Chip Away

We build a large collection of techniques, basics and kata to fill our martial toolbox but fail to recognize that the ultimate goal is to chip away from that toolbox until we have only those simple and conforming few that are for self- defense. The true need for the many is so we can chip away at them until we have the few we can make work in self-defense.

Some might say that a few is not enough to cover all the various ways one can be attacked yet in reality it is the few that actually defend with variations that instinctively arrive in the moment provided you have trained properly for a reality. 

All the other stuff is meant to be melded into the few for those variations or for us to blend properly to make new techniques that work for us as an individual, a uniqueness that works with our instincts, the lizard part of our survival instincts. 

We have tuned the many into criteria to "prove" how good we are when we seldom get to prove it except in some governed sport discipline. Not to diminish the benefits of such a discipline with the proper mind set and training scenarios but still limited toward reality in a possibly violent conflict. We tend to assume because it "feels right" that it will work. 

Chip away at your tool box to get to those few tools necessary to make it work in a defense situation. Leave the brain to store all the necessary tools for the before, i.e. the avoidance and deescalation, as well as the after, i.e. the repercussions legal, civil, medical and psychological, etc. The before and after where you have a bit more control over your mind and thought processes. Leave the middle for the physical that is trained properly and for gaining experiences that support the training, etc.