As old as humanity itself, the many martial arts practiced around the world are of great interest to millions. Every year, more and more untrained athletes start developing their skills with the help of a dojo or simply with videos they find online – but these simple tips can aid with every facet of your training.
Realize Your Limitations
Most people have seen enough movies to know what their final goal is – but few realize that there’s a long road towards becoming a master. If you’re just starting out, keep your training simple and grow from there. When you know your limitations, you can work towards meeting and even exceeding them, and that’s when you truly learn what you’re made of.
Focus on One Discipline at a Time
It can be deceptive to refer to the entire breadth of disciplines available to learn as ‘martial arts’ – while most teach some method of defending oneself or achieving further inner peace, the differences in practice and execution are miles apart. Two relatively similar martial arts like baguazhang and capoeira are nonetheless wildly different in training and conditioning. For that reason, working on a single discipline at a time refines your progress and prevents clashing of styles.
Have Fun With Your Training
The truth is that, barring extreme circumstances, you probably won’t ever have to use martial arts in a life-or-death situation – so there’s no need to take it super seriously. One of the biggest problems in any exercise-based hobby is that there will be days you don’t want to work out, but if you have a fun alternative like sparring or hiking set up, anything that conditions the body helps with martial arts.
Martial arts have been a topic of worldwide study and advancement for thousands of years – there’s no specific trick to becoming a master martial artist, but if you follow these tips, you’ll be on the right track.