Diving deep

On the heels of the previous post, I wanted to see how such a thorough approach could help in one's own learning and training experience. Although at the first glance it may seem that a more or less scholarly approach to learning a martial/combative discipline is more theoretical than practical, it doesn't have to be. The thing is, on one's training journey it is very easy to fall into the trap of accumulating information, especially nowadays, i.e. going for breadth of research. However, we would all probably be much better going for depth. 

In practice it means seeking to really, truly get a hang of any chosen skill by putting it through the wringer of working on it through a series of filters and criteria, in order to figure out all of its advantages and shortcomings. It could be any specific skill/technique you want to work on, armed or unarmed, and you can find some good ideas and insights into the aforementioned filters and criteria in a book that I reviewed quite some time ago. 

Of course, the experience will be more fruitful with a systematic approach to the study, and choose the material so that you will not lack motivation to work on it. 

source

So, this has been a short post, but could prove to be a very impactful one. Let me assure you, from personal experience, that if you undertake this sort of activity at least once in a while, it will propel you understanding and subsequently benefit both your learning and teaching endeavors. 

Enigmatic issues

Every once in a while, you are in a situation to say or think “he (or she) just beat me to the punch”, and in a good way…no bleeding noses or anything. You know, when it feels great to find out that there is someone else out there who happens to be on the same page as you are in certain regards. I have had that sort of experience recently.

A lot of people over the years have asked when I am going to write a book on martial arts. Admittedly, I did entertain the idea but could not pin down the exact topic to approach, so this blog was an attempt to somehow compensate for that. Well, someone else wrote that book!

I first heard of Chad McBroom a few years back, as one of the regional representatives for the Libre Fighting System, one of the most dynamic and popular modern fighting systems, especially focusing on the use of knives. Regardless of that, McBroom is a practitioner of high level in a vast variety of other martial and combative methods as well, and his book Solving the Enigma: Insights into Fighting Models offers excellent insights into the fundamental principles that that will make or break any particular fighting style.

Get it, read it!

In the days when pretty much everybody is involved in some kind of cross-training, reading this book should be almost mandatory, depending on your goals in training. But even if you are into it just for fun, having this information could be invaluable in shedding light on some important aspects of training that may not even cross your mind. If you have read this blog previously, you probably have noted that, as opposed to some many people concerned with WHAT and HOW of martial arts, I am almost always pondering the WHY of many training approaches. So, if you are wondering about the latter question, Solving the Enigma will do just that – provide solid answers to help the readers and practitioners understand the inner working of their chosen system, no matter which one it could be.

The book dissects all the relevant factors that dictate the functioning of any martial art, from the geographical origin, through designated effect, to impact of garments/armor etc. Once you have understood those (and other) aspects, it is much easier to figure out what is the right fighting school for you, or which ones would mix and match well or not at all. Now, we are not looking at a huge elaboration here, there is about 80 pages of text and pictures, but the material is really in line with the goal of McBroom's work – distill the fundamentals and make them work.

If you are wondering whether it works, just take a look at the different martial methods that the author has managed to fuse and teach under his banner of Comprehensive Fighting Systems. Of course, the mere list of systems he trained in would be meaningless if it weren’t for the fact that McBroom happens to teach his stuff successfully to the number of professionals who rely on it in their line of work.

Whatever your motives for being involved with any sort of fighting training, do yourself a favor and read this book. It will make the pieces of the puzzle fit much faster, thus making your training that much enjoyable and meaningful.