It was a standard workout on a Friday morning, myself and many of my fellow Black Belts training with a martial arts master, working on knife defense techniques.
The master was showing a specific technique regarding knife and wrist control with a takedown, when something jumped out at me.
I watched the combination of the timing of his feet and wrist control when he made the knife defense and a light bulb went off; I made a note to ask him a question after class.
Afterwards, I approached him and asked, “Sir, when you were teaching the knife defense, you were emphasizing what was going on with your hands, but it was your footwork that made the technique powerful.”
“Very good”, he said; “I wanted to make sure everyone learned the hand and wrist control to control the weapon and stay safe; we ran out of time to cover the principle that makes it powerful, which is what you figured out on your own. It is the harmony of your footwork and your body that makes your techniques more powerful.”
After that workout, I went back to my dojo and tore apart every single technique I could remember, applying this principle to each one. Then I tried them out on some training partners and the results were amazing.
Everything was much tighter, much more powerful, much more efficient. My training partners told me the difference in my speed and power was like night and day; they were begging me to tell them what I had done to cause such a drastic change.
I told them it was one principle I had learned from watching a master.
This is what can happen when you are training with a skilled instructor and you learn just one martial arts principle – and training with a Shaolin Monk would definitely fall into that category.
Check out the video below as Shaolin Monk Wang Bo describes what you will be learning as a student attending the Shaolin “Meet the Monks” Student Seminar on Saturday, April 30th.
Don’t forget; deadline for registering online is TODAY at 3:00PM PST. Register online below: