This article is an overview of the Free eBook entitled Six Key Strategies Every Martial Artist Should Know (But Most Don’t) that I recently wrote on how a martial artist can greatly improve his or her performance in any martial arts style or method by adding these techniques and focusing their training around these six key strategies.

The six strategies are:

1. Principles: A principle is a primary or general law and fundamental truth

In this chapter we focus on how to generate maximum force and power for your techniques. How to use an attackers force against them, how to intercept an attack, how to destroy the attacking weapon and how to defuse an attacker.

2. Attributes: The body mechanics (movement) and mindset skills that make techniques work effectively.

This chapter explains why certain fighters and athletes dominate in their chosen sport and battlefield. If you don’t master this one key area then your martial ability and skill will always be average.

3. Sparring: Without combative practice you are only learning an art NOT a martial art. Martial means To War and your skills and techniques must be tested and proven in real time against a resisting opponent. Forms and Kata, point fighting, and one step sparring won’t prepare you for the real thing.

4. Conditioning & Nutrition: Combat athletes put conditioning and health at the top of their training list. Techniques and strategies are crucial but if you don’t have the strength, cardio and mental fortitude your techniques won’t work for very long.  

5. Training Equipment & Tools: Body weight exercises, calisthenics and running can only take you so far for combat conditioning. All great champions and warriors use equipment and training tools to take their physical conditioning, sparring ability and body toughening to the ultimate level. 

6. Weapons Training: This one area is the difference between training for sports, art or real combat. All great past and present masters trained in the use and defense of weapons. This is one of the keys to developing blinding speed and agility.

Reviews & comments: After reading the six key strategies eBook please post your comments at the end of this article and tell us what you thought of this eBook and how you liked it. We would also like to hear what other information you would like to read about.

Download this FREE e-Book here!

The Truth in Combat is a martial philosophy and concept. This truth mindset is crucial because most people only think about their personal reality and experience and not truth.

The word reality is being used all the time now in martial arts and combat but most people only have a partial understanding or a perception of what is really true.

When mixed martial arts (MMA) events first started in the U.S. many spectators including myself thought that the striker would just knock-out the grappler and not be taken down and submitted. Well this was not a true assumption.

The reality was that in the close quarter closed cage/padded ring environment the grappler had the advantage. This advantage was due to the fact that the striker had a false mindset, underestimated their opponent’s abilities and were unprepared for the strategy of the grappler. Improper conditioning also played a major factor also.

Fast forward to today’s MMA competitions and we see that striking is the most common way to defeat your opponent or that striking is used to set up a takedown for ground-in-pound or submission. It’s the integration or mixing of these styles that make for a true mixed martial artist.

The truth is that only a mixed martial artist (someone who knows striking, grappling, conditioning, fight strategy and has a finishing mindset) can prevail in today’s events. Cross-training and mixed martial arts have been around for thousands of years. The Greek Pankration events from the early Olympics and Greco-Roman is a great example of blending cultures and fighting styles. Russian Sambo and Systema are also hybrid systems taken from European and Asian cultures and modernized for today’s sport and military combat needs.

What is the difference between reality and truth?
Reality is truth and truth is reality, but reality is subjective and truth is absolute. We can have a perceived reality of something but this does not make it true. We can also believe that something is true but in reality it is a false belief.

“And isn’t it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.” (Plato)

Definitions of truth: (Dictionary.com)
A. Actuality or actual existence
B. Conformity with fact or reality
C. That which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.

Definitions of reality: (Dictionary.com)
A. Resemblance to what is real
B. Something that constitutes a real or actual thing, as distinguished from something that is merely apparent.
C. The state or quality of being real.

Combative truth:
Following are a few examples of how people’s realities can be self deceived.

A. Most people when asked, think they are good looking and attractive.

B. Most people believe they can sing well. (If you don’t believe me, just watch the first few episodes of American Idol).

C. Most people believe they have lots of friends but the truth is, when you are really in trouble and need help there will only be one or two people that you can truly count on. This is where the term “true friend “comes from.

D. Most people lie to themselves and don’t want to know the truth.

E. When people are asked to give their eye witness testimony about what they saw many times the reports conflict with what actually happened.

