Name That Technique

Quite often, especially around belt testing time I hear students say they are having a hard time remembering the name of their techniques, they remember the moves but the name association isn't there yet. I understand the dilemma and I also understand the student needs to associate the name with the moves in each respective technique. As an example elbow strikes are "arrows", closed fist strikes are "hammers" and so forth. I especially establish this association in the "Key Set" video included in my "In Self Defense Training Series" located at Marty Martin Karate online website.

My instructors sometimes discuss "teaching by association" of technique name versus what the attack is defending. I want my instructors to teach by the dynamics of the attack. I would much rather have a student associate what to do when a certain attack happens over the name, however that is not to say names aren't important they are and sometimes the names are just plain cool.

I know in my early days of training it was a symbol of rank and knowledge to know more techniques by name than other instructors, if you did then you had something over someone else.

The discussion becomes even more relative to more than one way to respond to a general attach such as a wrist grab or label grab etc. Any attack must be defined by the nuance of the attack, as an example – the side shoulder grab: the attacker grabs your shoulder and is pulling the response would be to pin the hand step away key strike – key strike slide up side kick (technique name Striking Key) another variation would be side shoulder grab and pull the response would step forward and swing your arm around your opponents arm locking the elbow (technique name Spreading Wings Lock). Both of these situations are examples of what I mean when I say the dynamics of the attack and name association.

In the 2017 Marty Martin Karate training material techniques are defined by attack and then named for reference. The underlying principle here is being able to define and recognize the attack and possible variations. In my experience that is what is going to happen in the street, our response should be based on the physical aspects of the attack as they actually happen not by general description. Following this learning method defines practical application. It also defines what to do if things don't go as planned.

I encourage you to study the my training material, I encourage you to practice the training material, I encourage you to challenge the material, doing so will help you discover more by doing. It becomes part of your journey, it is you learning problem solving skills and in doing so you will learn the defensive tactics and establish the name association of moves to its descriptive name.

Coach Marty Martin