‘I would even go so far as to say that this type of wrestling is the one that best adapts to its resources, which are made up of flexibility and dexterity rather than strength and violence. In this respect, it’s even the women’s wrestling par excellence.’

This is how the freestyle wrestling champion Armand Cherpillod described jujutsu in his 1906 book Je me défends toute seule (I defend myself).

Although this description would seem a little sexist today, Professor Cherpillod was nevertheless putting his finger on an important principle: in many martial arts, strength is not what prevails.

At first sight, this is counter-intuitive in a milieu such as the martial arts, where violence and physical strength are generally associated. But if physical strength were enough in itself, we’d all be lifting weights instead of training again and again. The real basis on which a martial art is built is technique.

Good technique literally means directing the force applied against the opponent in the most effective way possible. A little force well directed is worth more than a lot of force badly directed. A fairly common mistake is to apply more force when a technique doesn’t work, instead of correcting things like posture, angle, movement synchronicity, etc.

Technical rigour will always allow you to improve, even after decades of practice.