Reality is subjective:
Some people argue that what you believe is real, is real for you. This is perceived reality or false reality, but that does not mean that it is actually true.

Truth is based on facts, evidence and collaborating witnesses but reality many times is based upon perceptions, false beliefs and traditions. Many times people believe something to be true but after they gather more information or practical experience they come to the realization that what was real to them was actually false.

Summary:
There are many misconceptions in the martial arts world today and we must be clear about what our objective for training and study is based upon. If we are studying a sport based MMA or traditional sport based art like Tae Kwoon Do then we must understand that our training is for the cage, dojo or arena and this is fine but let’s not deceive ourselves and believe that our Kickboxing or grappling will be effective against multiple attackers or a weapons attack.

Just like the striker against the grappler we must not under estimate our opponent or over estimate our training and abilities. A Karate practitioner or full contact boxer who does not condition their hands against impact or who only spars with protective gear will be in for a rude awakening when they hit with maximum power and break their hand against an attacker’s skull. Or when an experienced wrestler or Ju jitsu man goes to the ground and gets stabbed in the gut or head kicked by a bystander or accomplice.

The solution:
We need to base our training on what is true and real and not let false information such as advertising, the movies, certain so-called experts who recommend submission ground fighting for the street or sports competitions that make us believe otherwise.

If you are looking for effective truth based, real life street self-defense then Paul Vunak’s “Enigma” DVD will give you all the tools needed.

• The exact curriculum I teach 13 government agencies.
• I have condensed 20 years of Brazilian Jujitsu down to my 10 favorite moves.
• My secret Golden Goose principle of One million techniques.
• Bruce Lees six most effective Wing Chun moves.
• For the first time ever I show you what I teach specialized assault units known as quick kills.
• Defense against a knife that will improve ones odds 100% guaranteed.
• Why most disarms will get you killed. I show you what works.
• Military technology adapted for women and children.
• In five minutes I show you how to increase your chances of surviving a carjacking or home invasion 100%.
• How to fight more than one person and win.
• The simple yet effective defense against a large wild man charging you.
  The three ways to get a large man off you and come to your feet.
• I will show you the escapes to use in a fight against a headlock, armlock, ground pin, bear hug, rear naked choke and many more.
• I reveal the rare Filipino art of Kinimutai — the art of uninterrupted biting and eye gouging.
• The incredibly brutal leaping face bite.
• The primate groin bite.
• My top five Escrima techniques. (Filipino Stick fighting)
• Finally I will share the single most important fact in Martial Arts which happens to be the reason behind the title The Enigma.

Times are changing, the strength and conditioning field is evolving quickly. With these changes the martial arts are finally receiving the attention they deserve. At the same time this is a challenging time as the martial arts has one of the richest history of sports performance training.

Many martial artists have been turned off by mainstream strength and conditioning because the specific needs of these athletes have never been addressed. Typically most of the current research on sports training occurs with team sports. With the rise of mixed martial arts, the entire martial arts community has been receiving more attention
and research.

The Ultimate Sandbag

With all the new advances on training, we are only now learning to appreciate some of the old time methods. Innovative techniques are being looked at mostly as confirmation of training methods that have been used for centuries. One of these in particular is sandbag training.
Most athletes have experienced sandbag training in some form or another because sandbags offered coaches an inexpensive way to train their athletes. However, modern science is giving more validity to this training method and it is quickly becoming a cornerstone of all combative athletes.

Increased Power and Kicking Power

Biomechanics is just confirming what martial artists new for years. All the force for kicks and punches comes from the force the body applies into the ground. There is a specific rotational pattern that the foot creates that helps translate this power up through the entire body and can be seen in amazing kicks and punches.

This has not been trained too greatly in strength training circles because it would be hard to emulate. Sandbags because of their shape and configuration allow us to accomplish this goal. Exercises such as shoveling, half moon snatches, and around the world drills all train the body to focus on explosive movements all created by a pivoting
motion of the foot and hips.

These sandbag drills help teach the athlete how to create force, absorb force, and maintain balance during awkward loading. The rotational drills performed with sandbags will place the athlete in positions they may experience during both training, fighting, and competition. Sandbags may be the perfect sport-specific tool for martial artists.

