Wow...My Opponent is....

When observing students working on their fighting, I often see students intimidated by level or seniority of the other student that they are going to fight with.  I was also there at one point but quickly learned that there is no reason to worry and eventually preferred to work with people who were more senior and usually better than I was for some good reasons:

• Nobody actually wants to hurt you in class because we are all there to learn and get better
• More senior students typically have better control of their techniques and are actually less likely to accidentally hurt you
• Fighting with someone better than you forces you to elevate your fighting to match with your opponent's skill level
• Senior students will often be able to see things in your fighting and be able to give you some pointers on improving your fighting
• With mutual respect and control there is also an opportunity to learn because neither fighter is afraid to get hurt, therefore allowing you to try new techniques
• We are all friends in class

I do recommend being more careful in tournament settings as adrenaline seems to contribute to lack of control.  I also believe that tournament fighters care less because they actually don't know you and will not have to see you in the next class.  I am not suggesting that people will try to hurt you but I have seen some things that you would not see in class.

Even with tournaments, I would encourage competitors to forget about the size or level of their opponent and look for ways to penetrate the opponent's defences that are within your own abilities.  

Train To Fight Against Your Personality

While teaching some fighting theories in a recent class, I realized that I often advise individuals to do things that are the opposite of their personalities. How this translates into sparring matches is quite interesting. More aggressive personalities tend to be more aggressive fighters while less aggressive personalities are less aggressive fighters. Careful personalities are careful during their fighting, detail oriented people are more detailed in their fighting, etc.

I see personalities exaggerated during sparring matches which is the reason I would advise students to train against their personalities to become a better rounded fighter. A very aggressive personality may be an overly aggressive fighter who leaves themselves vulnerable in their enthusiasm towards the attack. A cautious personality may be overly cautious during sparring and have difficulties generating any offence. By working on being the opposite of your personality, you will be able to learn to do the things that are not natural or comfortable to you.

My theory is not designed to completely suppress your personality because being comfortable will allow you to relax and have a better fight but a bit of training can really help. An example would be for the aggressive fighter to take more caution to avoid leaving themselves vulnerable to counterattack but still utilizing the aggressive instinct to quickly shift from defence to offence when it is time to attack an opening in the opponent's defences.

Reading on Martial Arts

I apologize for not having written for a while. As I wrote in one of my previous posts, there is no avoiding the occassional break from things as life gets in the way. I thought I would take a moment today to write about reading. Those who enjoy Martial Arts will often try to gather information and research all styles of Martial Arts. Here are a few points on reading:

1. Do not take everything as the complete rule. What may be the correct method of performing a technique in one style might be completely different in your particular style. I have seen an instructor teaching completely incorrect execution because he learned something flashy in some training he did and decide that the techniques in his style should be performed that way.
   
2. Do not learn different styles from books. Unless you are an expert Martial Artist, you will definitely practice incorrectly or mix up concepts if you try to learn from books. If you are an expert Martial Artist, spend your time working on your own style.
3. Appreciate the history and culture of Martial Arts. I think it is interesting to read about the origins of a style and the traditions around Martial Arts training. I would suggest that you read about these but be careful before incorporating them into your own class. I have seen a Chinese Kung Fu school where the young instructor used Karate terminology and traditions in the class because he thought he was making his class seem more traditional...unfortunately it was just wrong.
   
4. Be careful what you incorporate. There are ideas that may be style independent but there are often variations of theory from style to style which may include different reactions to situations. The example I have used with my students is Bruce Lee's book. I have never read it and probably never will because the theories I teach are from my style and if I have never read his book, nobody can question if any of my teachings come from there. I would be happy to read books about my style.
   
5. Read anything you can about your own style. I really believe that it is a good exercise to research your style and gather as much information you can about it. Not all writing on your style will agree because there may be variations in thought between authors.