Streamlining Your System
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:27 pm
I have seen a lot of people over the years, both in and out of China, that have been learning systems with a curriculum that is endless. They often feature many forms, weapon forms, Neigong sets, partner exercises etc. I don't have anything against any of these things by themselves, but it's the sheer number of them that make the systems unrealistic. I myself studied Taekwondo and Chen style Taijiquan, which also had the same problem. Usually, myself included, practitioners of these systems don't have a clue about half of what they are training. We are basically paying to learn empty forms.
I believe that as students of martial arts we ourselves should be responsible for what we want to get out of it. If we have learned most of a system and our sparring has not improved (and we should be sparring, wrestling or fencing or it's not a martial art), then we don't necessarily need to throw out the entire system and go learn Boxing or BJJ - assuming that the teacher can or once could fight. We need to analyse what traits famous practitioners of a system were known for. What types of techniques are used? How is the power generated? What does the Shenfa look like?
Next is the hard part; test yourself. Are you able to use these techniques? Now in every system there will be high-percentage techniques, low-percentage techniques and everything in between. Some techniques will also be extremely practical in very specific self-defence situations, but almost useless otherwise. Decide HOW you want to use your system. In light-contact glove-less sparring? In no-holds barred sparring where anything goes? In gloved full-contact sparring? In wrestling? In sparring with very limiting rulesets like Taekwondo? DECIDE. Then ask yourself whether you can use the techniques, strategies etc. in the environment of your choosing. Can you generate the type of power that your system claims to possess? Can you hit anyone with that power? Do I do a load of fancy forms and then turn it into kickboxing when it comes time to spar?
Only you can answer these questions, but if the answers are not satisfactory more forms and secret Neigong sets are not going to get you to where you want to be. Assuming that your teacher can fight, you will need to put in some work to make it work for you. What are the highest-percentage techniques that are repeated over and over again in the forms? Can you use them in sparring? If not, pull them out and train them separately with the accompanying footwork. If you can't use that throw or fancy lock, are you using the correct entering techniques or combinations to put yourself in the right place and the right time to use them? Have you trained and conditioned your hands or your body to be able to apply these techniques properly? If you haven't, find out how to do that. What makes you different from your teacher? Why can he do it and you can't? If you've trained with him for more than two or three years and you can't use anything then there is something wrong with the way or what you are training.
Categorise all of the high-percentage techniques into entering and finishing groups and drill them on resisting partners and see what works and what doesn't. Put techniques that help train power-generation well into little groups and train them as often as you can. Little things that your teacher told you you could train to help improve your power that you did perhaps once or twice are what you should be training all the time. Consider only keeping a main form or two, or combining the best parts of forms that train only high-percentage and basic techniques and dropping the rest. Training them is wasting valuable time that could be used to help you improve your sparring, which is what martial arts should be about and you should know how much you suck and have the balls to admit it.
Also consider specialising if there is just too much to learn and train or if you are much better at one thing than another. I never cared much for Qinna because it is hard to pull off if you aren't already good at everything else, because it's tough to train safely and because it requires a lot of specialised conditioning training to use properly. So I kept only the highest percentage techniques and discarded the rest. And since my focus was not on Qinna and wrestling I realised that training a lot of Tuishou was not the best use of my time and without constant drilling 70% of my Taijiquan was useless, so I stopped training those things too and freed myself from those shackles and the burden of unrealistic expectations. If you are training an art like Xingyiquan then your primary focus should be explosive striking with a kick here or there. If it is Baguazhang you should be using crazy footwork, moving all over the place, confusing them and bouncing them around with power from your waist. If you are training Taiiquan then most of what you are doing should be following them like a shadow with lots of throws and Qinna and be really hard to move. If what you want to train and what the art was designed for are totally different, you should consider changing arts!
Lastly, make sure that whatever you decide to train can be trained in the amount of time that you have to train. The important things should be trained at least twice a week. I have arranged it so that about 80% of the solo training part of my system (and there is some overlap with partner training) can be trained in about two hours, twice a week. The other 20% I train separately on alternating weeks when I feel like it. The same is true of my swordsmanship system. Part of your Tuesday training could be Hunyuanzhang, Five Element Fists and pole-shaking and you can save Santishi, the Twelve Animals and arm-conditioning tree-striking for Thursday, for example. I guarantee that you'll improve drastically, rapidly. If you can't do this with your current art then consider switching. Don't forget to spar as often as you can for regular reality checks. Good luck in your training..
