4 Habits to Truly Master Your Art. Become a Jedi!

There are no secrets, except maybe a few.

I’ve been training Tai Chi Chuan since 2006, and I’ve also practiced Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Judo, and Aikido for several years. Like every martial arts student, I want to become a Master. But how does one achieve a mastery level? How does one become great at one's art?

People start a martial art for all sorts of reasons. But why do so few have the discipline to train for over a decade and make this part of their life? Three reasons: we don’t have the patience, we don’t know what great looks like, and we don’t really know how.

Training hard is important. Many train obsessively for the first few years, progressing rapidly in their skills but eventually reaching a plateau. As planning a breakthrough is impossible, we can either be patient and pray for a breakthrough or build key habits that guarantee continuous progress in our training.

4 key habits have helped me tremendously over many years to make continuous progress in both my martial arts training and professional life.

Don’t just do something, sit there.

Meditation

All traditional martial arts have some kind of meditation practice in their training routine. — This is not a coincidence. — Whereas modern martial arts, focusing on competition, often skip this. However, looking at top athletes, meditation in one form or another is almost always part of their training. As most top performers are very similar in their physical and technical skills, the only way to be even better, to find that edge, is by training the mind

Any form of meditation consists of 4 parts. First, relax your body with proper posture (legs crossed to stay stable, back straight, and chin down). Second, focus and keep your mind alert (a relaxed mind would be sleeping) while keeping the inner dialogue to an absolute minimum. It’s impossible not to think, but we can try to observe our inner or outer world without judging. Third, if your mind wanders, bring it back into the present. Fourth, let everything else go. There are as many ways to meditate as there are ways to focus and keep an alert mind.

A solid meditation habit will not only improve your health; it will also provide you with a stable mind. In order to be great at your art, you need an unshakeable mind that no longer doubts, expects, compares, judges, or plans. If you stop everything and focus on the now, everything works out much better.

Be aware. Know what is happening.

Mindfulness

Being mindful is not the same as meditation. Mindfulness is the mental process of being in the present moment and avoiding judgment. However, meditation helps to develop this skill.

Everyone is occupied with so much “stuff.” We are so busy. We do so much. Yet, this multitasking makes us very inefficient.

A habit of practicing mindfulness can be very powerful. As a martial artist, you are aware of your surroundings, the environment, other people, and especially yourself, i.e., body and mind. As a corporate employee, you know everyone in meetings, the bigger picture, and especially yourself.

By being more mindful, you are more self-aware, open-minded, and creative, using the many skills you already have.

Try consistently asking yourself if your body and mind are relaxed. If you are tense, try to relax. Relaxing your body will make it much easier to relax your mind and improve your self-awareness.

The time is Now. Not tomorrow or ten years from now. This is it!

We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training. (Archilocus)

Focussed training

The more you train and learn, the more you know. But how well do you really know it?

Knowing more might help you solve more problems that you may encounter in life, assuming you’ve mastered what you’ve learned. It’s this assumption that is the problem. Mastery takes time, so you just cannot be great at everything.

Coming back to the basics repeatedly is the only way to understand the more “advanced” techniques or principles. That is why teaching others is key to mastery. You will find gaps in your knowledge and skills by explaining what you know.

Train smart. Find your weaknesses and become obsessive in improving them. There is a lot of wisdom in Bruce Lee’s statement not to fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once but to fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Ma Bu

Ma Bu means Horse Stance in Chinese. It is one of the most fundamental stances in Chinese martial arts and resembles a posture of a horseman sitting on a horse back. No matter what martial art or sport you practice, training Ma Bu consistently has tremendous benefits. In my experience, Ma Bu is absolutely critical to progress in your art.

Simply stand with your feet shoulder width apart, feet pointing in the same direction (parallel), bend your knees slightly (no need to go as low as 90 degrees like Shaolin monks in the movies), tuck your pelvis in slightly until your lower back is straight, tuck your chin so you lengthen your neck, raise your arms as if you’re hugging an imaginary ball, fingers pointing to each other and transfer your weight evenly on both feet. Next? Relax!

Standing in Ma Bu, you constantly try to relax more and more, while keeping your posture and alignment. In the beginning you release the superficial tension in your muscles and joints. Over time you relax the deeper muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The purpose, besides relaxation, is to strengthen your legs and develop a strong sense of roots.

It may seem very simple but there are many invisible details that you will discover over time. It may all sound rather hippie-dippie, however, feeling is understanding. The results are real.

Take-home message

The best secrets are those that are in plain sight. Practicing Ma Bu regularly is such a secret, because it is the fastest way to center and relax both body and mind. It is meditation, mindfulness, and focussed training all in one.