Is a high IQ a requisite for martial arts skills?
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In my opinion (we all have one), it only matters for the most elite, which is probably irrelevant for over 95% of martial arts practitioners.
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Determination, discipline, and “just doing it”, outweighs IQ to most people in modern society practicing martial arts.
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High level martial arts skills are based on muscle memory and deliberate practice, not intellectual learning. This is a hard concept for many new students to understand.
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In my experience, students who over-intellectualize their practice end up ‘knowing their art’ instead of ‘living it’. There are exceptions of course.
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Martial arts is not a “way of life” in modern society. Back even 50 years ago, it was a way of life in certain societies, perhaps because there were less law enforcement regulations (and people) to regulate.
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Today, most people are too lazy (or too busy) to practice, attending class once or twice a week.
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You don’t learn (a martial art) by reading about it… you don’t learn it by watching videos… and you don’t learn it by talking about it… You learn it by DOING IT!
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Academic mastery won’t help you in a ‘fight’, but muscle memory will save you in an emergency. And muscle memory comes only from deliberate practice and repetition. If you don’t take the time to build your muscle memory, your new martial art will desert you under stress, leaving you back where you started, without the necessary skills.
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The best martial artists usually completely master only a handful of techniques, but they totally master them, commit them to muscle memory, and can apply them in an incredible variety of ways using defined principles.
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So where does I.Q. fit in?…. There are many types of intelligence, and IQ doesn’t measure them all. IQ measures deliberate analytical/logical intelligence where you have time to work out a problem. It usually involves identifying logical patterns.
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Perhaps, in being a truly great teacher, passing on that knowledge, and to be able to do so effectively. Being able to intellectually remember and understand all the parts of your martial art and be able to effectively communicate and demonstrate ‘all’ of your art….
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To be able to customize your art’s content for your individual students, to maximize their understanding in light of their individual abilities, and recognize that each student will optimally learn his own version of the art, based on his abilities and personal goals.
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No…. A high IQ is not a requirement for martial arts skills….. Being smarter, using common sense (now there IS a lot of that missing), on the other hand is a different thing.
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In the end, none of it matters when you freeze when somebody hits you in the face, or you aren’t good at quickly applying those cognitive skills.
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Train to be smarter. There ‘is’ room for everyone in the martial arts. 
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Quote by Albert Einstein.
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