Guest post by Evolve MMA, Asia’s premier championship brand for martial arts. It has the most number of World Champions on the planet. Named as the #1 ranked martial arts organization in Asia by CNN, Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports, Evolve MMA is the best Singapore BJJ gym.

Ask any martial artist, no matter if it’s a Muay Thai fighter, a BJJ player, or a judoka, who their martial arts heroes are, and we guarantee you that one of them is most likely to be Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee’s philosophies have served as inspiration for many martial artists over the years, encouraging them to train harder and smarter, pushing them to go beyond their limits each training session.

We’ve already given you tips on how to train like Bruce Lee, but we’ve never shared how you can embrace these philosophies in your own martial arts journey. Today, Evolve Daily shares What All Martial Artists Need To Know, According To Bruce Lee:

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”

In training, we will encounter many techniques that won’t come naturally to us. Instead of avoiding these techniques, accepting that mistakes are inevitable and working on them will undoubtedly make us better martial artists in the end. Sometimes, we just have to admit that we aren’t experts, suck it up and start from scratch.

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”

Every great martial artist has his or her special version of a technique. There’s multiple-time Muay Thai World Champion Sam-A Gaiyanghadao’s lightning-fast roundhouse kick and BJJ World Champion Alex Silva‘s slick armbars. There’s also, multiple-time Muay Thai World Champion Sagetdao Petpayathai‘s devastating knees. They’ve all put their own spin on certain techniques, to make it more suitable for their body type/game/style.

Because of their experience, they understand that not all techniques may work for them, thus forcing them to create their own adaptations. Doing so has helped them stay at the top of their games, making them legends in their martial art of choice.

“In order to taste my cup of water, you must first empty your cup.”

The more we practice martial arts, the more we become comfortable with certain techniques because they suit our style/body type/athletic abilities. Unfortunately, this feeling of comfort can lead to pre-conceptions when learning new techniques. Unless we completely disregard all these, we will never fully appreciate or understand new techniques.

“Using no way as a way, having no limitation as a limitation.”

When you put restrictions on yourself, whether it’s when learning new techniques, a new martial art, or starting a new training method, you limit yourself from being the best martial artist you could be. The more you push yourself to break barriers and your limits, the more chances you’ll have of achieving greatness. Trust us!

“Obey the principles without being bound by them.”

Learning a martial art requires knowledge of basics, which should eventually be mastered as you progress. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start adding your own adaptations to these techniques to set you apart from the rest. As we mentioned in number 2, all the greatest martial artists have put their own spin on techniques, which have helped them stay at the top of their game for many years.

“Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never see the light.”

The worst possible thing a martial artist can do is to refuse to acknowledge his/her mistakes or weaknesses. Sometimes, no matter how good we think we are, we have to be open to the fact that we cannot be experts at everything. Even BJJ black belts who have trained for more than 10 years admit that they still have plenty to learn and experience in their journey. By acknowledging the holes in our games/techniques, we can learn how to fix them and become better martial artists.

There’s no doubt that Bruce Lee knew a thing or two about success in martial arts. By applying these philosophies in our own training or even in our daily lives, who knows what kind of greatness we can achieve?