College Kajukenbo

You’re never too good to stop practicing the basics. The basic fundamentals of martial arts are gross motor movements used for blocking, hitting, and kicking. These basic movements are what will make you effective if you are ever in an altercation. Advanced movements are combining those fundamental movements to make more complicated combinations.

I’ve noticed through my Kajukenbo training that at first I didn’t mind doing drills of the basics because everything was still new to me and I knew I needed the practice to develop. I didn’t practice much outside of class at that time either. Then as I progressed I got tired of practicing the same old basic techniques all the time. I was middle rank and eager to move on to more exciting techniques.  Squatting in horse stance was tiring and boring and I already knew the strikes.

Then as I continued my Kajukenbo training and  progressed even farther and getting very close to my black belt, I started to like drilling on the basics again. I realized that those drills were more than just mindless movements to be done for calisthenics; they were opportunities to sharpen and perfect my techniques.

Instructors can tell when their students do or do not practice. One thing that is extremely frustrating for instructors is when students complain that they aren’t receiving enough instruction or that the techniques aren’t coming to them quickly enough, and the instructor knows that these same students are skipping out on training sessions or not putting forth the effort that their classmates are.

For those who truly want to advance their training and do it the fastest and most effective way, I would say is to practice the basics. Because these are the baseline techniques that are used in every combination of techniques used in Kajukenbo, or any other martial art, you will see a difference in your overall ability just by practicing these simple techniques 15 minutes a day. That is also why forms can be so helpful because it is the practice of a set of techniques that allows the individual to work on many different aspects of their skills and ability. Get back to the basics!