing excellence at another style more suited to the professional fight sports.
A martial art that does not compete can still compete with itself at inter-club or gradings, however this type of martial art is not a combat sport. It may do both, but its focus will be on what it does most of. If a style does not compete at all, then you have to know why you are doing it and acknowledge that you are doing it for other reasons. You also have to question the competence of the style at anything relating to conflict, as competition is a way to measure competence. How does a non-competitive style test itself? Does it have scenario training that is realistic to develop its competence, or does it just have a grading system that rewards people for being good at that style? Which is then just an echo chamber and self-fulfilling prophecy of imagined competence.
Any style that does not compete because their style ‘is too dangerous’ has to be questioned and evaluated. Many styles do include technique that can harm or even kill. Some styles advertise themselves as self-defence only. A real self-defence encounter is a competition of survival, of protection from harm with higher consequences than a regulated combat sport. How do they (or you) know it works when it needs to? Let us break this down.
How do you test techniques that are too dangerous for competition? You can simulate them on training equipment and fight attackers in protective equipment. You must include attribute training to develop required aggression, fitness, and technique effectiveness. You must have scenario training that is realistic. A common fault is that even with the required equipment, the attackers are always other students. The police and military do this all the time but do not use other students. They have instructors with far more experience of actual arrest situations and can directly simulate attackers. It is unlikely that your local gym can do that. The majority of people signing up for self-defence courses are not the actual drug-affected attackers robbing you at knife point.
The system of using inexperienced attackers to simulate a self-defence situation is flawed. Doormen and security guards have experience with drunk people and punch ups so they can practice and simulate for their work situation, and this can add reality to the training, but only if it remains in context and no one is pretending it will also work in a robbery, serious assault or gang bashing. Without an elevated risk of injury, you cannot effectively practice lethal techniques to any level of competence outside of military/police training.
Regardless of teaching a jab or knife defence, the training must include real emotion and responses to fight or flight. If you only choreograph and train in safe controlled environment with people you know, everything you learn is flawed. People training to compete, spar to practice competition and have experience with the emotions, anxiety, and the fear of fighting. People who do not compete have a greater challenge of simulating real emotion and fear. This means that any self-defence they do learn is untested in reality-based scenarios. What do they leave out to train? Real attackers who want to hurt you, they reduce the risk of injury to the practitioners, they do not use real weapons and the intent of violence overall, is reduced. These are the actual elements that require most of the training to be able to deal with a life-threatening situation, NOT the physical techniques you need to use.
I would suggest people with competition experience having techniques that are fouls in their sport included in training will be far better equipped for self-defence, because the emotional ability to use technique and cope in a violent situation is far more important that the techniques used. Aggression, awareness, and the ability fight back and keep fighting with whatever you have, or can lay your hands on, is far more about attitude than knowing a palm strike to the groin. If you have never fought hurt, frightened, exhausted and in the midst of an adrenalin dump, your nice palm strike is unlikely to even work.
If you have police or military experience in actual conflict or high threat arrests, you are getting the experience you need to understand your emotional responses. If you are not, then competition is the next best method to test yourself.
If you cannot hit someone with a jab, which is a gross motor skill, in a pressure situation – your fancy death touch finger jab is unlikely to work either. All pressure fighting requires effective use of gross motor skills as fine motor skills erode rapidly under high stress. Firearms training is a good example of this. Basic front on stance and direct hand position work under stress far more than target shooting techniques in a safe environment although they are more accurate, they take too long, and the fine motor skills required simply do not work in conflict.
Head contact and full contact.
In any style of training, look for what they leave out of their training. Anger and violence are targeted at the head. Humans all know, even when pissed, and extremely out of control on anger, which hitting someone in the head can be decisive. It is also a game changer on your emotions and fear responses when head contact is incorporated. For any type of self-defence or true martial development to be effective against an angry attacker, students must learn how to defend their head. You do not learn this by avoiding head contact. You learn it by embracing it and making defences to head attacks routine. By have a developmental style that includes head defence and head attacks in the basics.
