Early on in my martial arts training, specifically Taekwondo, there was a technique in one of the early rank forms that involved doing a spear hand with one arm and the other arm underneath that arm at the elbow. For those that don’t know, a spear hand is forming your hand into what looks like a spear. Tightly holding your fingers together as you strike with the tips of your finger. Throwing this spear hand formation out like a straight punch to a soft tissue target, such as the neck.

I didn’t ask many questions at the time, but placing my other arm underneath that spear hand confused me. Why am I supporting the spear hand? It’s not like my arm is going to suddenly fall to the ground. It didn’t make much sense. But I demonstrated it in my form, as well as other strange movements with my arms that I struggled to place into a strike or block category.

It wasn’t until I began teaching that I thought deeper about some of the movements. This began my deep dive into the ocean of traditional martial arts, especially the forms of Taekwondo, Karate, Kung Fu and may other arts that perform confusing movements. After some digging online watching videos, reading articles, talking to fellow martial arts instructors, and reading books on the matter, I had my answer.

That specific supported spear hand in the form I was training and teaching had a friend. The previous movement that involved a block was the lead into that spear hand with the strange supporting arm. That supporting arm had nothing to do with supporting the arm from falling. It was trapping the opponent’s arm under my spearhead upon blocking and clearing the way for the spear hand to reach its target unabated.

This one technique opened the door for me to review all the forms I’ve ever learned and see them in a new light. I began researching every movement, every set of combos, and rethink every movement I was doing. Were my punches not my punches? Were my blocks not my blocks? To make things more complicated, one technique could be one thing in one form, and something completely different in another depending on the techniques before and after it. This ocean is a lot deeper than I could ever imagine.

If you practice traditional martial arts, there’s a good chance you have movements categorized as blocks. And in most cases, they involve two movements, a “load” and an “execution”. Correct? How can two movements, performed in reaction to an initiating attack that may have only one movement, be effective? You’ll be punched and bleeding before you get to that second movement we label as a block.

That’s because what we think as the block isn’t always our actual block. Look closer at the first movement. What’s it doing? Is it crossing your arms near you face or chest? Or maybe one arm is “loading” across your stomach as the other is across your face/neck? There’s a reason for that. Those arms crossing or arm covering your face that we call the “loading” process, is the actual block. The arm snapping out at the arm afterward is a strike to either move the arm way or do damage to it.

If you’ve ever competed in sport fighting or have been in a fight where you’ve had your strike or kick blocked hard, you know just how painful that can be. I’ve had my punches blocked so hard I didn’t want to throw that punch again the entire match. Same goes for the kick that was block by a hard descending elbow directly into my shin. I limped for a week. “Blocks” have done more damage to me than most kicks or strikes that have landed.

If your block isn’t really your block, what about your punch? That’s still a punch, right? Of course, it is. Except when it is a breakaway with a back elbow. Think about what you do with your non-punching arm. You pull it back as hard as you can, either to your hip or armpit. Shooting your elbow straight back with force. If someone was trying to restrain you by holding your arms from behind, you could throw that “punch” forward to breakaway one grip while elbowing the opponent with the other arm.

Is this sounding complicated yet?

All of that was just Taekwondo. I still had two more styles I trained in. Hapkido would be much clearer as every technique was applied to a training partner. This should be much more straight forward, right? Well, not really. Hapkido presented a different type of depth. Yes, the techniques were applied directly to a training partner, but that wasn’t always the technique. I know, my head was hurting too. I’ll try and clarify to relieve as much pain as possible.

Most techniques in Hapkido are presented first through a wrist grab attack. I don’t know how many times you’ve had to defend yourself or how many fights you’ve been in, but someone grabbing my wrist while standing still with a willingness to accept pain hasn’t exactly come up often. Nor has someone lunged in with an obvious straight punch. There are even techniques where you turn your back to your opponent to create a joint lock. Turning your back to your opponent?! Why would you do this?

While being grabbed by an opponent on your wrist can happen, especially regarding a man attacking/controlling a woman, that’s not really the point of the technique. These wrist grabs, and even the lapel, and shoulder grabs are just for training purposes. In some cases, the defense can actually be used. I’ve had to apply more than one joint lock to someone grabbing me on the shoulder and getting in my face before. They dropped like a sack of potatoes, and they had no idea why. Issue resolved. They walked away in confusion.

But this isn’t the only purpose. There are innumerous ways of being grabbed or attacked. This is where different types of sparring and impromptu situations come in. We train these other situations to APPLY what we learned from that wrist grab defense. The core principles still apply. This new situation also typically involves a moving target or even a follow up attack along with these grabs, such as a punch. This adds depth to the technique as you need to think about positioning and protecting oneself from the additional attack while still applying the technique.

At the end of the day, I suggest throwing out all the categories you had built up in your head. Offense, defense, strikes, blocks, so on and so forth. At this point, I just call them all self-defense movements. Every movement has a purpose, and that purpose can be applied in numerous different ways. This is why we say that the real learning and training of your martial arts style begins at black belt. Those color belt levels are just teaching you the basic foundations of what’s to come.

If you are early on in your martial arts training, invest in some good scuba gear, as you’re about to head into the deep end. And that deep end has no floor in site. This is why your technique isn’t always what you think it is. Just enjoy the ride and expect no end.