This is a repost of an article I wrote 2 years ago but since they’re disappearing from the web, I thought I’d post it here.

Originally published on Chicago Tribune and LA Times on 10/2009.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-health-choosing-martial-art,0,1811106.story

Choosing a Martial Art

Important steps to take before you decide which move to make.

Mukesh Pitroda

October 30, 2009

The success of the various Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) organizations has increased interest in martial arts and self-defense systems. With so many different arts and styles now available, choosing the right martial arts for you can be a daunting task.

Here are a few things to consider:

Interest: First, it is important to understand why you want to take martial arts. While the most obvious reasons include self-defense, fitness and confidence, there are plenty of other incentives such as stress relief, meeting new people, cultural interests and personal growth. Make a list of your top five reasons, this will help determine which art is best for you.

Self-defense: This is a given, however it is important to consider what type of situation you are preparing for. While boxing may not be a formal martial art, it is very well suited for a confrontation where two opponents are squaring off. Or, you may want to be prepared to defend yourself should you ever be physically threatened. Reality based martial arts that focus on techniques are more likely to prepare you for self defense situations more quickly than a traditional martial art. Likewise, someone more concerned with being pinned on the ground may find wrestling or Brazilian jujitsu best suited for their training.

Physical limits: Some bodies are better suited for some martial arts than others. That is not to say that physical aspects cannot be overcome. In fact, martial arts are a great way to conquer physical limitations. Generally, if your stature is small and wide, you may more naturally take to Judo or jujutsu, given a lower center of gravity whereas a thinner person may find more comfort in being able to kick rather than end up in a clinch or on the ground. Additionally, if you’re barely able to touch your knees, Tai Chi may compliment you more than arts that use high, fancy kicks and acrobatic techniques like Tae Kwon Do or Capoeira .

Learning style: How instructors teach can greatly impact how effective a school and art is for you. Think about how you best learn. Are you a better learner when the curriculum is more rigid and formal, or when things are more flexible? Do you see yourself in a uniform when you train or sweats and a t-shirt? Will you gain more from an instructor who you consider a teacher or a friend? Generally, Asian based arts tend to be more formal given the deep history and tradition they bring with them. Newer arts such as Krav Maga, tend to be less formal, focusing more on techniques.

Consider this: What you get out of a system will depend on many factors besides the art itself. Some of these factors will be internal, such as your physical abilities and your dedication. Others will be external like the style of the instructor. Use the information above to help narrow the list down several different arts and then choose a school you feel will be a good fit. Be sure to visit a class for each of these. Talk to the instructors and the students (those who have been training there for awhile, and those who just started).

The cold months are a great time to build up incorporate some strength training (I know I should be doing this all year around–it’s just easier staying indoors when it’s cold) and indoor aerobic exercise. 

Here is the routine I started this week

Strenght training (Su, T, Th)
1 Dips to failure + 3 negatives
2 Pullups till failure + 3 negatives
3 Dumbell Bench Presses
4 Lat Pull-downs
5 Dumbell Flyes
6 Inverted rows
7 Hanging leg lifts
8 Hanging on bar till failure

Indoor aerobic (M, W, F)
1 Kettlebell swings (5, 10, 20, 10, 5)
2 Kettlebell squats (5, 10, 20, 10, 5)
3 Elliptical 20 – 35 mins
4 Kettlebell swings (50)
5 kettlebell somethings (10 each hand)

Feedback?  What do you do during the winter months?

Different martial arts approach the fighting stance from different angles.  Some are meant to keep the opponents at a distance, some are meant to allow for quick defense.  All incorporate some level of the following things into the stance to allow for quick defense either from footwork, angling, of parries and/or blocks with the hands.   A lot of these stances are, however, meant for hand to hand combat.  When you bring weapons into the equation, especially bladed weapons, these stances have several weaknesses, especially when you move away from the traditional weapons practice of thrust and defend.  On the street, you may not even be aware that your opponent has a weapon.  Take for example, the follow stance. 
While this stance may be perfectly effective in defending against a punch or a kick, the first thing I think of when I see this stance is that:

1.  the elbows are in providing protection to the vital organs from the front such as the heart, lungs and liver. 

Any confrontation with a bladed weapon is going to be quick, complex and messy.  No stance is going to ensure that I don’t get hurt.  Footwork and parrying will help, but asI’ve heard many times–if a blade is involved, you’re going to get cut.  However, at least here there is a fighting chance of ensuring that the first strike is not one that damages a vital organ.

