Skill Progression in Martial Arts

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Skill Progression in Martial Arts
Jow Gar Kung Fu
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You start, you cant. You practice, you
can.   Sounds simple And it is. The only problem
is in the P word. That P word can be the
difference between greatness and
mediocrity.   The discipline that it takes to
PRACTICE something enough to get good and I mean
really well, is what defines a persons
ability.   As a teacher I have seen many
naturally talented people who could have been
excellent at Martial Arts give up because of a
lack of mental discipline. Conversely I have seen
many people who have had to struggle with every
part of their Kung Fu journey, yet they keep
trying and eventually they get it and become
really good. There are many factors at play here
but the most important is mental discipline. The
ability to apply yourself to achieve something
that you find difficult, if not impossible.
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Whether it be achieving physical skills that
require, flexibility, strength, speed, accuracy,
endurance or the refinement of movement.
Advancing from basic gross motor movements to the
acquisition of fine motor skills is, I believe,
one of the greatest gifts studying Kungfu can
give a person.   And I do mean Kung Fu, because I
believe that it is generally more technical and
requires a broader range of skills than other
martial arts. It is more difficult.   As an
example of learning a new skill I have posted a
video with this blog. While training at Head
Academy Kung Fu in Caringbah, I decided that I
should film me trying to learn to do a part of a
traditional form that I had previously not been
able to do. The movement is from the JowGar Kung
Fu Bench form. It involves doing a forward roll
off the bench into a back bridge while rolling
the bench over onto the ground.
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This is a great example of breaking something
hard down into achievable pieces and working to
build up to the full required movement. A good
teacher should be able to break a movement down
into its components and develop drills to
progress a student through the process. I have
included in the video a couple of training
sessions where I trained components I thought
necessary to make sure I had the back strength
and flexibility then moved into a gradual
progression through various stages leading up to
the full required movement. (Please note for a
beginner to intermediate Kung Fu student I would
add a few more exercises and progressions to
enable them to build up to this technique
including forward rolls and some back bridge
work. Please do not use this as an instructional
video of how to train the movement.)

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Now I was originally shown this form without this
movement in it, then after learning it again was
shown the more difficult introduction. It would
have been easy for me to come up with an excuse
to leave it out...I am too old, too inflexible,
no time blah blah blah. But I decided that I was
going to do it and went about achieving it. That
smile on my face at the end, is a genuine smile
of satisfaction. Knowing that I put in some hard
work and now I can do something that previously I
could not.   At Head Academy Kung Fu we teach
self defence and all the other great things that
training Kung Fu can bring. But, I believe the
greatest lesson that Kung Fu has to teach is that
in each and every training session you have the
ability to leave the training floor better than
when you stepped onto it.
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Thank You
JowGar Kung Fu