An old dying Martial Arts Master had a decision to make. He knew his time was coming and needed to decide who shall take over his school and be the one student he teaches his ancient secret techniques to. It was down to two of his senior most students. But how to decide who gets the honor of learning his secrets and taking the reins of his school?

His top two students were equally matched and equally loved by all the other students. The decision was incredibly difficult. He needed to make sure that whoever he chose, would be the best at delivering his art in the most efficient way. He had an idea on how to decide. He called both of his senior students over for a competition. But this was not going to be a fight.

“When I say go, you will both draw an animal in the sand that I can recognize instantly. The first one to do so will be my chosen replacement and inherit all of my knowledge of the ancient secrets”, the old Master proclaimed. “If you state that you are done drawing and I can’t determine easily what the animal is, your opponent will win”, he continued.

The students were confused as to how this is an appropriate way to determine who would be the old Masters replacement, but they weren’t about to argue. The students grabbed a stick and picked a spot in the sand to draw their animal. “Begin!” the old Master commanded. The two students began to draw their animals.

One student drew and “S” in the sand and started to look up to claim his prize. But then he noticed the other student was still drawing with detail of his animal. He second guessed himself thinking, “is my animal clear enough? Will my Master recognize easily what it is?” He decided to add detail to his simple drawing. He began to draw legs on his “S” shape. Then as he was finishing the fourth and final leg, the other student jumped up and yelled, “I’m done!”

The old Master took one look at the student’s animal and could clearly recognize the hump on a four-legged creature. “This is clearly a camel! You have won the competition and will inherit all of my secrets and claim my school as yours”, the old Master announced. The old Master then turned his attention to the other student who was clearly distraught that he lost.

“Why did you draw legs on what was clearly a snake that would have won you everything?”, the old Master questioned. The student replied, “I second guessed myself when I saw the other student still drawing. I assumed you needed more detail”. “Your second guessing and unnecessary detail cost you everything. Be efficient, be confident, and keep it simple”, the old Master preached.

This story has been told numerous times over the years with different details and different settings. Attempting to draw legs on the snake is always included and is what always costs the individual what he or she is attempting to obtain. The point being, Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.). As martial artists, we tend to forget this often.

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. – Bruce Lee

In my opinion, nearly everything you need to know to defend yourself is taught in the first rank of most martial arts styles. And yet, we continue on for numerous more ranks and years. It’s easy to get caught up on detail of advanced techniques. But we must not forget that the basics are most important.

Maybe a string of movements starting with a basic elbow lock, then switching to a shoulder lock, mixing in some softening up kicks and strikes, before settling on a throw to take the opponent down. Forgetting that if more attention is spent on the initial elbow lock, the rest will be unnecessary. Or maybe focusing so much on how to position your arms for the perfect block and counter that you forget to move your feet to keep your balance.

I see it daily in class. We all look past the basics and most simplistic techniques in an attempt to perfect the fancy advanced techniques. Or maybe I’m covering a bear hug defense with students and ask how to get out. Some responses being, “strike this pressure point to create space in order to strike these three spots and finish with this joint lock or throw”. “Why not just sick your thumb in their eye?”, I question.

I’m not stating to never learn advanced techniques and to just stick to the basics. It’s important to continue to learn new techniques. We just need to make sure that the majority of our training must be about the basics. Understand that all of those advanced techniques are just building on the basics or meant to help strengthen the basics. If you are familiar with Taekwondo, think of those amazing jump spinning kicks you see in the upper ranks and demos. What are they for?

The answer I’ve heard over the years are along the lines of those aerial kicks being used to kick people off of horses. That’s fine. That very well could be how it was first developed. But how many times to you get attacked by a thug on horseback these days? Things change. The reasons and purposes for how we train and why we train needs to change to.

As I explain to students before teaching these aerial kicks is that I want them to use those kicks to better develop their base kicks. Base kicks rely heavily on the ground for generating power when you first learn them. Training an aerial version of the kick teaches you how to generate power without the ground. This knowledge and technique can then be applied to your base kicks in order to develop even more devastating power!

I practice white belt material more than any other rank. Even as a high-ranking black belt, white belt is still the most important. Many of the advanced techniques are back up plans in case the basics fail. But if you practice those basics more than anything else, the chances of them failing drops considerably. Any time I learn a new methods of power generation or a new use for a body movement, I go back to that first rank and apply the new knowledge to those basics.

Throughout all the years I competed, I had an arsenal of combinations and some advanced techniques to draw from. Yet, the technique I landed the most often and won me the most matches was the front leg slide-in side kick. The second the ref called the start of the match, I lifted my front leg and shot in with a heel to their gut before the realized the match had even started. I learned that kick my very first day of class back in 1993. It’s still my best go to technique that I eventually land on everyone I spar. Sometimes often.

It’s fun to learn advanced techniques, and fun to add detail to simple tasks. But sometimes it’s best to not add legs to the “S” you drew in the sand to warn your deaf friend about the snake about to strike him. Keep is simple and efficient!