If you anything like me you love learning about anything related to martial arts. It doesn’t matter if it is specific to Taekwondo, Judo, Karate, or any other style of the arts. I consume anything I can get my hands on about anything related to the arts whether it is a: DVD, Audio CD, blog, book, instructor, another students, etc.
So, if your like me you read numerous books on this topic and wonder if reading about a arm lock is the same as learning it in a JiuJitsu school. In short, does reading a book improve your martial art skills? I think it does and I will go into how you can improve the effectiveness of book learning on your martial art skills.
Whether it is Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee or The Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Training Guide Danny Pyler reading books on techniques and fighting can be a bit tricky. Most martial arts books should be approached the same as as reading a novel. In a book that is teaching physical skills it is important to mentally rehearse what is being taught to you. The reason why just reading isn’t enough is that you are logically going through the information but it all comes down to muscle memory when you actually have to perform that move in the cage or a self defense situation. With that being said there are techniques you can use to enhance your book reading mental martial arts training.
Techniques to Improve Mental Martial Arts Training
Most sports psychologist call in visualization and can be as easy as pretending you have a movie theater in your mind and you are sitting in the audience watching a movie. Usually martial art books come with clear images or drawings where you can see someone performing that movement or technique. Once you go through these images in the sequence then put them all together and see them in one fluid motion like a movie. After you have successfully done that step, insert yourself and perform the movie. You should play back the movie at least 3 times in your minds eye. This will lock in the movement or technique into your mind. However, the sooner you can physically practice this movement the better. You will notice that there isn’t really a learning curve and you body already knows what to do but psychically performing this teaches your muscles.
Advanced Tip: Change the movements of your opponent in the theater of your mind and watch how you react. This is important in case your opponent doesn’t move in the exact same way as it was taught in the book.
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