This training tips video is about principles and techniques. It is more important to learn the principles of what makes techniques work than it is to learn loads of techniques. Learn the principles and you will, in fact, learn quicker and learn more.

It is for martial artists of any style who feel they are collecting techniques without really getting better.

Why Techniques Alone Are Not Enough

A technique is one answer to one situation. Real situations rarely match exactly. The attacker is bigger, the angle is different, the grip is on the other arm. If all you have is a list of techniques, you have to find the right one in the moment, and under stress that rarely happens.

A principle is different. It tells you why something works, so it applies to many situations, including ones you have never practised.

Examples Of Principles

In my own teaching, a few principles come up again and again:

  • Balance first. Take the balance and almost every technique becomes easier.
  • Relaxed power. A short, loose strike that travels through the target beats a big, tense swing.
  • Angles. Move off the line so you can hit and the other person cannot.
  • Set-ups. Create the opening before the main technique.
  • Opposites. Moving one part of the body one way helps move another the other way.

Once you understand these, you can look at any technique and see why it works, or why it does not.

How Principles Speed Up Learning

When you learn a new technique, you are no longer starting from scratch. You recognise the principles inside it, so you pick it up faster. You can also adapt it on the spot when things do not go to plan. And you can take ideas from other styles and make them work for you.

How To Train This Way

When you practise any technique, ask why it works. Which principle is doing the work? Then change something, such as the attack or the angle, and see whether the principle still holds. Fewer techniques, understood deeply, beat many techniques learned on the surface.

Take It Further

The principles behind my teaching are explained in Pressure Point Fighting: The Complete Guide, and taught in full in the Pressure Point Fighting Course.