A complete martial arts curriculum covers every aspect of mind/body development within the context of a repertoire of martial skills.

The purposes of the development of the body and mind through martial arts training are: to enhance health/fitness, longevity, and a variety of performance variables; to build a congruent lifestyle, with emphasis on self-discipline and goal-attainment, personal integrity, and respect for others; to develop a superior set of defensive and offensive skills and impeccable self-defense ethics; and to mold a personal understanding of how to use the core principles of such a discipline to live a happy and fulfilling life.

The teaching of the martial-specific aspects of the curriculum is designed to contribute directly to the mind/body infrastructure as well as to pragmatic self-defense abilities, but, being a martial art instead of sport or combat, the discipline is purposefully organized to teach the student how to generalize and apply the practice to every aspect of daily living.

Unless one intends to be a karate, kickboxing, or jiujitsu tournament fighter; is training for imminent combat; or is acutely involved in a very high-risk profession where the likelihood is high of frequent life-threatening circumstances; then true martial arts training should follow the traditions that have been passed on for the past many centuries. Only training in this systematic way can guarantee that the student will benefit in the optimal way from the practice.

Someone may learn a set of reasonable defense skills, but he may still be almost completely undeveloped as a whole person: capable of success in any endeavor; living a mentally sound and physically healthy lifestyle; being a responsible and integrated member of his communities and organizations; living his goals and dreams with boldness; having a positive, generous, and cooperative outlook; finding happiness and sharing it with others; viewing the stresses of life as challenge and opportunity. These are the abilities and attitudes of someone who has been trained correctly in martial arts.

In addition to the lack of overall-development characteristics of the "street-fight-mentality" type of training, that type of practice may also fail the practitioner in more salient self-defense functions. Most of the "reality" kinds of training deal only with the peripheral techniques of combat - they usually cover some level of physical conditioning; a set of strikes, blocks, kicks; a system of close-quarter, grappling skills; and a practice which builds some degree of fighting spirit.

Those are all valuable and necessary components of self-defense capability. Yet, if character and spirit, awareness, fearlessness, commitment, self-control, and a continuum of ethical response options - from avoidance, verbal de-escalation, redirection, and control skills to ballistic attacking, submissions techniques, and nerve center resolutions- are not developed in concert with this approach, then the student may never understand that the true purpose of self-defense training is to learn how to never be attacked or, more appropriately stated, to have a process that continually tries to reduce the probability of attack to zero. The other defense-oriented purpose of right training is, of course, to give the martial artist the most highly effective physical skills.

In other words, by correctly learning and responsibly assimilating a personal arsenal of powerful and superior fighting techniques in a curriculum that stresses the development of mind and character equally with its concentration on technical skills, a true martial artist ultimately learns how to not fight. Although the martial artist should be prepared at any moment to commit clearly and completely to the battle, his correct training produces a peaceful nature and a respect for life. These are the superior results that have been produced by traditional training through hundreds of years of development, irrespective of the fact that they were produced through trial-and-error protocols.

If we can be sure to retain the functions that yield such superior mental development, our modern training methods, benefiting from exercise and cognitive sciences, are superior in many ways to these trial-and-error protocols, which have kept training dangerous and inefficient for many generations. Therefore, optimal martial arts training should be viewed as both traditional, in its foundation principles of perseverance, diligence, courage, integrity, humility, and loyalty; and dynamic, as it continues to evolve more effective techniques and training strategies through application of scientific principles of human learning and performance.

If a discipline can be accurately labeled a martial art - distinguishing itself from a simple fighting system, or a martially-influenced health and fitness regimen, or a karma yoga path of self-culture - it must have a systematized style of teaching to present continuous mental and physical challenge and growth - building a clear mind, powerful and healthy body, and an indomitable spirit. It must be a tool for daily use and for continuous improvement.

If we do not train primarily to develop foundation principles of higher mental development, wisdom, and understanding, but only train for fighting skill or physical development, then our expertise will be based predominantly on attributes like strength, speed, and endurance, or on tactics and tricks.

Strength, speed, and endurance can always be exceeded by someone larger or better-conditioned, and those parameters will also decline as we age. Tactics and tricks - sets of skills or tools applied in a martial context - vary in effectiveness based on individual differences in practitioners and in situational circumstances. Therefore training should optimize physical and tactical variables by using the movement set to teach core principles of movement dynamics and strategy.

The foundation principles of human movement are constant. The logic of tactical practice is simple and well known to all true masters of martial art. The principle concepts of open hand and foot skills, close-quarter grappling skills, and use of weapon classes have been understood, systematized, and transmitted for many generations.

The salient distinction between schools teaching martial skills has to do first with the depth to which the training penetrates the individual's awareness and precipitates profound change; and second, given that a master instructor truly understands, models, and communicates the foundation principles, the efficiency with which the student acquires a deep assimilation and use of the techniques. To impact in these ways, it is implicitly important that the foundation of the curriculum has a perfect correlation with the foundation of all types of learning and all types of inner growth.

Every lesson, regardless how diverse the topics seem to the beginner or casual student of martial arts, should present the conceptual core of training to the student. Every technique should contain the whole of martial arts theory, just as every strand of DNA holds the code for the whole individual. It is up to the individual, equipped through the training with the tools to achieve any goal, to discern a path on which to apply his understanding.

There is a great difference in a martial athlete or martial performer, and a martial artist. It also does not necessarily follow that a person capable of demonstrating a technique or skill can teach it effectively to someone else. So a course perceived and taught from a given peripheral bias, such as athletics or performance, will likely produce no greater result than that level of understanding. Such superficial levels of orientation soon become obvious, even to the beginning student. The selection of one's instructor becomes, therefore, the single most important variable in determining the potential achievement one may attain through the martial arts training.

As we come to know that our outcome - our rate and safety of progress; our potential for understanding the daily application of the class-work; our cultivation of health and fitness through the practice; our ability to protect ourselves and our families; and our honing of a tool for success in all endeavors - directly parallels the type of training we receive from the master instructor, we also come to know that our most important decision when we begin training in martial arts is to find a great teacher.

A final comment about teaching: we do not as much teach what we know as what we are.