You Only Have Two Hours, Part 1
Two hours a week that's it
Two hours a week that's it. That's the average amount of time most adults have to dedicate to any type of activity outside of work and family.
Running a martial arts school we knew this. We knew that most people can come twice a week for about an hour at a time. The "quit times" are 3 weeks, 3 months and 12 months. Anything past 12 months is considered a long time. Anything past a few years is a lifetime. That's why most martial arts programs have promotions and incentives around each of these time increments.
Everyone wants to train forever when they start and I know you have the best intentions. I know you will train forever and practice 3 hours a day to become an awesome wrecking machine. But you won't. Something will pop up, your work, your health, your family, something will change your routine to throw you off your game. It's life and there's nothing you can do about it. But that's OK.
Chances are you will only have a few hours a week and be able to train for (let's be generous here) eight to twelve weeks. Along the line you're going to have to stop for one reason or another after the first three months.
Knowing that, ask yourself, what do you want out of your training? If it is self defense, how often do you think you're going train in actual self defense?
On the other hand, as an instructor, how much real useable self defense are you giving your students? Let's take a look at it.
A typical martial arts curriculum consist of warm up, calisthenics, form or kata practice (you can put striking the air in here), pad work, sparring or "randori" and what is classified as self defense practice.
Now before I continue I'm looking at this from a strictly self defense point of view and not a spiritual, sporting or cultural perspective.
From a useable self defense perspective there are only two aspects of your training that actually directly benefit real self defense: calisthenics and pad work.
Calisthenics promote over all fitness. The more fit you are the more punishment you can take and more important, the more punishment you can dish out.
Pad work promotes hitting with power and it conditions your weapons for actual contact. It teaches you to dehumanize and hit your target with force which is what matters in the street. Power is King so "Hail to the King, Baby"- a little shout out to Bruce Campbell.
Katas or striking the air has about the same tactical benefit of a cardio kickboxing class. You're basically doing the same thing, following a set pattern and performing moves in the air. The only difference is the music and the clothing.
Sparring presents its own set of issues. While it gives you some benefit of the stress of fighting another human being, it's really a detriment when it comes to combatives. Sparring forces you to wait and look for openings. It trains you to be patient and operate within the rules. You wouldn't be very successful if in each match you attacked your opponent with reckless-abandon as you tried to rip his head off. But in the street, this is exactly what you need to do. You need to end each fight as fast as possible by whatever means. The longer you wait the greater chance for him to use a weapon, have some friends join in or watch you simply slip and fall on the concrete. In combatives, you don't wait for an opening, you create and take them.
Self Defense practice in the martial arts class consists of two people standing in front of one another practicing prescribed defenses against predetermined attacks. This format has been the same since Judo, Aikido, Wushu and all the Aiki Jujutsu started doing it in the late 1800's. This same format has been adopted by Tae Kwon Do, Gracie Jujitsu, Krav Maga and any other martial art that has added self defense to their sign.
by: Matthew McKernan
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