Five Most Important Aspects of MA-ist?

[bbbb]

Kill - Sensitivity
Maher - Stance
Geng - Forward Drive
Sun - Attitude
Hay - Breathing...Just Learning now....

[Tom Yum]

1. Judgement - Right from Wrong.
2. Tenacity - Working like a freekin' monster toward your goals.
3. Strategy - Understanding and solving the challenges to your development.
4. Work Ethic - Commitment to improve technique, speed, power, flexibility.
5. Attitude - Keeping the right frame of mind for learning.

[jcmack]

Balance

It's all you need. Assuming you have full mastery of it.

[Tjang]

Each has the best for himself.

Thank you very much, everyone, for your shared opinions.

I see that there are no wrong answers. Different warriors turn out to have their own different secret recipes. Each recipe is the best and most suitable for that person, and may not be suitable for others. Thank you, all your answers once again open my eyes to see that we are all different.

At last, I understand that things depend on how well a warrior trains and organizes himself mentally and physically. That's the golden key.

Good luck, warriors, and go on practicing and improving. I’ve learned a lot from you.

P.S. Thank you Ipon for your very warm greetings.

[Tjang]

A question on BALANCE.


“Balance,” writes jcmack, “it’s all you need. Assuming you have full mastery of it.”

This is a very interesting comment, honest. However, some warriors may choose to stress upon their own certain more-outstanding talents and elaborate more on it. One warrior, for example, may feel that he is good at waiting patiently for a good opportunity to attack his opponent, while another warrior may feel that he is good at attacking his rival at the very first second. Hence, the two warriors just mentioned focused at different attitudes; each of them may special in one method and not the other.

Another example, one may train for high speed punches, another may train for powerful punches. I think speedy punches are less powerful, and powerful punches are less speedy; they are contradicting and we cannot easily get in between. So what is meant by ‘balance’? Please throw me some light.

Again, what is called “balance” then? Does it mean we have to train different (even rather contradicting) methods? Does it mean we may not focus? Please illuminate me.

Lastly, I don’t mean to argue, but to seek for true understanding. Thank you.

[darrianation]

Dear Martial-Artists: I am proud to hear from you all, warriors!

How would you list the five most important aspects that a martial-artist should possess? For example:

1 : speed
2 : ability to accept punches / kicks unharmed
3 : power
4 : flexibility
5 : calmness

The above elements are just examples. What is your opinions? Thank you.

First and foremost is the killer instinct.
1) Killer instinct- also mental/psychological toughness.
2) Physical attributes- Speed, strength, balance, hand eye coordination, power, and etc.
3) Techniques

* Having the biggest stick in the fight is good too (or knife/gun/etc).

The number one thing in self-defense is not to learn to fight, but how to avoid a fight.

Other important factors:

1) Knowledge
2) Prevention
3) Awareness
4) Avoidance
5) De-escalation
6) Aggressive offense

[jcmack]

I don't mean to be so puzzling or stoic by using a vague term such as balance. However, in my experience, it is the end all of a fighter. Everything can be traced back to balance. Balance is very broad. However, it is universal no matter what type of fighter you are or what type of opponents you have. It is such a broad topic, I'm not sure I can do justice to it in one post. It takes a very long time to truly understand, so think about my origional statement long and hard. I'll give it a try with my explanation. Don't get to hung up on concrete examples since it is an idea that cannot be summed up by a single concrete example. You must experience it. Also, read the entire post and think about it very closely. I have a feeling that all the "concrete" thinkers that inhabit this forum may have a problem with this because it is hard for a person who only thinks in terms of concrete examples to understand such a broad concept.

When a fighter looses a fight, he has lost because he lost his balance and other man or men didn't. Whether this means that he was hit in the face and lost his balance and fell down, whether he tried to hit someone, missed and lost his balance, whether he stepped backward and fell off of the curb and lost his balance, whether he was shot and lost his balance etc. . . . So in this very broad sense, balance is the end all of the fighter. Balance can mean the ability of a person to maintain balance while standing, striking or grappling another person or target. These can be practiced. Balance can also refer to how well you can control another persons balance. Seeing weak points of balance that take minimal effort to topple someone. Or how well you can make a person alter their balance to fit your purpose. It can refer to the way you fall to the ground. If you can stay balance in your fall, you can role out of it to a better position.

Many fighters fall into the bad habit of training mainly for speed and power. Give me the most powerful puncher in the world, but if he has poor balance, he will loose, possibly even beat himself. Extreme speed can actually work to your detriment if you don't have good balance to use it. It is very possible if you have superior balance to win a fight without attacking at all. This comment will draw the biggest amount of criticism. Many "what ifs" will arise from this. I actually like to play a game with my friends. I challenge them to hit me. I tell them I will not use my hands and beat them(make them fall usually, or give up because they get nowhere). It is a good exercise for balance and you can have them use gloves if it makes them more comfortable since very few people could actually throw real punches and kicks at their friends if they thought they would really hurt them. In addition to being a good training exercise, it is also a good demonstration about how important balance is. The better you get, the more risks you are able to take training.

