What are primitives?

In the ITF System, primitives are the smallest meaningful building blocks of movement. They are not complete techniques by themselves — they are the pieces that combine to create every stance, strike, block, kick, and transition in patterns and basics.

Primitives answer a simple question: “What is the minimum set of elements needed to build everything else?”

The four primitives

1. Move — step, pivot, or shift.
2. Align — stack hips, shoulders, knees, and feet on the line.
3. Deliver — technique lands with correct timing.
4. Finish — stop cleanly, balanced, and ready for the next move.

What “finish” really means

• You can hold it for 2 seconds without wobble.
• You don’t need to adjust your feet.
• Your posture is quiet (no head bob, no shoulder lift).

Try this drill: Freeze Check.

Fundamentals

Primitives describe what happens in a movement. Fundamentals describe why it works. Two people can perform the same primitive, but fundamentals decide whether the movement is stable, powerful, and repeatable.

• Balance — your center stays over the base throughout the motion.
• Distance — the technique lands at effective range, not at full reach.
• Timing — movement, alignment, and delivery complete together.
• Breath — relaxed during motion, controlled exhale at impact.
• Relax → tighten → relax — tension only at the moment of finish.

Fundamentals are not separate techniques. They are applied to every primitive, every time.

Categories (what you’re really training)

The four primitives are the core loop. Underneath them, the pieces you refine most often tend to fall into a few recurring buckets:

• Structure — posture, stance width, weight distribution.
• Transition — stepping, shifting, pivoting without losing balance.
• Rotation — hips/torso sequencing for efficient power.
• Contact — tool selection, angle, alignment at impact.
• Coordination — hand/foot timing and breath control.

How techniques are built from primitives

Techniques are not atomic. They’re compositions. Most differences between movements come down to changing one ingredient: the step, the alignment line, the delivery timing, or the finish standard.

• Move + Align + Deliver + Finish → reliable basics
• Pivot (move) + hip rotation (align/rotation) + timed delivery → stronger turning actions
• stable base (finish) + correct range (distance) → cleaner power with less effort

Train primitives directly

You don’t need more techniques to improve. You need cleaner primitives.

• Slow stepping → exposes balance and alignment problems.
• Pause at finish → forces real control (no “saving it” after the fact).
• One-variable drills → keep the technique the same, change only the step or line.

If you want a simple start, use the Freeze Check on every movement you care about.

Common beginner failure

People focus on the hands and forget the base. When the base is unstable, the technique has to fight for balance, and power disappears.

In primitive terms: the finish isn’t real, so the next move starts compromised.

Where primitives fit in the system

Primitives sit at the foundation:

Primitives → Techniques → Patterns → Sparring → Application

If you improve primitives, everything above them becomes easier to learn and harder to break under pressure.

Next

Go to Stances to make the base reliable.