Proper performance of our Art requires not only good physical fitness, but a good mental acuity allowing you to understand where and how to improve.

As martial arts students we need to be more than merely “fit” in a narrow sense. We tend not to specialise in one aspect of fitness as in some sports, such as the ability to sprint 100m in the shortest time, and the wide range of body shapes of our practitioners reflects the fact that progress in our System doesn’t require a specific body shape.

All of us, however, could be fitter in many ways, and many of us are frustrated at the limited time available to us given how much time we’d like to dedicate to our practice. Those of you who teach will also be giving up your personal training time to pass on the System to others, which means compromising your own fitness to help others improve theirs. The flip side to this compromise is the fact that teaching enriches your own understanding of our Art beyond any time spent learning from someone else. This period of enforced isolation gives every student, not only instructors, a great opportunity for introspection with respect to their abilities in our Art.

A quick web search will turn up many different categories of physical fitness, here is a good list I found on a CrossFit website (see http://www.crossfitlaketahoe.com/about-cr…/crossfit-journal/):
· Cardiovascular / respiratory endurance – The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
· Stamina – The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
· Strength – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
· Flexibility – The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
· Power – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
· Speed – The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
· Coordination – The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
· Agility – The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
· Balance – The ability to control the placement of the body’s centre of gravity in relation to its support base.
· Accuracy – The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

This is a fairly comprehensive list, but it misses some other important elements of physical ability required in our System, such as the following, for which I offer my own definitions:
· Conditioning – Improved bone and skin strength (see Wolff’s Law in medicine) and raised pain threshold through physical conditioning exercises.
· Sensitivity (external) – The ability to perceive, feel or anticipate a partner’s or opponent’s movements, through observation, contact or instinct. At a higher level will involve awareness of others’ chi flows.
· Flow – The ability to move fluidly from one movement to another, with minimal disturbance and often maintaining an overall harmony.
· Timing – The ability to intercept, join or avoid another’s movement, sometimes to harmonise with or to upset flow.
· Efficiency – The ability to move, interact with, and deliver movements with minimum effort or taking minimum time.

We can extend this list further to encompass elements that start to merge with mental and psychological aspects, such as:
· Creativity – The ability to respond dynamically to a new situation with novel responses or reactions that are consistent with the demands of the situation. At a senior level this will be executed with flow and efficiency.
· Resilience – The ability to overcome stress, physical limitations or other frustrations.
· Pain tolerance – The ability to withstand pain, whether expected or unexpected. Aided by conditioning and internal sensitivity.
· Control of chi – The ability to cultivate, direct and control one’s own internal energy. The ability to absorb, redirect or interrupt others’ chi.
· Sensitivity (internal) – Physical proprioception, but also awareness and understanding of anger, fear, anxiety. Awareness of one’s own chi.

As students of a traditional but practical martial art you will have encountered many of these characteristics of physical performance, whether directly through your own experience, through observing others who display these characteristics, or through encouragement to explore these aspects from your seniors.

During this period of training from home please take some time to think about which of these aspects of fitness for performance you actively address, and which ones you’d like to devote more time to. Remember that keeping a training diary is a great way to track your progress and explorations.

Please share your own thoughts here, since we’ve a very wide and well-informed community of practitioners in NPC.

Good luck, keep training and stay safe!
— Sifu Leppard