After almost 2 years since my last post, I’m starting this blog again.  But I’m changing the format and purpose.  Initially the blog was just about Modern Arnis and martial arts, but there’s more to all of us than just one facet and rather than try to keep multiple identities online, I’ve decided just to move forward with this one.

However, I am keeping the title of the blog the same, because the concept of defending the snake is applicable to many things in life.  In martial arts, it refers to either debilitating an appendage or an appendage with a weapon.  It’s the removal of something that is a threat, yet it is not the complete destruction of it.  You can take out a hand with a knife so they can’t hurt you, but you’re not taking someone’s life. 

That concept can be used in other things in life as well to refer to things that are a threat to what we want to achieve whether it is motivation, fear, time, support, etc.

On this blog I plan on writing about many of the things I’m involved in besides martial arts, like writing and the million ideas that I’m working on but only getting 51% of the way to success (hence 51% entrepreneur), and running, etc. 

I hope that this will lead to two-way conversations, feedback and hopefully new ideas and new friends!

First, this is part of my New Year’s resolution–to have a blog entry at least once a month this year. So January, check…

This is more an observation on the steps in learning a form.… distinct steps that I never consciously recognized when I was learning forms, but ones that are quite obvious now that I’m observing other learn. I classify the learning process into the following steps:

1. Motion
2. Action
3. Sequence
4. Memory
5. Elaboration

The first step is learning the motion. Here the student learns the general movements. It may be, let’s say, a simple block and kick. Initially these items aren’t performed with any specific target or focus. They’re just following the motion of the form.

The second step is learning the moves. Here the block and kick become distinct actions for specific purpose. The block and kick become blocking a punch to the face and kicking to the inner thigh. This continues for each set of moves within the form until the student, either through explicit instructions or through their own understanding , begins to associate each set of movements with some purpose and action. At this time, the student will have a set of movements, pause or hesitate between each sets of movements, but will eventually get through the form.

The third step is sequence. This is adding of the smoothness to the second step. This is almost transitional between Action and Muscle Memory. Here the student has learned a significant portion of the form and can do it without pausing. I generally find some students do pause once in a while, but it seems many times this is that they’re gaining some insight that they’re thinking about (at least that’s what I prefer to believe).

The fourth step is memory. This is where the form has been ingrained in the students mind and they can do it without thinking about the basic movement. Here is where I find that the most progress is made on the subtleties of the form. The proper emphasis, the proper hip movement, etc.

The final step is elaboration. This is taking what they have learning and being able to apply it to different situations. Here the block and kick can also become a push and a trip. The students are able to explore the form and find the hidden applications… truly making what they have learned their own.

The concept of economy of movement isn’t new to any martial artist. Many new student come in with the concept that longer the distance, the more power and hence they start off with exaggerated punches, kicks, etc. At some point in their training, however, most people will come across the concept of efficient and effective movements to defend as well as to attack an opponent.

This impact of efficiency in movement becomes much more apparent with weapons mostly because when dealing with sticks and especially knives, the consequences of exposing yourself to an attack are obviously much more material than getting punched.

When training with knives, one of the things I’ve tried to emphasize to my students has been, first no one who know what they’re doing with a knife, especially someone with bad intentions, is going to bring a knife out and flash it around. Most likely the knife with be hidden in a pocket or something until the opportune moment. If you’re not able to efficiently counter a knife in that situation because your hands are flailing all over the place… game over.

Same thing even if both parties have a blade out, if the opponent is a few inches closer, odds are, unless you’re lightning quick, you’re going to get cut first.

As much as I like to reserve teaching knife skills until students are move advanced, after about six month, I generally try to expose them to some knives because it teaches them the principles of the economy of movement. After using this as an example, I generally focus more on leg, hip and shoulder movements to help the body generate power rather than using just distance alone.

For a long time I was opposed to using padded weapons in training. My personal opinion was that they were detrimental to training for real confrontations based on the fact that as soon as people got a padded weapon in their hands, they 1) started hitting each other carelessly as if this was about getting some points and 2) they started doing things like leaning down to hit someone on the leg. If the latter was in a real situation, they would have gotten clocked on their head, but because the sticks were padded that type of caution didn’t seem necessary. It seemed to me that students seemed to immediately unlearn months of training as soon as they got a padded weapon.

