It was like something out of karate kid: Here is a stunning video showing Lyoto Machida’s victory over Randy Couture in the recent UFC 129. The amazing thing is that the knockout blow came from a jumping front-snapping kick landed perfectly on Couture’s jaw. According to Lyoto, he was coached to perfect this kick by martial arts and movie legend Steven Seagal. Interesting was Anderson Silva’s recent UFC victory using a similar kick, also coached by Seagal.

Admittedly I do not follow the UFC much. The practice of MMA for sport is on the far end of the spectrum from what I teach as a self-defense oriented art. However, this win is interesting for several reasons:

Many chairborne warriors who frequent disparaging martial arts discussion boards seem to hold the following opinions:

• The UFC or other sporting event is the ultimate gauge of whether a martial art “works”
• That all fights wind up on the ground so the ground game is where it’s at
• That certain techniques, “never work”

With all due respect, all three of these opinions are crap.

The UFC is the Ultimate Measure of a Martial Art Style

First, MMA matches measure which competitor does best in a particular MMA match – nothing else. These guys are amazing combative athletes, and there is a hack of a lot of training involved. A good portion of their success relies upon conditioning, timing and reflex. Another portion relies upon mental state. Yet another on their skill at executing the systems they are trained in.

Yes, certain systems of training are better suited for combat sports within the rules and arena of the UFC.

Sports events have almost nothing to do with self-defense. Yes, a competitive MMA fighter will have conditioning and skills that will give him or her an advantage over an untrained person in a self-defense situation. But to be good at MMA competitions, it means you probably don’t dedicate a lot of time to training against multiple armed opponents. Some of the things that work exceptionally well in wrestling matches can and have gotten people killed in real self-defense situations.

All Fights Wind Up on the Ground

I have covered why this idea is pure BS rather extensively here. It’s also important to understand that the US Army, after analyzing real hand to hand combat battles, agrees with me. Further, this UFC fight was won before either gentleman went to the ground. Machida only went to the ground to continue attacking Couture who had already lost. No grappling was necessary.

Technique X will never work …

Sometimes I hear people say, “that would never work on the street.” Never is one of those tricky words, it’s an absolute. It means not even once. I bet a lot of people held the opinion that a UFC match would never be won with a front-snapping high-kick to the face, and now it’s been done twice. So if you believed that – you were wrong. Suck it up.

You can quote me on this: The technique that works is the technique that works.

I personally know a guy who fought off multiple opponents with knives with a combination of round-house kicks to the head and running and screaming. I know someone who kicked a knife out of someone’s hand. I’ve been kicked on top of the head with an axe kick in a karate tournament. I’ve personally witnessed a ton of crazy stuff that worked in the moment.

If you are a martial artist, I don’t think it pays to limit your mind.

I’d like to share with you a couple of important discoveries I’ve made with regard to teaching martial arts, which may be translated into other areas as well. An important lesson is that you are not good at anything you need to do in your conscious mind. When you first learned to tie your shoes, you probably made some mistakes, and went slow and sloppy. Then you internalized the skill, and now with the mere thought “tie my shoes” you do it fast and nearly perfectly every time. Overthinking what you are doing will get in your way.

Cognitive psychology has a model where you begin at the level of unconscious incompetance – you don’t even know what you don’t know. Then you reach the level of conscious incompetance – you know that there is something you don’t know or can’t do. Next is conscious competence – you can do the skill as long as you are immediately focused on performing it, and it requires some thought. Mastery comes at the level of unconscious competence – the level where you perform the skill without conscious thought. So ho do we more rapidly get people to a level of unconscious competence?

Here are a few methods I’ve had a great deal of success with:

1. Multipart drill-stacking: This is where I take a number of movements I want to teach and string them into a continuous drill. Think kata or multi-step sparring. I teach the beginning of the exercise – no more than 3-5 movements. I have the students practice this until they are just about to “get it”. At this point they may be at a level of conscious competence. Then I add the next part of the drill and do the same thing.

What I have found, is that the student will begin focusing on the second part of the drill and will have to relegate the first part of the drill to the unconscious. It takes a little practice to learn when to push the next part of the drill. I have taught people very long segments of movements in a single session with near perfect retention using this method. Not only that, but the beginning movements start to smooth out on their own.

It’s important to stop adding sections if the previous sections get sloppy or mixed up. Then it’s time to go back and fix what’s broken.

2. Single session repetition with breaks: The unconscious mind takes time to process new information. This processing goes on even when we are thinking about something else. The basic way to do this method is to practice the same skills multiple times in the same session, while taking breaks and working on something else in between.

Let’s say you start your class with a kicking drill. After that you may move on to punching for 15 minutes. Then, you’d do the same kicking drill again, perhaps with another break and then end with the same kicking drill. An added benefit here is that you give a group of muscles some time to rest. Muscle fatigue can lead to a loss of coordination.

3. Add a distracting stimulus: A training drill I remember fondly was standing around in a circle practicing footwork while two or three people held medicine balls. After each foot movement, whoever was holding a medicine ball would throw it to someone else in the circle. This was an awesome awareness drill, and made people force the footwork into the back of their mind, while they tried to not get knocked down by a 13 pound medicine ball.

Other things you can do is add flashing lights, or shut the lights off, play really bad music in the background, a you name it.

These are just a few of the methods we use to get people good very fast.