Recently at UFC Rio Barboza proved that a focus and commitment to developing core fundamentals is what makes a great martial artist. He landed a beautiful spinning hook kick, using it to rack up the “W’, which was a UFC first.

The reason I take the time to write about this here is because I truly believe that to become a great martial artist, your focus should be on developing yourself technically, and trying to create “good habits” while you train. It’s very easy to get fixated on learning techniques, instead of developing techniques. Instead of trying to find something new to learn, most martial artists will be much better off if they focus on making habits out of everything they already “know”.

Keep your hands up, elbows down, and punch from your face, with your legs. These are some of the most simple concepts that many people don’t do. Train with the proper focus and one day, while watching you spar someone will say, “I thought that technique was not practical or realistic. Turns out, I just haven’t practiced enough.”

I still think Edson Barboza is someone to definitely watch out for in the future, but it has nothing to do with his natural athletic ability, or his skill set. (I haven’t even seen him on the ground.) The sole reason for me saying this, is that by watching how he throws the most basic punches, I can see that he focuses on developing proper technique and “good habits” when he trains. In my opinion this sets him on the road to success.

There are many different objectives people have in their minds when learning and training self defense. Some people focus on learning how to block and evade attacks. Others feel that the most important aspect of self protection is learning how to control the attacker’s body. Still others think that, “the best defense is a good offense” and focus on developing striking skills, takedowns, joint locks, and chokes. While all of these things are important in developing the ability to protect yourself, none of them should be at the forefront of our minds in a self defense situation.

Focusing on any of these aspects as a primary goal will only increase the length of the altercation. Our best bet and primary focus should be on time; getting away as quickly as possible. Strikes, evasions, blocks, escapes, takedowns, and joint locks should all be understood as tools to help me get away as quickly as possible. If we focus on shortening the duration of the event, we automatically increase our chances of not getting hurt. Ironically, if we focus on not getting hurt or stopping the attacker, we are more likely to increase our chances of getting hurt.

So try to prevent incidents from becoming physical (aim for zero) www.tongmoodo.com/blog/2011/10/24/aiming-for-zero . If the situation does become physical, don’t think about protecting yourself, and don’t focus on stopping the assailant. Your main focus should be on trying to get away as quickly as possible.

If you lack confidence in your communication, you look like an easy target. If you lack respect, you are inciting aggression. In order to communicate in a way that that leads to “zero” http://www.tongmoodo.com/blog/2011/10/24/aiming-for-zero we need to be both confident and respectful.

You don’t need to feel confident, you just need to communicate confidently. What does confident communication look like? Good posture. Eye contact. Smile (if appropriate). Loud, clear speech. Do these things and you are communicating that you are not an easy target. These are all external actions, just like your martial arts, and can be practiced until they become habits.

If confidence is not a problem for you, then you may want to practice controlling your confident behaviour. It’s interesting to note that the same things that convey confidence, when done a certain way, can convey disrespect. Good posture. Eye contact. Smile (if inappropriate). Loud speech. There is a fine line that we need to learn to balance on, to make sure that our attempt at confident communication doesn’t come off as aggressive and disrespectful.

Think about where you land on the spectrum between lacking confidence and appearing aggressive and abrasive. If you don’t know, then ask a few people who know you, about the general impression that you give. Then whichever aspect you need to work on, do so. Unlike our physical martial arts techniques, communication is not something that we might have to use once or twice in our lives. We communicate with people every day, and therefore should focus on communicating with confidence and respect in all of our interactions. This helps us immensely as we “aim for zero” and live out a self defense philosophy of prevention.

In this video Instructor Arneil demonstrates how to capitalize on your partner moving to either side.

As Tong Moo Do is a mixture of many martial arts together, people often ask me what the most effective form of self defense is. I do have an answer to this question.

If we look at the relationship between the duration of self defense situations, and the likelihood of injury in those situations, we will find that the likely hood and severity of injury increases as the duration of the scenario increases. In other words, the longer you are in a self defense situation, the more likely you are to get hurt. The shorter the situation, the more likely you are to be safe. So it should be our primary goal in self defense to make the duration of the situation as short as possible. In fact, the only way we can be sure that we have a 100% chance of staying completely safe is if the situation lasts for zero seconds. So our goal in self defense should be to “aim for zero”.

We then find the answer to which form of self defense is the most effective. It’s prevention. If you can stop something from happening before it happens, then your chances of staying safe are extremely better than any Black Belt self defense expert throwing out blocks, kicks, and takedowns.

How can we practice prevention? Research has shown that it’s the simple things. Looking as if you know where you are going. Making eye contact and smiling at people. Having good posture. Not being alone. Staying in well light areas (at night). Staying in populated areas. The list goes on and doesn’t require special training, only common sense.

So… prevention. Aim for zero and you are way more likely to be effective in self defense than the muscle head in the affliction shirt who’s amateur record is 4-0-0.