PSP Training Principles

Principles can be broken up into several different categories. For instance, combative principles, physical principles, spiritual and philosophical principles, and training principles. All principles of a given system must be unified and wholistically work together. That is what makes it a system versus random material.

Training Principles

Training Principles are those principles which are concerned mostly with the method of training you use.

Train with people whenever possible

    While it can be o.k. to train without a training partner, it is preferable to train with one. Through that process you can get bio-feedback and do "real-time" testing of your skills on a regular basis. There is no substitute for a thinking and responding training partner.

Train Everyday

    Saying that you should train everyday seems to be an obvious enough statement. However, over the years, I have not always trained everyday as most people think of it. Instead, I've learned to do a little bit of training here and their throughout the course of a day. It's not the same as a prolonged training seesion but it does allow me to have a family life and remain relatively fresh in movement. In addition, I've also learned to incorporate bits and pieces of movement in my daily life.

Think about it

    Think about what you are training. Even in your free time consider meditating on the skills you are currently developing. Do so in a way that brings back the physical feelings of actually doing it. Additionally, when you train any solo material such as jurus-jurus, meditate on the movements, applications, and intention of the jurus-jurus.

Trainers are trainers

    If you are training with someone and acting as a "feeder" for strikes or kicks or whatever, don't resist unless asked to resist. Don't deviate from the training until asked to do it. YOU are the trainer, your goal should be to help the person gain confidence and skill gradually over time. Do not resist as though you are fighting with the person you are supposed to be training. Resisting develops bad habits in both of you.

    If you agree to resistance training do so in a manner that allows both people to free flow, developing counter-counter skills rather than try to force a technique on a resistant training partner.

    Another aspect to being a good trainer is not striking off target. It's a waste of training time. Strike with intention where the strike is intended.