by Phillip Starr
First, you must actually VISUALIZE your opponent(s). Before you actually begin the set, you should take a few moments to SEE and FEEL your foes as they begin to encircle you. In your gut you should feel that you're about to engage in a life and death struggle with numerous aggressors and when they move against you, you must clearly visualize their attacks and their responses to your counter-techniques. In this way, your mind actually believes that you are engaged in a real fight (since the nervous system can't tell the difference between reality and unreality) and as a result, you acquire a great deal of “experience” in hand-to-hand combat.
You must do your best not only to SEE them, but also to FEEL and even HEAR them. Remember that your mind gathers information through the body's five senses, so you should employ as many of them as possible in order to convince your mind that this is a REAL experience.
I have met a great many martial artists who, upon learning the actual breakdowns of certain movement(s) in their form, display an attitude of, “Oh, that's really cool!”... and they go back to doing the set the same old way. Learning the breakdown has done them absolutely no good whatsoever and should the need ever arise, they'll never be able to apply them (they probably won't remember them, anyway).
Once a given breakdown is learned, it has to be practiced many, many times – until it is “internalized” and can be applied without conscious effort. Only then are such studies useful. They should be practiced solo as well as with a partner, over and over. This internalization is fostered by the solo practice of the form many, many times. Without necessarily being consciously aware of it, the student has performed various counter-strikes, throws, and even joint-twisting maneuvers many, many times. His body knows the movements and breaking down the form will cement that information into his mind as well.
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