What makes a great boxer or wrestler great? Why is Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods so much better then all other players?
What differentiates a pro athlete from an amateur?
The answer… Attributes. Attributes are the foundation of all skill.
It’s what makes skills or techniques work. you cannot hit a home run without speed and power and you can not slam dunk a ball without agility and coordination.
The same goes for MMA, combat sports and street fighting. If you don’t have the necessary foundational attributes then the best techniques won’t do you any good.
Just imagine trying to throw a boxing jab or front snap kick to someones groin with using strength only and no speed. What do you think would happen? Answer; your opponent would just move out of the way.
What if you prepared for three, five minute rounds of full contact fighting and only worked on your punching technique but didn’t do any conditioning? You guessed it. You would run out of gas after only a few minutes and then your punching wouldn’t work at all.
No oxygen no fight!
The following is a short list of Primary Attributes:
Speed, power, timing, explosiveness, agility, flexibility, visual awareness (line familiarization), balance, mobility, accuracy, killer instinct, sensitivity, spacial awareness, endurance, strength, mental toughness, etc.
These abilities are the essence of what makes techniques work. Without these then you are not actually doing martial arts or any other sport for that matter.
Every great or accomplished athlete must develop these abilities while developing their specific skill or technique. Attributes take many years to develop.
All martial arts systems have a foundation in athletic conditioning, some more then others. But many systems do not put enough focus on developing a balance of the most important attributes.
For example; Tae Kwon Do does calisthenics, stretching and some cardio but does not work on developing strength or sensitivity.
On the other hand BJJ develops a lot of sensitivity, cardio and tendon strength from all the grappling resistance they get from their training partner’s but what they lack is agility & foot work, primarily due to the fact that they spend the majority of there training on the ground.
Muay Thai is a good example of a style that puts more emphasis on attributes and athleticism. This combat sport is known for it’s development of power, speed, agility, timing, endurance, mobility, body hardening, cardio, sensitivity, balance, etc.
The one major draw back about Muay Thai is that it is a style of abuse. Fighters start out at a very young age and take a lot of damage to their bodies through their training and fighting, and this leads to injury and other health issues as they get older.
So in my opinion the attribute they are missing is health. Why health? Because health and fitness are two separate things. You can be healthy when you’re fit, but just because you’re fit doesn’t mean you’re healthy.
Health is the most important attribute that we can develop.
In my next article I will discuss some specific ways to develop your attributes.
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Bruce Pahl is the owner of Immortal Martial Arts & and Delaware Combat University. He is a certified Full instructor in Jeet Kune Do & Filipino martial arts under Paul Vunak of (PFS). Has a second degree black belt in Shorite Ryu Tai Jutsu under Dr. Christian Harfouche. He has a basic instructor cert. in Combat Ju-Jitsu under GM Michael DePasquale Jr. He earned his Black belt in 1997 in Chinese Kenpo Karate and was inducted into the Action Martial Arts Hall of Fame for excellence in teaching in 2007. He is a certified Battling Ropes® coach under founder John Brookfield, was certified in Circular Strength Training (Clubbells®) under Scott Sonnon, and is a certified instructor in FlexBands & Ultimate SandBag L.I.F.T,2010.
