Martial Arts Instruction -- Solo Training The Best Way

by Keith Pascal

Can you teach yourself martial arts? Or more to the point, can you teach yourself effective self defense strategies while working out alone?

Note: I'll assume, for this article, that you are not yet a martial-arts instructor. Master martial artists seem to have a knack for knowing how to teach themselves. After all, they achieved their level of mastery by practicing ... often alone.

You are a beginner or intermediate martial artist. And you want to know the best way to improve while solo training.
The very best way is to combining the following categories of solo training, including the last -- which isn¹t ³technically² training by yourself.
Incorporate the following into your workout schedule:
1) Technique practice -- either as part of a form (kata) or repetitive practice -- for example, 500 vertical punches.
2) Equipment workouts -- punch or kick a heavy bag over and over. Use all the training equipment you have available to you.
3) Movement training -- coordinating footwork with your offensive techniques. Move around. Shadow box. Spar with an open door as your enemy.
4) Get a partner to practice reacting to an opponent. This isn¹t technically practicing alone, but it is training without a teacher. At some point, if you really want to learn how to defend yourself, then you will need an honest-to-goodness body across from you. (You can read about riding a bike all day long, but until you get on ...)
Use your technique practice to develop your precision. When you add in the equipment training, you maintain your precision of technique.
As you start to move around with the techniques, adding in footwork, don¹t allow those movements to become sloppy. Don¹t pay so much attention to where you¹re going, that your strikes and kicks ³wobble.²
Of course, when you bring in a practice partner, your techniques will be all over the place. You will scramble to defend against more real attacks. Your movements, by necessity, will adapt.
Still, your goal should be to bring back the precise movements. This is the way to effectively train on your own -- give yourself valuable martial arts instruction. It¹s how to master solo training.
Are you looking for an efficient technique that you can train solo? And then take that same move and learn to defend against it with a practice partner?

Be sure to read my Free ebooklet, Elbow Strike Counters ... Learn elbow strikes and counters, to move efficiently in a street fight. Click Here!
Keith Pascal has been a full-time martial-arts writer for eight years and a martial-arts teacher for 25 years.