I believe that as students of martial arts we ourselves should be responsible for what we want to get out of it. If we have learned most of a system and our sparring has not improved (and we should be sparring, wrestling or fencing or it's not a martial art), then we don't necessarily need to throw out the entire system and go learn Boxing or BJJ - assuming that the teacher can or once could fight. We need to analyse what traits famous practitioners of a system were known for. What types of techniques are used? How is the power generated? What does the Shenfa look like?
Next is the hard part; test yourself. Are you able to use these techniques? Now in every system there will be high-percentage techniques, low-percentage techniques and everything in between. Some techniques will also be extremely practical in very specific self-defence situations, but almost useless otherwise. Decide HOW you want to use your system. In light-contact glove-less sparring? In no-holds barred sparring where anything goes? In gloved full-contact sparring? In wrestling? In sparring with very limiting rulesets like Taekwondo? DECIDE. Then ask yourself whether you can use the techniques, strategies etc. in the environment of your choosing. Can you generate the type of power that your system claims to possess? Can you hit anyone with that power? Do I do a load of fancy forms and then turn it into kickboxing when it comes time to spar?
Only you can answer these questions, but if the answers are not satisfactory more forms and secret Neigong sets are not going to get you to where you want to be. Assuming that your teacher can fight, you will need to put in some work to make it work for you. What are the highest-percentage techniques that are repeated over and over again in the forms? Can you use them in sparring? If not, pull them out and train them separately with the accompanying footwork. If you can't use that throw or fancy lock, are you using the correct entering techniques or combinations to put yourself in the right place and the right time to use them? Have you trained and conditioned your hands or your body to be able to apply these techniques properly? If you haven't, find out how to do that. What makes you different from your teacher? Why can he do it and you can't? If you've trained with him for more than two or three years and you can't use anything then there is something wrong with the way or what you are training.
Categorise all of the high-percentage techniques into entering and finishing groups and drill them on resisting partners and see what works and what doesn't. Put techniques that help train power-generation well into little groups and train them as often as you can. Little things that your teacher told you you could train to help improve your power that you did perhaps once or twice are what you should be training all the time. Consider only keeping a main form or two, or combining the best parts of forms that train only high-percentage and basic techniques and dropping the rest. Training them is wasting valuable time that could be used to help you improve your sparring, which is what martial arts should be about and you should know how much you suck and have the balls to admit it.
Also consider specialising if there is just too much to learn and train or if you are much better at one thing than another. I never cared much for Qinna because it is hard to pull off if you aren't already good at everything else, because it's tough to train safely and because it requires a lot of specialised conditioning training to use properly. So I kept only the highest percentage techniques and discarded the rest. And since my focus was not on Qinna and wrestling I realised that training a lot of Tuishou was not the best use of my time and without constant drilling 70% of my Taijiquan was useless, so I stopped training those things too and freed myself from those shackles and the burden of unrealistic expectations. If you are training an art like Xingyiquan then your primary focus should be explosive striking with a kick here or there. If it is Baguazhang you should be using crazy footwork, moving all over the place, confusing them and bouncing them around with power from your waist. If you are training Taiiquan then most of what you are doing should be following them like a shadow with lots of throws and Qinna and be really hard to move. If what you want to train and what the art was designed for are totally different, you should consider changing arts!
Lastly, make sure that whatever you decide to train can be trained in the amount of time that you have to train. The important things should be trained at least twice a week. I have arranged it so that about 80% of the solo training part of my system (and there is some overlap with partner training) can be trained in about two hours, twice a week. The other 20% I train separately on alternating weeks when I feel like it. The same is true of my swordsmanship system. Part of your Tuesday training could be Hunyuanzhang, Five Element Fists and pole-shaking and you can save Santishi, the Twelve Animals and arm-conditioning tree-striking for Thursday, for example. I guarantee that you'll improve drastically, rapidly. If you can't do this with your current art then consider switching. Don't forget to spar as often as you can for regular reality checks. Good luck in your training..