An old classic adage says to learn a new Martial Arts move properly, one must practice it correctly for 1-10,000 times. Part of this training involves repetition of the basic move, from a fixed angel, at a fixed distance. A number of repetitions must be at various angles also.

Once solo practice is accomplished, the move must be incorporated for different ground conditions, fighting distance, and counters from the opponent. Many will train with a �sure fire move� endorsed by the instructor, and assume that it will work under all conditions. This is a laboratory based philosophy without practical applications in the field.

When one trains for multiple variations in martial counters of a move, they are much closer to adapting to the real. Multiple variations can metamorphize the common in all, the universal concept. This essence is experienced, rather than thought, or analyzed. This can be augmented by meditation.

When we were young, my brother and I would get our kicks jumping off a sand bank, onto a 40-50 foot alder tree. The tree would bend from the forward momentum and eventually tip toward the ground near the sand beach, and we could jump from there. When we jumped forward, things did not always go as planned, and we devised a methodology for alternates, as we worked our way to greater heights.

Some of the factors affecting our tree grabbing were: how our hand slid onto to the branch we were catching, how the branch would bend, and how the tree would move forward with our jump from the high sand bank. A moving, and live wooden dummy.

Even this training was not complete, for we had to plan for 2-4 different succession of branch grabs. This went beyond thinking and analyzing. When you are suspended in mid air reaching for something to hold onto, you do not have time to think. We would visualize our alternatives before jumping, but his was not enough either. If something went wrong, the next 1-2 alternatives had to be automatic, so they had to be practiced repeatedly also. When the practice was complete, it had to be mentally rehearsed before we leaped, to be fresh enough for success.

If we were wrong, the fall down could kill or injure us, with the bumps and stabbings of the broken branches. Although we already had made free fall jumps onto angled sand banks of 25-30 feet, we needed additional practice. We had to be able to roll with the bump, or break of the branch, to slow us down for the next saving branch grab. We had to look down the tree for our last ditch run down the tree, when our initial grabs would not work.