The majority of martial arts tend to split their training into three or four separate disciplines. These are:
- Techniques - this is the set of kicking and/or punching techniques required for the grade or belt currently being taught. It will also include regular review of the various moves learnt in previous gradings, to make sure you have not forgotten important basics.
- Forms or Kata - these are normally traditional sequences of moves that might incorporate deadly techniques that you would not be able to use on a training partner - a kind of shadow boxing.
- Sparring - training with a partner is very important, as it enables you to practise techniques on a moving target, and with somebody who will try not to get hit.
- Sets - not applicable to all martial arts, to many have kick, punch or blocking combinations formulated into sets. They are for drilling technique rather than fighting an imaginary opponent (which is what forms and kata are for).
What is sometimes missing from martial arts training is the emphasis on fitness training, speed training and power training. You need to be excellent in all of these together with being proficient in technique, in order to do your martial art justice. It is no good being faster than your opponent if your punches barely tickle him; and no good being powerful if you are so slow that you have already been knocked out by an opponent's jab!
This is where the heavy martial arts equipment comes to the rescue. You will need to spend many hours using hanging punchbags, speed-balls, elasticated punchbags that attach to the floor and ceiling, and preferably a piece of equipment akin to the wooden dummy used in wing chun kung fu.
The hanging heavy bag trains power; speed-balls and springy punchbags train speed and rhythm of punching, and evasive body and footwork respectively; the wooden dummy trains fast hand combinations including parries, blocks and multiple strikes of the kind you would not be able to set up efficiently with a training partner.
Get all these additional methods into your martial arts training regime, and you will make rapid progress.