Integrated Eskrimas Modular Training Method
Guro Mark V. Wiley has spent the past fifteen years closely examining the martial arts of Asia, the United States and Europe, in terms of their respective training progressions and teaching methods. He spent the last 10 of those years traveling around the world to meet, interview and train with the most accomplished masters in the martial arts of the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India and Japan, and he witnessed the same things time and again: great systems, great demonstrations of technical skill, great underlying concepts and ideas, but a true lack of spontaneous application in non-prearranged scenarios.

In other words, most of the systems did not have a training program in place that efficiently or completely addressed the issues the art espoused: self-defense, street fighting effectiveness, inner power, sports excellence, etc. From this, Guro Wiley came to understand that what makes one art or technique more "useable" in authentic situations is based on proper training methods and mental attitude. In other words, the means must justify the ends, and in many arts the means and ends don't meet.

Guro Wiley spent the past eight years trying to rectify this predicament, and from this came the Integrated Modular Training paradigm and method to mastery, or IMT for short. His vast teaching experience has shown that IMT answers the question of how a novice can become twice as good as a black belt in half the time. Thus, after one-and-a-half years of training, a person utilizing the IMT method in their given art, will reach or excel the skill of the same system's black belts in 1.5 years, or half the time than the actual curriculum.

And while Guro Mark Wiley personally prefers traditional training, and practices and teaches several traditional arts as they were passed on to him, he use the IMT method as an adjunct to the respective arts' existing training in an effort to excel students' progress through completely Linking and Integrating every movement with all those preceding it. Thus, even with only six techniques under their belt, a student trained via IMT is able to fully utilize those techniques in the correct range, with the correct footwork, in correct combinations, and in the correct Context.

IMT training is constructed around the platform of an expandable Nucleus Drill, wherein as new Modules (blocks of information) are added they are Linked and Integrated with previously learned Modules. There is also a mental component wherein shifts in psychological states occur as the Nucleus Drill expands, thus restructuring a passive mind into an active mind and then into a focused, centered and unwavering mind.

The Paradigm deals with breaking down a system in terms of techniques, concepts, principles, drills, etc. and listing them horizontally on a spread sheet. Everyone seems to have "width" in technique, but many lack "depth." In other words, people can attend 60 seminars and walk away with technique width (i.e., hundreds of techniques), but they will lack any sense of real depth in each individual technique (e.g., conceptual understanding, linking to other techniques, applying techniques in different ranges and against different styles and weapons, etc.). Once we are able to "see" the width (horizontal list) of techniques, we can then make a vertical list of ways it can and should be applied (with footwork, other techniques, disarms, grappling, etc). Then fill in the blanks and see where we are lacking in skill and also where some techniques or movements should not be applied. This is a visual the Paradigm of what needs to be done to master each area within a system.

In order to put this intellectual knowledge and understanding of the system into practical use, we engage the Method that makes it all possible: a simple yet expandable Nucleus Drill that easily incorporates new material as the students progresses through the Modules. Thus, from the onset of each new level, the techniques (through integration) become functionally integrated with the previous ones. It is only when the Paradigm is understood and the Method employed with full integration of the system's components that mastery can be achieved. The Paradigm is the vision, the Method is the road and the Nucleus Drill is the vehicle that will take you to mastery. Whether or not you are able to "master" the art is up to you. The paradigm and method is before you, and you hold the power to excel it.

(Taken from www.alanorr.com)