The FAQ at the bottom of the complete guide to choosing your first martial art gives a one-line answer to the cross-training question: not as a beginner. That’s the right short answer, and it deserves the longer one — why…
Decades of teaching means decades of watching students navigate the same decision, over and over, in slightly different forms: keep training through this, or stop. I’ve watched people get it wrong in both directions — training through something that needed…
“The question is not whether to be strong. Of course you should be strong. The question is what strength, developed how, expressed through which training, so that it enhances the art rather than interfering with it. Bulk that slows you…
> “A technique that has never been tested against resistance has not been learned. It has been memorized. Memorization produces the appearance of skill. Testing produces the reality of it. The two look identical in a cooperative drill and nothing…
> “The student who thinks of the guard as a defensive position has not understood it. The student who thinks of the guard as an offensive platform has begun to understand half of it. The student who understands that defense…
“Champions are not made in the hands. They are made in the feet. A man with beautiful technique and poor footwork is a man who cannot reach his target. A man with mediocre technique and superior footwork is a man…
“The man who can only strike fears the clinch. The man who can only grapple fears the space. The man who understands the transition between them fears neither — because he sees that striking and grappling are not two arts,…
“A weak grip is a broken technique. The hand that cannot hold will not throw, will not control, will not submit. Grip is the beginning of all things in grappling — and for most practitioners, it is the place where…
“Embrace the tools of the modern age to measure the precision of your form, but never allow a digital readout to substitute for the iron discipline of your spirit.” — Master Cincinnatus Technology has entered the martial arts training environment…
“A warrior who limits their vision to a single discipline becomes blind to the full spectrum of conflict. True combat readiness requires a seamless bridge between the strike and the throw.” — Master Cincinnatus The ongoing evolution of martial arts…
