Jeet Kune Do Blog

Insights from Sifu Joel Ledlow

How to Get Started in Martial Arts

How to Get Started in Martial Arts

A slow adjustment over years is best. Yes, years. Black belts and lifetime martial artists are in it for the long haul. Years, decades, a lifetime. If you have a lifetime, then you aren’t worried about not getting it all now. There are exceptions. I’ve had military people come in for intensive training before they were reassigned, or just regular students who want to jump up their training for the Summer or before Life takes them elsewhere.

Quite often martial arts schools want you to be all in, training all week and leaving the rest of your Life by the wayside. Why you should be wary: A great sales team often hides a mediocre program. This isn’t always true, but more often than they’d like you to know. For me. I always liked training where the instructor knew my name and more importantly who I was as a student. That’s hard to do when the school has 50 new students a month. Some big schools can do this. They have the instructors and programs, and they built their school over a long period.

Martial arts is a part of my everyday life now, but it wasn’t always. I didn’t start with 3 hours of training 5-6 days a week. I started out with twice a week. Once a week is infinitely better than no training. I do think twice is better. You can revisit information and increase your training quite a lot just by going to twice a week. However, you have to fit it into your schedule in a way that is practical.

After you’ve established it as part of your life, then you can start taking on extra days. I noticed this for myself when I started telling friends, “I can’t meet Monday night. I have class.” Remember that this is for YOU. When you go to class, YOU should feel like the instructor and students care about you and that you are getting better, not just as a Martial artist, but as a person.