How to Become a Martial Arts Expert

Bowing is a way of showing respect to your opponent and yourself.

To some, just knowing a few flashy, movie-style moves might be enough to qualify you as a martial arts expert. For those who take martial arts more seriously, mastering the art requires not only years of study and practice but humility, respect and an understanding of the art's deeper concepts. Although every martial arts move is different, the basic approach to mastering them remains the same.

Instructions

1. Visit every school you can; most teachers allow prospective students to watch classes and many will invite you to try an introductory class for free. This brief immersion helps you find a martial arts style and, just as importantly, a martial arts teacher that appeals to you. The more you like the style you study and the teacher you study from, the easier it is to put in the time to achieve a degree of mastery.

2. Establish a regular, reasonable class attendance schedule. More practice is usually better, but instead of going to class every day for three months and then burning out, find a balance that allows you to make the martial arts an ongoing part of your regular routine.

3. Practice as much as possible, on as many different people as possible. Practice and repetition are the true keys to mastering any skill. With enough practice and repetition, you'll reach a point where you can perform the techniques without having to think about them.

4. Insist that your training partners make you work for success. Sometimes people will fall down or pretend a technique worked to "be nice." This doesn't do you or anybody else any favors; you need to know if you're not doing a technique well enough for it to work in an emergency situation.

5. Help others master their techniques, too. This broadens your understanding of the art, because you'll have to learn to adapt and communicate your understanding to people with different body types, different levels of strength, agility and flexibility and different learning styles. You'll learn at least as much as you teach.

6. Pay attention to the philosophical side of the art. Sometimes this is overt, such as reciting your school's creed at the beginning of every class, or bowing to your opponent before you spar. Sometimes the philosophical side isn't as obvious, however, if you take the principles behind the techniques to heart, you'll find yourself avoiding fights instead of looking for them to prove how tough you are.

7. Train with students of other styles, or study other styles yourself. You'll learn how to apply what you've learned in a much broader, and therefore useful, context.

Tips & Warnings

• Most likely, you won't wake up one day and suddenly realize that you've become a martial arts master. The process happens gradually and there's no set finish line; even earning a black belt, or the equivalent rank in arts that don't use belts, is no guarantee that you're an expert. However, you'll notice your increasing expertise and mastery in your ability to use the art effectively in your own life, which is as much about living wisely and avoiding trouble as fighting your way out of it.

• True mastery doesn't have to mean placing first in a tournament or being able to beat up everyone else in school. Rather, focus on having a solid grasp and understanding of the techniques, how they apply to you and others and how to pass them on.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish