Juggles to your Armbars

Learning the armbar is hard. Executing an armbar on an actively resisting opponent is even harder.

Learning the sequence behind juggling three balls is hard. Actually juggling three balls is even harder.

Today we tried all four of these things. We learned the armbar. We tried it against an actively resisting opponent. We learned how to move the balls from hand to hand, simulating juggling three balls. We tried to actually juggle three balls.

It is easy to omit the learning part. It is exciting to try and armbar an active opponent. However, you’ll usually have more success if you’ve learned the technique against an partner who isn’t resisting. Similarly, it is exciting to try and juggle. However, you’ll usually have more success if you’ve learned some basic techniques.

It is equally easy to omit the application part. You can learn the technique of the armbar, convince yourself you’ve got it and never try it against a resisting opponent. You can learn the sequence of how to juggle with out actually trying to juggle and then tell all your friends that you know how to juggle. But until you can actually apply an armbar, until you can actually juggle… you don’t really know.

Learn technique. Apply those techniques.

Why learn to juggle? We’re Kung fu students. We’re good at anything and everything we put our effort towards.