Lesson 1 – How to learn to fight

The path to real combat skills

In this chapter, we begin to see some of the basics of fighting. In terms of combat skills, the path we are following is:

1. Physical exercises – We have seen them to become able to practice the technical exercises (read Lesson 3.5)
2. Technical exercises – We have seen them to become able to practice the techniques (read Lesson 3.6)
3. Combat techniques – Techniques are important to become able to practice sparring (in a profitable way)
4. Sparring – Sparring sessions are fundamental to become able to fight (self-defense, sports competitions, etc.)

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

How many fighting techniques do you need to know?

Being a liquid martial art (read 6DKF: what does it teach?), 6 Dragons Kung Fu is “boundless” in terms of combat moves but you do not have to be scared by this:

• Mastering everything is impossible – There is no need to train all the techniques (at the highest possible level); in terms of inspiration it is certainly important to try, understand and see them but it makes no sense to think of using them all in real contexts
• Every practitioner must make his choices – With time you have to choose a group of techniques that better suit you and train them to exhaustion (in increasingly complex contexts); you have to adapt them to your style, your psychophysical conformation, age (etc.)

A note by Master Kongling – Simplicity is the key to success. The best warrior is not the one who knows the biggest number of techniques but the one who knows how to perfectly adapt a selection of them to every scenario(read also Kung Fu training: 5 errors that make you weak).

Why study fighting techniques?

Not a series of notions

It must be stressed that the ultimate goal is not to mnemonically learn a series of “tricks” to beat “every kind of opponent”: this would be ridiculous, Kung Fu does not work this way.

To think of being able to prevail over a prepared opponent simply by applying a series of clean didactical techniques is purely insane (this happens only in martial arts movies, read Martial arts: movies VS reality, 7 differences).

The art

It is not by chance that in “martial art” there is a mention of the word “art”: it refers to an idea of personal expression.

As an artist needs to mix colors, personal vision and ideas in an unexpected way in order to reach the heart of his / her audience, in the same way, a fighter must know how to assemble concepts and principles (or part of them).

A note by Master Kongling – We have to deeply work on the knowledge derived from the learned technique.

To compose your “poetry”, each of the techniques that you want to make yours must be profoundly known, in every respect:

• The concepts behind them
• The limits / risks of usage
• The ideal contexts of applications
• The fundamental mechanics
• The key points
• The energy consumption
• The necessary skills for their execution
• …

How to learn any kind of technique

In Kung Fu, each combat technique (from the simplest to the most complex) can be performed at various levels of quality and effectiveness:

• You start with slow, rhythmic, symmetrical, precise and wide movements (useful to acquire flow, motor skills and technical precision)
• You arrive then to (gradually) express explosive and irregular applications in times / spaces increasingly narrow (necessary for real combat)

A note by Master Kongling – Altering this path means preventing your body from fully expressing its potential.

In these 2 tutorials is described how to address the study of each of the 6 Dragons Kung Fu teaching:

• The best way to study technique: 10 tips
• A scheme to quickly learn any kind of technique

In the next lesson, we will see the base to apply any fighting technique.

In-depth articles

• 4 Tips to effectively apply any fighting technique – How to apply effectively a fighting technique against a real opponent
• Basic free hand fighting techniques – A video course that shows the basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu’s fighting techniques

<< Lesson 4.6 – Index – Lesson 5.2 >>

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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