by Joshua Peacock

Created on: June 30, 2009   Last Updated: July 05, 2009

There's about a thousand ways to block, at least one per every martial art style in existence. SO why are very, very few martial artists actually good at blocking? Well for one, with most of the blocking methods out there - as well as the majority of mindsets about it - it has been made harder for martial students to understand and learn the proper way to approach the subject. With a good arsenal and a good mindset, the secrets of blocking will reveal themselves.

First of all, the idea that the more blocks you know, the safer you are, is bogus. In fact, it is dangerous. Trying to think through all of those techniques to decide which one to use takes up valuable time. Also, there's a great chance you have mastered any of them because of the sheer amount that you have smothered yourself with. Instead, you should pick an exclusive few of versatile blocking movements that work for you - and master them. This raises speed, fluency, and your ability to block and follow up. Learning 100 ways to use one block is far better than learning 1 way to apply 50 different ones.

Structure is good, but there is often just too much of it when instructors teach on the subject. It should be approached more as a structured free-style task, than a "I have to block this with this, or my technique is incorrect". The idea is to prevent yourself from getting hurt, not looking cool. With that exclusive niche of blocks I mentioned before, begin to play around and see how many different attacks you can block using them. Modify them a little if you need; you need to stop the attack with the least amount of effort and damage to you, nothing else matters. Keep your arms loose until they make contact, when you should tense some in order to stop the assault made on you.

Evaluate the kind of blocking you are using. Are you meeting force with force; destroying the attack as if the block were also a strike? This is useful, but your opponent will most likely be bigger and/or stronger than you. So this isn't good for smaller martial artists. Instead, you should redirect the attack; parry it whilst moving. This way, you deflect the attack away from you, but you are also moving to a new, more advantageous angle. Even if your block/parry fails, you're not in the line of attack anymore to be hit. Yield and redirect, then snap back with a powerful counter. Eventually, you should be able to block and strike at the simultaneously. This is good fighting.

Merely moving from an attack

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