The largest, most popular, and dominant combat sports have head contact and KOs, as the most convincing way to win. All professional combat sports have head contact and full contact strikes. Any style that trains without them is flawed. You think you’re safe at training, however the delusion indoctrinated in you that you can defend your head when required will get you more hurt than having not started the false unrealistic training in the first place. Styles that aim at the head but teach ‘control’ by not connecting are reinforcing a false belief and training you to be less, not more prepared. They are also not training people to have correct range, timing, and execution of technique. Training to miss, is training to miss.
Worth repeating – you never learn new skills under pressure in a real environment. You will always revert to what you have done most of and trained at under pressure. Keep it simple. Do what works most of the time against most people.
Competition styles that are only striking or only grappling is limited for any situation outside of their expertise, however this does not mean they will not work in self-defence. Being really good at something is far better than being average at many things when it comes to fighting. Developing a strong base in what you can be great at and then adding things is far better than doing a little bit of everything and not being great at anything. You win fights on the application of your strengths, not on any encyclopaedic knowledge of styles or theory.
Full contact training is required in a deliberate way for any style training to be effective. This applies equally to a throw, or strike or takedown. You can be a world champion at light contact or performing in the air however this will never translate into effective application in a fight against an opponent that wants to hurt you. You do not get an NRL contract just by winning a touch football competition. They are different things. If a style teaches that they can translate to, or that they teach self-defence, but they do not do full contact training (with head contact), walk away. No good martial art is dishonest about what they do and do not do. If a style has world champions at their style – great! That style is good at their style, but pretending light contact, performance-based training is self-defence, or reality-based, is marketing over substance and you are being conned.
There are styles that do have full contact competition, but if you leave out aspects that are effective and used in other combat sports, like head contact and leg contact, or stop the bout on one strike (as if it a death touch), walk away. This style is only good against itself. One good aspect of professional combat sports is that anyone from any style can compete at them. They may have style names and rulesets, but they do not say you cannot compete at them. You just need to be able to compete at them. They have never not let someone have a go because they do a certain style. Only style-based competitions do this. If your style teaches fighting and self-defence, can you do that style alone and turn professional at a mainstream combat sport? If the answer is no, then your style is lacking something and is misleading you.
If a style says they teach fighting and what they do is effective, ask effective against what situations? If the answer is in sparring in our club, or in our specific competitions, then they are honest, but is that what you want? If they are dishonest and unrealistic, then they are promoting a false narrative.
If a style is teaching people how to attack and then teaching people how to defend that attack, in a ‘this goes with that’ method, then that works for basics. Ensure the attacks are realistic. Watch fights in professional events, watch YouTube and learn for yourself. Fights only stop on one strike if it is a KO. People trained to fight can take a lot of damage and keep fighting.
If you want to learn to defend yourself, look for a style that does full contact training in a programmed and developmental way, with an instructor with knowledge and experience of that style and beyond.
If you want to learn to compete, look for a style that competes at the format you want to compete at. Look at the club’s success and level and interaction in the wider world. Many ‘competitions’ are limited to a very limited gene pool of styles and are just another version of an echo chamber.
If you want to learn to fight for competition or self-defence, look for a style that does full contact training in a programmed and developmental way with an instructor with knowledge and experience of that style and beyond. Look for scenario-based training development and fitness included.
If you want to get fit, look for style with fitness training incorporated in the training. Repetition of good technique and everyone in the class working and training for the entire duration of the class. Any standing around taking turns, waiting to perform in the air with lots of rest breaks or students wandering in and out when they feel like it is not martial training.
