Badger South outlines, in a post to rec.martial-arts, the hallmarks of a good fighting system:
- Non-attribute based
- Aliveness is emphasized
- Aims to reduce the high chaos of a fight
- Has a reply to all the ranges of combat
- Trains with resisting opponents
- Has a well-defined and functional delivery system
- Has a core art that allows functionalization of any exotic moves
- Emphasizes learning defense first so that there's always a refuge
- Trains the flow from range to range.
- Built upon a good endurance base but uses interval/burst training (Trav)
- Intelligent use of training gear emphasizing movement, intent and timing
- Is fun and largely non-injurious
- 75% of success is based on conditioning and aggression
- recognizes the venues of fighting.
To get to there he says:
- have a good coach. Can even be a training partner. Feedback and going out of your comfort zone is crucial to make advances.
- make use technology such as the heart rate monitor
- recognize and work to improve the ODOA loop and other psycho-neurological concepts.
- train the range with the people that do that range best, be it bjj, wrestling, MT, boxing. Don't try to stay within your 'style' and make 'anti-' techniques work.
- go outside your style, be open to 'what works'.
- test and retest and work to failure. Even the best stuff has failure points.
- work with a variety of opponents, some better than you, some not as good (teaching teaches!)
- enter competitions
In a later post Badger recommends taking ideas you like from others and making them your own to fill in the gaps you might be missing in your own system.
Though it's nice to have on paper, it's better when it's part of you. IOW, be able to derive it, prove it to yourself.
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When I see good stuff, or see it couched in a perfect way, I grab it and make it my own. The last good phrase was Trav's 'burst training', something I was playing with and now I try to incorporate in most of my sessions, working particularly well on hill training cycling.
One of the tricks is to find a way that you can 'get there from here'. I can't do stadium steps, but I can burst on the bike.
The next thing is to find a core around which you can build your regime.
I can bike everyday and still recover enough to do a pm ride, then get up and do it tomorrow. So I've made that my core. I never tire of it.
For others it's rolling with friends and maybe doing some laps in the pool. No problem. Still others like that pre-dawn jog - it renews the spirit.