Eventually you will start to feel balance instead of seeing it. It becomes possible to feel the weak balance points on a person just by touching them. You can feel minute weight shifts and angle changes. Then you will start to get a grasp on balance.

You can start by observing yourself. Are you balanced when you stand still. How about your offensive or defensive stances. Can you move from posture to posture in the most balance way without having to adjust too much. After your attack are you as balanced as you could be. If you have a weak point, which on a strong attack cannot be avoided, could you return to balance relatively quickly, or if taken off balance move to the ground in a controlled and balanced manner. Can you roll from any position. If so, unless someone is on top of you, you can roll out of almost any fall. If you are good at controlling the opponents balance, you can even roll with them on top of you. Then watch other people's balance in controlled situations and uncontrolled situations. Practice taking people down with one technique while they are in a variety of different positions. Practice with a partner on manipulating a persons balance. Make him lean different ways by getting him to attack you or you attacking him in a controlled way. Once you get to where you can actually feel balance, it is second nature to you and you can get more uncontrolled. Then you can start playing little challenging "games" with people for practice like the ones I described above. It is actually a game for you, but many times ends up not a game when people feel their ego has been damaged. I find that they begin attacking harder and harder and more desperately as the game goes on. It doesn't matter. You are only limited by your desire to improve. Most of the time, taking greater chances in training reaps bigger rewards. Besides, what may seem dangerous and unacceptable to you will eventually pretty trivial once your skill level is there.

Good luck with your training. I put this information out as just that, information. You can agree or disagree. It doesn't matter to me. But if you have legitimate questions for me then please ask. I will be happy to go deeper into this concept. The above is a simple explanation only.

[Tjang]

Good points

jcmack wrote: "You can agree or disagree. It doesn't matter to me. But if you have legitimate questions for me then please ask."

Thank you jcmack, what you mentioned are very good points. Don't feel that I will disagree with you. In fact I like writings such as yours, because it is constructive and it describes points that we can try and practice. I agreed that balance is necessary, and I wanted to explore, learn, try, and practice it more. That's why I asked. I will surely ask questions next time I need to. Good luck.

[Oraenor]

3 physical
1. Timing
2. Power
3. Experience

3 mental
1. Courage
2. Mental Dexterity
3. Emotionaless

[IBOPM]

3 physical
1. Timing
2. Power
3. Experience

3 mental
1. Courage
2. Mental Dexterity
3. Emotionaless

I disagree with emotionaless. Emotion is an integral part of CMA. It is part of the art.

I think it should read "3. Ability to control and channel emotions"

[Tant01]

Interesting question indeed and many varied responses. It seems that economy of motion is not listed? This would presume good balance, focus, intent and calmness in the chaos of attack and defense. I was taught that being relaxed is important to any fine motor skill you may attempt under duress. The effects of adrenalin I'm sure are not unknown to you folks. Much of the "art" goes out the window when it's time to step up. People move like stiff trees in the wind and can't see or hear anything beyond the thumping in their own chest. They flail and throw themselves into the melee like some crazed beast... easy to make them miss when they lack or loose their balance and calmness. Economy of motion...And a short stick

[Oraenor]

I disagree with emotionaless. Emotion is an integral part of CMA. It is part of the art.

I think it should read "3. Ability to control and channel emotions"

If you think that anger will make you fight better it doesn't really.The rage will put you off balance thus reducing your defence.Emotions will swing you more offence or defence, one way or another, thus endangering one self in combat and only being emotionaless will stop the swing. One should think of how to disable an opponent quickly rather than trying to make attacks with adrenelin.

"A man talks with facts, a woman talks with emotions"

[bbbb]

But fighting is TOTAL!

If you think that anger will make you fight better it doesn't really.The rage will put you off balance thus reducing your defence.Emotions will swing you more offence or defence, one way or another, thus endangering one self in combat and only being emotionaless will stop the swing. One should think of how to disable an opponent quickly rather than trying to make attacks with adrenelin.

"A man talks with facts, a woman talks with emotions"

If you reject your emotion's then you are rejecting a part of you.

You don't like "all of yourself"..you are hiding a part of yourself from yourself.

Learn to embrace...

[bbbb]

....

There are 4 emotion's. Mad Glad Sad and Scared.

Learn to feel them and NOT reject them.

When scared: you just about FREEZE!

But by learning to embrace the feeling you so become used to it and you can then function, whilst still scared though. Just able to function whilst still S*** S*****.

!

Just a difference in theory really...but that is CMA's speciality really!

[SimonM]

I don't think that a person should fight suppressing all emotion however I also don't think that passionate feelings assist in combat in most cases. Remaining calm is essential to success in combat; relaxing regardless of if you are happy, sad, mad or afraid.