Look for a style and club that you can train at a few times a week over many years, or nothing will make you competent. It has to be easy to get to have good people to train with that you enjoy seeing regularly. It has to have the actual coaches they advertise they have, not some grand master who is never there, that you pay fees to but never see – except when you pay more fees at a grading. Be very wary of anyone that lists a massive resume of multiple belts at multiple styles that in reality would mean they are 167 years old. Look for how they treat people from the newest student to the most experienced. Never put stock in displays of trophies and belts in the reception, watch the training! Never sign up unless you have tried and felt the training. Also never sign up unless you have looked, tried, and shopped around. Never get sucked into marketing and avoid a mass-produced franchise with instructors under twenty-five walking around yelling at people.
Training facilities in this modern world.
Look for a style with a professional coach with professional premises. Sure, this can mean it is more business than competent, but it is the base of any professional coach to have premises. The days of school halls and community halls having effective martial styles are gone. Instructors that are public servants by day or electricians dressing up at night in uniforms are not professionals. You would not hire a part time plumber to fix your broken toilet, so do not pay a part time instructor that has never had a fight or defended themselves, to teach you to fight.
For high quality training look for experience, reputation, a facility, and a legacy before going for a style name you have heard or been recommended. A small local club with great people and a professional coach that has survived for many years, is likely to be a better place to start than a mainstream franchise. When was the last time you took your loved one out for a birthday to franchise restaurant?
Games in training.
Every sport has games that they play in warm up and training to develop attributes for the sport in a fun and teamwork orientated way. This is also a wonderful thing to include in any modern martial training. It is included in scenario training but is useful in any warmup or class. You can develop balance, speed, agility, reactions, and teamwork in seemingly unrelated physical activities. Thousands of great ideas are on your tube to make training both more effective and fun for kids and adults. Just select games that relate to the attributes you need to develop. Games can also be competitive to develop teamwork and determination as all competition develops the ability to compete with less stress and perform better.
You do not know what you do not know.
Be aware of how easy you can be fooled by someone that knows a little more than you. Learn and think about what you want from your martial training before you commit. Always ask questions and expect rational answers. You are the customer, never join a club, you cannot question and not open to analysis or criticism. To develop confidence, you must never join a club that indoctrinates you to not question what and how they do things, or makes you feel bad asking why.
You can never learn enough theory about fighting, but knowing is not doing. Although knowledge is one principle, application and competence are the overriding concepts. Deliberate practice with constant and never-ending improvement cycles is far more important than theory and a class that is more lecture than doing.
Look for the ‘what works’ principle in any style. What works for you, for the style and in reality. Martial arts are one of those weird activities that maintains that traditional is better than modern. Few sports claim this. Having tradition and history is great and why styles that have been around for hundreds of years have a legacy and protocols that still transcends into the modern practice of them. What these styles rarely maintain is the methods of training, especially in combat sports. Militaries and many institutions are traditional and maintain protocols and rituals however, to be effective they modernise everything, training methods, equipment, fitness knowledge and coaching principles. Martial Arts often include a ‘traditional’ aspect to their marketing for credibility or authenticity. You would not buy a computer made 5 years ago, a phone from the 70’s, or go to the video store for a movie. Tradition works on the mindset and expectation of many people. It can feel nostalgic and more genuine, even authentic. When you look for a style, ask yourself how important it is, that it is advertised as traditional, then ask yourself what is traditional about it and does that tradition enhance or detract from what you are looking for in your training. Any dogmatic cultural refusal to learn and progress when new and effective methods arise may not be what you are looking for.
People may train at traditional styles and wear uniforms that you remember from movies as a kid, but little about the training methods, facilities, coaches’ qualification is traditional. Some styles have ancient links but what people see as traditions are often nothing more than a generic name, a uniform, an expectation. Traditions should mean something and are good, but never select tradition as your first priority for selecting a style. If you are a military history buff and want to recreate battle scenes with your mates on weekends, go for it, but that is not martial training. Any style that implies traditional is better is unlikely to have any modern training methods, effective applicable realistic methods for the real world of competition or self-defence. If you dig below the surface any marketing as traditional is often something with less than 10 years operation, a made-up name, a local operation only, and the appropriation of traditions to enhance a lack of real credibility in the instructor/style.
