We all have our own biases when it comes to the martial arts. Sometimes these biases are based on the style(s) of martial arts we’ve studied. Sometimes they’re based on how our instructors have taught us. And sometimes, they are based on your individual body types.

When it comes to self-defense, I think martial artists should strive to broaden their perspective and look beyond the biases of their style(s) and their instructors to determine the best approach for their own body types. If you’re an instructor, you should be able to look beyond your own physicality’s biases and understand the biases of other people’s body types so you can help students learn the most practical approaches to self-defense for them.

Take me for example. Most of my instructors I learned from as I came up through the ranks were men who were significantly larger than me. Certain approaches to certain techniques didn’t work as well for me when I tried to mimic my instructors exactly. Over the years, I learned to make adjustments, while still staying true to the spirit of the technique, to make them work more effectively and efficiently for my body type. Sometimes these adjustments came from having personal epiphanies. Sometimes they came from training with other instructors, sometimes ones from other styles.

So how do you develop a methodology for your physical biases? As a student, don’t just experiment during classes on your own. You may be missing valuable points. Ask your instructor for suggestions on how to make a technique more practical for your body type. They may have suggestions for improvement immediately. Or if they don’t have an immediate answer, they may play with it for a bit and get back to you. Or it could simply be that you haven’t developed your technique well enough and you just need to work on it longer. Or perhaps your technique needs a simple adjustment. Whatever the outcome, if you have a good, open-minded instructor, they’ll point you in the right direction.

I hate it when an instructor tells a student, “This technique just isn’t suitable for your body type” without taking the time to consider the problem, especially if they are a completely different body type. I’ve found that people who do this usually dismiss the technique just because they couldn’t help the student do it exactly the same way they do it. This is just mental laziness on the instructor’s part. I find that oftentimes, if I experiment with a technique a bit, I can come up with something that will work, but that’s because I have nearly two decades of martial arts experience. Most students don’t have that ability and rely on the instructor to point them in the right direction.

If you’re an instructor, it’s important to keep an open mind and to be able to put yourself in each of your students’ shoes. You’ll be able to help more students if you’re not limited to catering to your own body type. It takes time to develop this skill though, so don’t feel like you have to have an answer for every question when asked. If you’re honestly not sure what the best approach is to a technique, take the time to experiment with it to see what you come up with. This is one of the best ways we keep learning as an instructor.

Now over to you. How has your instructor helped you develop your technique to work best for your physical biases? Or if you’re an instructor, how have you helped your students in this way?

Tags: physical biases