How to improve as a Martial Artist

Over the last 16 years I have intensely studied some of the best Instructors in their perspective Arts. Both of my Instructors Sifu Paul Vunak and Sifu Dave Hatch are Instructors under Guro Dan Inosanto. From them and from attending seminars that Guro Inosanto hosts I have learned that it is not about the amount of techniques that you learn or know it is the methods of how you train them.

Guro Dan has broken down the learning process into 5 stages.

1) Learn

2) Practice

3) Master

4) Functionalize

5) Maintain

Where I find that Martial Artists get lost at is the stage between Master and Functionalize. This is where the technique is no longer important and the training method is the key issue to improve your skill set and understanding.

Now with that being said I am not throwing out the need to Learn, Practice, and Master the technique. What I am suggesting is that as you are going thru those 3 stages spending time in the Functionaliztion stage then going back to the other 3 stages will help you to understand the finer points of the techniques.

This is ever apparent in Sports. The athlete learns the fundamentals of the game, then tests their skills out in competition. After the competition the athlete will review their performance and then go back and Learn, Practice, Master and Functionalize before the next competition. It is a constant process of refinement until the athlete is taking the basics of the sport and breaking them into finer points. This breaking down is where the Maintenance stage comes into play. But even in the Maintenance stage the others come into play.

I hope that this inspires you to seek out more efficent training methods and motivates you to apply these 5 stages of learning to your training

Much Success with your training.

Shawn