However, as I’ve been maturing as an instructor, I’ve come to realize that I can’t avoid using padded weapons, because there is a benefit to them. But that benefit, in my opinion, is from structured drills. When I give my students padded stick, I give them specific instructions. For example, one student performs a single strike with power and the other student had to try to use one of the disarming or abanico techniques to penetrate. They can still move around freely and strike randomly, but without letting it get to a state where they revert back to items 1 and 2 above.

I know the argument in opposition to this will be that “on the street, people will not use weapons in a predictable manner”. I know that, but I think this is the first step… to have students get used to working with weapons that are coming at a decent speed and understand how they can defend against it. Like with everything else, once they acclimate to this, then perhaps, allowing for a more free flowing padded weapon exchange.

As I’ve been teaching my students techniques, I’ve been trying to figure out how best to refine their techniques. To me almost all techniques, involve movement of the following: the limb executing the technique, feet, shoulders and upper body and hips. What I am trying to figure out is what is the best sequence to address these movement in.

Generally I have trained my students in that order. First get the limb used to the movement. I don’t focus on exactness here only that the body part moves in the general pattern that it should. Once that general movement is consistent, I refine the movement. For example, if it is a post block, then ensuring that the student doesn’t block too high or too low. After this, I focus on the foot work. In the example of the post block, at the basic level, making sure they are stepping into the block. The third thing I focus on is the shoulders. The two things I try to focus on with the shoulders is the movement during execution to add power as well as the final placement of the shoulders, which is many cases should end up facing the opponent or the strike squarely. Finally I focus on the hips and their movement for power and their final position post execution.

What I question, however, is there a right sequence. There is lot to be said for getting the foot work perfect before training techniques. My gut feeling is there isn’t a right sequence. But I’d love to hear from you with regard to how you train and focus on refining techniques.

A friend of mine recently asked for the primary reason for people’s interest in martial arts on his blog bamboosprintma.blogspot.com. I responded saying that initially it was for self defense, but now it was more a philosophical reason. After having posted my response, I started thinking about why I continue to take Arnis. Unlike many other arts that include a heavy dose of stretching and strengthening, Arnis is really focused on techniques. So while it can benefit me physically, it really is about self defense. At my age, do I really expect to have to many encounters where I need to defend myself? Probably not, but it is nice to know that I would be able to protect myself and my family if needed. But I guess really the philosophical part comes not directly from knowing how to disarm and subdue an opponent, but from more of the indirect aspects.

One is disciple, with a job, family and multiple other activities, the disciple to go twice a week and spend an hour and a half practicing the art. Another is the focus to push the body to be able to move and react with more power and more speed to increasingly difficult techniques. While this may not be a character building feat at 18, believe me it can be at close to 40. It forces you to focus and concentrate.

Finally, a third way in which practicing Arnis is that it develops mental agility. When you have to react to sticks coming at you at around 50 mph at times, you mind has to be able to react quickly. Even if you are practicing a drill, your mind has to work in conjunction with your body to make sure you block at the right time, you stop your stick before hitting your partner, etc. It forces your mind to stay sharp in other drills by coming up with new counters to counters.

I know this is just the tip of the iceberg and perhaps it doesn’t explain how this is philosophical (perhaps I’ll write about that next time), but at the least I wanted to describe how an art that is really focused on self defense technique has benefits that go beyond just self defense.

My instructor at one point had me train with my eyes closed, partially because he wanted to develop training for the visually impaired, but it taught me an important lesson about how valuable training without using your eyes can be. Not only does it teach sensitivity to an opponent’s energy and awareness of the opponent’s body position, but I think training with your eyes closed can also help promote better technique. Whether this is practicing a block, check and counter, or joint locks or even weapons training, the fact that one has to feel the way around the technique to make it effective make a huge difference in actually executing this same technique with eyes open. Sometimes when we can see, we make up sloppy technique by moving our bodies for better leverage or using more strength. With eyes closed, you have to rely upon your understanding of there the opponent is and judge what their next move may be based on the energy of the limb you’re in contact. Over time, I think this type of training can greatly add to the speed and precision of techniques with your eyes open.

I’m not advocating training this way with speed and power, but keeping your eyes closed and training slowly, I feel can be a valuable addition to any training. It makes to rely on the other senses, namely touch, to understand the force an opponent is striking, their body position as well as proper execution of technique.

If you haven’t tried this, my suggestion would be to start with something simple such as a hand grab. And to execute the techniques slowly. Initially it will be necessary for your partner to “play along”, but over time, you will find that you can execute certain technique just as well blind as you can with sight.

I’d love to hear feedback on this from others who have tried this method.