Better Core Strength

A strong core means the martial arts athlete will be resilient to injury as well as have improved performance. The more stable the core functions the less likely low back and hip injuries will become. A strong core allows transmission of power from the trunk and hips to the extremities to create powerful punches and kicks.

There are numerous methods promoted to help the specific trunk strength found in the martial arts. Yet, only a few are truly effective and even fewer are easy to learn. The goal of a strength program for a martial artist should not only to be effective, but easy enough to learn where they can spend the majority of their skill development to their art and not strength and conditioning.

Sandbags allow the martial artist to have a strong and explosive core because the foundational movements train the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, and low back) as well as the grip and trunk. Drills such as shouldering (where the sandbag is explosively brought to the shoulder) is more challenging on the body than the classic barbell power clean and yet much easier to learn. Because of the shifting load of the sandbag and the changing form, sandbags require more stabilizers and muscles to lift it efficiently.

Squatting drills such as shoulder, zercher, and bear hug variations not only allow the athlete to perform a better squat, but challenges the core in ways barbells and kettlebells could never. The sandbag allows for variation in placement of the load so that the body has to move while under an awkward load, needing to maintain posture.

Shoulder squatting a 140 pound sandbag can tell a great deal about an athleteʼs core and lower body strength.

Complete Conditioning

The martial artist has a limited amount of time to devote to strength and conditioning. The majority of time must be spent in the development of their skills. That is why identifying efficient means of improving both strength and conditioning are needed to build a complete athlete. Sandbags accomplish this goal, wrestlers has been using sandbags for centuries and in the famous book, “The Encyclopedia of Wrestling Conditioning”, John Jesse states: “The use of heavy sandbags and their large circumference forces the lifter to do
his lifting with a round back instead of the traditional straight back lifting with a barbell. It is this type of lifting that truly develops a strong back. It develops the back and side muscles in movements that are identical to the lifting and pulling movements of wrestling.”

Although wrestling and martial arts have many differences, we could infer some similar benefits for the martial arts athlete. Heavier sandbags can build tremendous hip and trunk strength while smaller sandbags can develop the anaerobic system as well as rotational power. Definitely an important tool as sandbags are the only training implement than can replicate the awkwardness of working against a live opponent.

What Can You Do?

If sandbags are so great the obvious question may be why were they never highly promoted? Old time homemade sandbags often leaked, were impossible to change the load, and did not offer a great deal of versatility. In my own desire to have the benefits of sandbag training I created, the Ultimate Sandbag. The Ultimate Sandbag solves many of those common sandbag problems and with the idea they would be used for strength and conditioning they offer the versatility of over 300 drills and durability to be trained by the most elite athlete.

Mixing of the martial arts, and “Mixed Martial Arts”, as a fighting style in and of itself is all the rage right now.  Hardly anyone wants to train in a single art anymore and even fewer want to train in any singular “traditional” martial style.

The excitement and brutality offered for consumer/viewer consumption, on a regular basis, has convinced many both within and outside of the martial arts world that “Mixed Martial Arts” (MMA) and mixing martial styles is THE WAY TO GO, no matter your goals and desires in training.  This article in not necessarily written as a discussion of the problems inherent in MMA, or to expound on the wonderful qualities of traditional martial arts (TMA) training.

Instead this article will discuss how to achieve synthesis, or true unification of the martial arts, instead of the disjointed, conflicted, choppy, and compartmentalized martial arts often exhibited in MMA rings, and amongst those who mix their training and martial styles.

There are steps that must be taken if one is to successfully integrate/synthesize the martial arts they train in or wish to train in.  The first step in this process is academic in nature.  In order to achieve martial synthesis, one must fully understand the history of the all the arts in which they train.  Further, in understanding an arts history, one must not only understand where, when and how, the art was developed, but also why.

The why in this part of the equation refers to the reasoning behind the arts creation and movements; the part of the world it was created in (terrain, weather, social structure, etc. all play a role in an arts creation and history) the perspective of what was occurring in the part of the world that the art was created when it was created; and the conceptual thinking that went into the creation of a particular martial art (the context).

