16 tips that will ensure you get your money’s worth from your martial arts training.

Nowadays, people are engaging in many different activities to keep their bodies fit, such as yoga, jogging, boxing workouts, martial arts, and so on. But I would say martial arts is the most beneficial of them all. It keeps your  body fit and ensures you know how to defend yourself when needed. And unlike other exercises, you don’t need heavy equipment or a high-paid instructor to learn martial arts; you can teach yourself martial arts at home if you want. 

However, it is always best to learn from experts because they know what they are doing and they will teach you tricks and tips that you will certainly not find online sitting at your home. If you have made up your mind to explore the vast world of martial arts, then you should keep these things in mind in order to get the best out of your martial arts training.

1. Repeating a Technique Again and Again:

In order to learn something fast, you need to practice it again and again. As we all know, practice makes perfect. The more you practice the more efficient you will become in martial arts. Speaking to the role of repetition in martial arts, Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”. He is speaking to the fact that proficiency is earned through the discipline of repetitious practice. 

In order to practice on a regular basis, you need to train certain parts of your body to endure daily, consistent training. So you need to train your legs, arms, neck, and other body parts. Be sure to follow the neck training guide and other training guides to make sure that you do not end up hurting yourself.

2. Ask all the  questions that come to your mind

Never feel ashamed or afraid to ask questions to your instructor. Remember that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. When you go to a martial arts institute to learn something new, it is natural to have many questions in your head. If you don’t ask them out of fear of being judged, you will be short changing yourself from gaining proper knowledge of martial arts. 

3. Try to Be Consistent with Your Training 

As I have said before, practice makes perfect. So when it comes to your martial arts training, you need to practice constantly. Remember, it only takes 21 days to build a habit and it only takes 3 days to break one. So be consistent with it. Try to train twice a week to learn quicker and also try to follow this routine throughout your training. Even if your routine gets broken, restart it as soon as you can.

4. Stretch as Much as You Can

Flexibility is an attribute that is one of the most important yet most overlooked parts of martial arts training because one can’t see the benefits of flexibility training immediately. Flexibility and movement training has many benefits for a martial arts student such as increased power and reduced chance of injury. These benefits help one to excel more in martial arts. 

5. You Should Know the Limit of Your Body

Pushing yourself during training is essential to develop your skills and fitness level. However, you should not push your body so much that your body breaks down due to that pressure. Remember that your body is your temple so you need to worship it properly to keep it running.

6. Have Fun While Learning

It is essential to have fun while learning. If you aren’t enjoying what you are doing, then your motivation will flag and you will not improve as quickly. So try and have fun with your training any way you can.

7. Keep Your Ego Under Control

Ego is something that causes trouble more often than not. So try to leave your ego at the door while entering your martial arts institute, as it will just be a hindrance in your path of learning. Your main goal should be to learn and focus on yourself in every session, rather than comparing yourself with others to find out who is the best, strongest, or toughest.

8. Listen Carefully to Your Instructor 

Give the instructor your undivided attention. I know it is gonna be hard for many of us after a long day of work or study. But as you are paying to learn here, you should give your undivided attention to get your money’s worth and also to learn quicker and better. So try to pay attention to instructors and look closely at what they are saying, doing, and also how they are doing it.

9. Practice Your Techniques Outside Training 

You should always practice what you’ve been taught whenever you can. You just need to be a little bit creative with your practice methods. You can practice in day-to-day life. For example, you can punch the switch to turn off a light or you can kick to close a door. The possibilities are up to your imagination.

10. Be Consistent with Your Technique 

When you perform a technique, make sure to do it to the best of your abilities every time. And while doing so, if you make a mistake don’t lose confidence because of that; buckle up and start trying again. Keep practicing a technique until you become an absolute expert of that technique. 

11. Improve a Little Every Day

Try to improve your technique and training methods every single day. Even if it is a small improvement, you should strive to make them constantly. Constant improvement is better than an occasional big improvement. So try to set smaller goals for every day which will be easier to achieve. For example, it will be much easier to do one more set of pushups each day than deciding to do ten more sets in a single day. Improving on your neck muscles are one of the things you can work on, it can help absorb the impact of blows to the face and better handles direct impact. How often to do neck training

12. Have a Set of goals

To reach your destination, you first need to know where you are going. But most people make the mistake of not setting definite goals. For example, they will say that they want to lose weight, but not how much weight and when they want to lose it. They should set a better goal like “I am going to lose 10 lbs in the next 10 weeks.” And that’s how you’re going to know where you’re going and when you need to be there, which will improve your chances of attaining that goal.

13. You Should Maintain Your Diet 

Diet is the most essential yet overlooked aspect of training because a good diet will help you to reach your goals faster and get in shape quicker. Here are some tips for your diet:

  1. You should drink a lot of water. 
  2. Try to eat fruits and vegetables more than junk food.
  3. Avoid processed foods.

14. You Need to Have a Steady Mindset

Training for martial arts is often described as a rollercoaster. Some days everything will be just fine. There will be days when you’ll have the perfect cardio and flawless techniques. And then there will be days when every technique will go wrong, your conditioning will suck, and basically everything will go wrong. But these are all part of the learning experience. So don’t get disheartened on your bad days because always remember good days are just around the corner.

15. Extra Strength & Conditioning is also Needed 

Martial arts is an excellent way to develop fitness and to lose weight. However, if you do extra work on your strength and conditioning, it will help you to progress a lot quicker and reach your goals faster. There are a lot of tools and programs out there that can be used and which will take only 15 minutes extra before or after class.

16. You Should Work with Everyone 

Whenever you are going to attend class, try to interact and work with as many different people as you can. Everyone in your class is worth working with, whether they are a brand new beginner or a 20-year veteran. Everyone will have different attributes and styles to teach you. But if you work with a few people, that will only limit your growth.

So to learn martial arts properly you should really put your heart and soul into it. And I believe, if you follow my ideas, then your martial arts journey will become much more interesting and easier.