Traditional values are good and including traditional values into a training style can benefit the style and the people that do it. It can give structure, meaning, everyone likes a good history to belong to. Like nationalism though, it can be taken to extremes and is often just a story the club clings to or even invents so it benefits you to dig a little deeper. Just ask yourself, is the tradition advertised by the style authentic or marketed for another purpose. The word ‘traditional’ needs to be viewed with caution in selecting a style to suit your needs. Full-time purpose-built facilities were rare before the 1990’s. Fighting with weapons has been the norm for thousands of years in any major conflict or serious dispute. Unarmed combat only existed when you ran out of bullets, and you lost your knife.
Fighting without weapons has been a sport, cultural activity, gambling, and dispute resolution for thousands of years. Some non-weapon-based martial arts have a history of being an effective fighting system and are the base of their modern versions. Dueling was predominantly weapon based, with some records of non-weapon-based duels and prize fights with limited rules and serious consequences. Fighting has been predominantly a weapon-based activity until the modern era of sport development worldwide, as military technology reduced the effectiveness of hand-to-hand combat and moved from weapons you hold to weapons with projectiles. From close quarters to an ever-increasing range, reducing the in-your-face hacking and bleeding since firearms were introduced.
All cultures have martial training going back thousands of years as military training for mass delivering of coordinated preparation and conduct of battle. Many developed unarmed combat styles but they are specific to the time and purpose and no relevance remains today. Militaries have moved on, and the martial aspect has transformed into physical training styles for sport, fitness, and a hobby. Police and military have a serious workplace need for defensive tactics and fighting; however, they do not pick a single martial art and are more likely to develop ‘what works’ system for their environment, culture, and legal requirements.
One of the simplest best fighting systems with traditions, Olympic legacy, real world fighting application, great fitness, real application and is easy to learn with a long history of adaptation to the modern world does not even call itself a martial art. It is a sport that goes back hundreds of years and has origins in all parts of the world. It works for fighting, self-defence, and fitness. It has all the elements of emotional development, what works, reality and demanding character tests to be competent at it. It is included as an aspect of all professional combat sport competitions and if you do not learn aspects of it, your martial art is flawed.
Some martial arts never focus on the fundamentally important process of developing a skill to the point of application and practicality, then testing it and changing it if it doesn’t work – preferring to stick to it for indoctrinated reasons. Combat sports never do this, as winning counts and you must learn, adapt and progress to stay in the game. Martial arts that constantly increase the knowledge of a student (instructors talking a lot and over describing the how), rather than spending the bulk amount of time on application of basics will not be as effective at styles that practice and adapt to what works. Bruce Lee had it right: knowing is not enough; it is doing that counts. Some martial arts go even further and deliberately educate their members into thinking that what they know works by rewarding their knowledge with advancement and convincing them that they are skilled. In reality this is delusional and destructive. This process develops when instructors continually avoid testing whether what they say works, and their students believe what they are told, when even the instructors cannot apply what they know, creating a cycle of delusion and falseness. Styles that operate in an echo chamber are more likely to have flaws than those that operate in mainstream combat sports.
CONCLUSION
Effective training is complicated. A solid effective training program that develops people over time is hard to achieve and will not be smooth sailing. If your style challenges you and you are forced to question yourself and why you train, that is good. Spend a little more time thinking about what you want and educating yourself through experience before committing to a style of training. Ask questions and do your best at whatever you do, as nothing matters if you do not persist and train routinely over an extended period of time. No style works if it is fast, a 6-week course or an online program. You have to actually sweat and work hard routinely, know your goals to be satisfied and keep learning and adapting for your entire life to be a martial artist. All styles have benefit if you know what you are looking for. Be sceptical and intellectually healthy and commit to your training, but always leave room for questions.