Take Wing Chun as an example.  This art is noted for it’s close quarter striking and trapping, highly effective low-line kicks, and practical (for the time) weapons training.  This art was developed during a time of continuous and fierce warfare, and the legendary Shaolin monks needed to create a relatively simple yet deadly effective martial art, that guards/fighting units could learn and “master” relatively quickly; as these soldiers were often newer monks/students that would not have the requisite years necessary to learn the intricate and advanced techniques involved in “traditional” Shaolin training.

The differences between Wing Chun, and traditional Shaolin martial training, are so distinct that most Westerners have no idea, that Wing Chun is actually, originally, a Shaolin art.  Further, whereas Wing Chun practitioners, even today, still exhibit a military or more military/combative/reality-type mentality, “traditional Shaolin-style martial arts practitioners still exhibit more of what is recognized as a TMA way of thinking.  This is a mentality where the art is more of an art than a military way, and is often entwined with spirituality/spiritualism in some way.

These examples of understanding a particular arts history can be exampled in any martial art, but these historical understandings, lead us to true and accurate historical context and perspective.  This in turn leads us in developing the proper fighting attitude, for each individual art.

For example, Muay Thai, developed from Muay Boran, which was an art created for specialized/elite Royal Guards, protecting the Thai emperor/king.  Being an elite combative/military and protective art, gave Muay Boran, and thereby Muay Thai, and aggressive mentality/attitude.  This aggressiveness to the style is still extremely evident amongst Muay Thai practitioners/fighters, and instructors today (as it is evident in all arts with a military/combative/reality-based background/history), marking this as an extremely brutal style.

This brutality can be combat effective, but today’s practitioners often forget (if they ever knew) that Muay Thai was developed as a sport, to preserve the original Muay Boran, but also to allow the Royal Guard to practice and eliminate all but the best from their ranks, without killing one another.  However, since it is a sport (though it can be effective for self-defense), it has many limitations/liabilities that actually limit it as a practical self-defense/military art.

So here again we see the importance of understanding an arts history, context, perspective, and attitude, in order to truly and accurately practice correct form and application of that art.  The point is that in order to correctly apply an art and use it to its’ greatest possible effect, this historical foundation/base, understanding, and attitude is crucial.

So how does this understanding lead to martial synthesis.  To begin with, by having an accurate and full historical understanding of each art that one desires to practice and the core principles and these arts (principles are far more important than specific techniques), one will know how, when, and where to blend the arts they practice to make them as effective as possible, and instinctively which arts to blend.  This art mixing will then be a true blend, where arts compliment and strengthen one another, not interfere with and thereby weaken one another.

Boxing and Muay Thai/Boran absolutely can be trained to be complementary to and a source of strength for one another, instead of seemingly conflicting with each other; where practitioners of MMA are often seen only using specific arts at specific ranges, instead of learning to blend them spontaneously and fluidly at any range.  This lack of blend and flow leads to the choppy, disjointed fighting often seen in MMA rings today, and amongst practitioners of a hodge-podge of martial arts.

Too often, fights on the ground turn into wrestling and Jujitsu matches, or ground and pound displays, instead of all of these skills being utilized simultaneously together.  Strikes should open submissions, and submission attempts should open up striking opportunities.  Outside of MMA, boxing and its’ wonderful footwork and hand-skills should absolutely compliment all of the other amazing attributes of traditional karate and kung-fu practitioners.

In fact karate’s straight-ahead unyielding, samurai mentality, can perfectly blend with and compliment kung-fu’s more circular, and yielding/flowing attributes.  Wrestling and Jujitsu (Japanese and Brazilian) go hand-in-hand wonderfully, but so do Muay Thai/Boran and Jujitsu, and Muay Thai/Boran and both Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling.

In conclusion, taking the time to learn about and train for depth in the arts that you’ve decided  to practice, can go a very long way toward making you not only a better martial artist, but actually that very rare species; a complete martial artist.  When blending arts to achieve martial synthesis, one must remember that to blend and flow, you must understand the creators purpose by studying the history, context, perspective, and the accompanying attitude and core principles.