The Secret of the Three Essentials of the Martial Arts
In the martial arts, I don't care if it is UFC based, Tai Chi Chuan, Shotokan, or whatever, there are three key ingredients. These three ingredients are what makes an art stand out, and they are why people study the arts. Oddly, one of the ingredients is usually missing from peoples practice.
One of the ingredients has to do with pure, raw strength. Muscle mags are filled with advice on how to be strong, and everybody obsesses on strength. Oddly, strength is the least important of the three essential techniques I am speaking of.
The most important of the three essentials is technique. Technique is measured by how little you have to work to make a move work. If you need a lot of strength in your move, then your technique is lacking.
The second most important essential to good martial arts, and the one most people ignore, is speed. Interestingly, at least in the beginning, speed is very necessary to make a technique work. Yet strength is what everybody chases.
Yes, people try to get fast, a little bit, but it is an individual effort, and usually put aside in the pursuit of strength. People believe that strength is going to make them faster, you see. Well, it will, but there are flexibility drawbacks, and the speed gained is not always enough.
Speed must be developed in a fashion which aligns with technique. As knowledge of technique rises, so should the ability of the student to have speed. In my over 40 years of martial arts I have found only one drill which actually develops speed in the student.
The Speed Drill is nothing more than a simple slap and grab motion, and yet it is so much more. It makes all techniques as easy as slapping a slow buzzing fly. And every technique can be altered to take advantage of the slap and grab Speed Drill.
So practice the strength of Hung Gar, and build the technique of Tai Chi Chuan. Work the sticky hands of Wing Chun and focus your concentration into the great eternal circleness of Pa Kua Chang. But if you want to build and develop sheer, raw, powerful speed...you need to work on The Speed Drill.
Al Case has analyzed martial arts for 4O+ years. A writer for the magazines, he is the originator of Matrixing Technology and Neutronics. You can learn more about The Speed Drill here, or you can head on over to the main site and pick up his free ebook on Matrixing.
Tags: Tai Chi Chuan
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