subject: Martial Arts Training Tips And How To Run The Freestyle Gauntlet [print this page] When it comes to Martial Arts Training Tips I have to recommend a couple of freestyle exercises. Freestyle, of course, is where you get to fight. You learn good control, but you still get to let it all hang out.
There are two specific Martial Arts freestyle Drills that should be taught. The first one deals with kumite specifically, the second deals with a more street style type of self defense. Both should be practiced until one is a well rounded street fighter.
The first is the old standard, you take your place at the head of a line, and the people in line take turns attacking you. This is great stuff, as you don't have time to think, you just learn to accept the situations as they develop, and do what you have to. A few times through the line and you learn how to survive in the simplest fashion.
The second drill is to set up a gauntlet. This is not going to be a set and gunfight type of Karate kumite. It is going to be a much more natural situation which is more like what you might encounter in a real live street fight.
I was taught this one many years ago, in a chinese Kenpo school, and we used to love it. The teacher would set ten students in two lines standing across from each other. The fellow who was to go between these two lines would face away, and the teacher would pick out three people.
The karateka would be given the command, and he would turn and make his way slowly between the lines. When he passed one of the fellows who had been pointed at, they would suddenly attack him. He would never know when the attack would come, or from who.
Attacks would be a taken one of the fighters made a point. The fellow who walked the gauntlet could get three points total, but, if he lost three times, he might not get any. First person to reach seven points won.
This type of training teaches you to relax and yet to be ready. It is also a great work out, designed to sharpen you up. What I liked about it the most, however, was that it did get us out of the set and explode mentality, and into situations that one might encounter on the street, and this makes this gauntlet exercise one of the best martial arts training tips you will ever find.
