PICK JUST ONE

 by Phillip Starr

A student of mine once asked me, “What should I practice? There’s so much to remember and everything seems so broken up….I don’t have time to practice everything. All of the principles involved…it’s just too much!” Good question from a student who is seriously interested in learning. I told him, “Pick just one thing…say, a single technique. And analyze and work it to the nth degree. Everything eventually “dovetails”, but that’s almost impossible for you see right now. So pick just one thing…and bear in mind that this is going to take some time.”

No, don’t pick a form; that’s much, much too complex. Pick a single technique and movement, like a lunging punch, or stepping forward to do a reverse punch (advancing and punching with the opposite hand and foot). Then start picking apart the obvious points. For example:

• Begin from your fighting stance. To advance as quickly as possible, where should your weight be placed (on the forward foot)? EXACTLY where? On the heel, in the center of the instep, on the ball of your foot…where?

• Is there ANY unnecessary tension in your body that will slow your movement even a fraction? Where is it? Upper and lower body…

• What is your upper body doing as you advance? How do your shoulders feel? Do you lean, even a little bit?

• Is there tension in your knees before you move?

• How do you advance…do you push your driving foot against the floor? Do you “lean and fall?”

• How about your breathing?

• Do you “telegraph” your movement? How? What can be done to eliminate it?

• What body timing do you use? Do you punch after you’ve stepped down, punch and step down at the same time, or does the punch land before your foot hits the floor?

• Is your bodily structure stable?

Months of introspection and daily practice are usually needed to polish any one of the above listed elements. And those aren’t nearly all of the elements involved in that “simple” technique.

Then:

• Hang up a foam ball. EXACTLY how far can you advance and deliver a strong blow? This isn’t measured in feet or inches; it’s something you must learn to FEEL.

• Can you do it if the ball is swinging? If you can’t do it consistently, PRACTICE until you can.

  
  
  

After an extended length of time practicing all of the above (which may take a couple of years, at least), try inserting what you’ve learned and developed into a basic form. That’s going to place you into an entirely different world! After a couple more years of that, try to apply it in freestyle 1-step or even freestyle sparring (freestyle 1-step is better).

Then you’ll begin again. You’re going to refine what you THOUGHT you’d already refined!

• When your front foot lands (at the instant of the punch’s impact), where is your weight? Do you land with the foot coming straight down or is you weight a bit rearward? Try it on an icy driveway. Once. You’ll figure it out pretty quickly…

• At the instant of impact, is your rear foot flat? Where is it pointing? No more than 30 degrees…

• At what point during your movement do you rotate your striking hip?

• Is your FACE relaxed or do you clench your jaw or create any other form of tension?

And so on and on…

This kind of practice requires a lot of patience and deep introspection and study; it’s much different than just lobbing punches out, one after another and without much conscious effort. You’re slowly polishing and sharpening your technique (as well as many other aspects of yourself). Little by little, you’ll discover what I call “little principles”; seemingly insignificant principles that you probably never knew existed until now…and this will impact everything else you do in training. It snowballs!