The secret to superior training is this: You cannot develop what is not already unveiled. Therefor we first must bring skills and abilities to the surface and then develop them from there. So as you move on, don't try leaping ahead. Some of these things take years to prepare for.

For many practices it is best if you have an instructor helping and guiding you, but many people are finding out today that they really can learn on their own if the lessons are made available. So train at your own risk. But only so much can be written. What will be shown here is merely scraping the edge of the overall system we teach to our students.

As the student travels through the ranks, it is easily discovered that every rank builds upon the others. The white belt begins the journey by learning basic movements, postures, breathing, relaxation, and combat basics. They also learn the fundamentals of internal development, such as gathering and storing energy.

Having thus developed, each rank thereafter seeks to further these skills. The training can be divided into four basic groups. Internal development, mental conditioning, the body of iron training, and combat training. All of these must be cultivated together in order for them to be the most effective.

The greatest methods of healthy training were developed through war and conflict. It is man's nature to be war-like and competitive. Much of our technology was designed during war to make better weapons, though now is used to better our lives. We made it to the moon so fast because we were struggling to beat the Russians there. Car are made better and safer because each company wants to be better than the others. It is the balance of opposing forces that maintains the universe.

So do not feel bad if you are training in something violent. It is not about whether or not the methods are deadly that counts so much as how you use them. If you train to eliminate people you do not like, then you are not in balance. If, however, you train to overcome attackers using minimal force, or to eliminate someone who was about to blow up a city, then your skills are a way of virtue, and not of destruction.

A great example of the necessity of well balanced violence in this world is physical conditioning. When you work out you are doing damage to your muscles. However, done properly, the muscles receive just enough damage that when they heal they are stronger. The damage is violence. You are attacking yourself to better yourself. Too much, however, leaves permanent damage, however small. This is unbalanced violence.

Violence is the way of nature. The tiger stalks his prey, just as the deer tears at the leaves on a tree. Without it, there would be no process. Lightning may cause a forest fire, but then the forest renews and grows better. Nature care for itself with violence, just as we do. And so the way is in balance.