All
the founders of martial art styles and systems were those rare geniuses that
come once in a… No, wait! Really? If
that were true, then how come we have so many of them? Is it possible that just
a relatively small place such as Okinawa gave birth to so many geniuses in less
than half century, some 150 years ago? Not to mention much larger cultures,
such as those in China, India etc. Thousands of martial expressions in the East
Asia alone. And there is one more thing… How come we often see quite notable
differences among the practitioners of the same system?
If
you take a look at the above comment, you will see two equally important
attributes being mentioned: personal
and traditional. At the first glance
those might seem to be contradictory. After all, the whole point of traditional
training is to do the things the same way they have been done for centuries,
just like the founders, right? Well, sort of. If you think about it a little,
and do some research, you will find out that those very founders have actually
codified their own personal expression of the previous traditions, and named
them (or their students did). Which means, in turn, that tinkering and
experimenting with your training is the traditional approach anyway.
But,
how is different to modern, non-traditional approach then?
First,
nowadays more people have the tendency to give new names to their personal
expressions (hey, we live in the world of brands and marketing!), although
there still many of those who keep training, doing their own thing, without
stopping to think about how to call it. Second, we live in the information age,
when instructors are not so secretive and more open towards cross training. It
is, therefore, no wonder we can choose among dozens of schools and styles. Matter
of fact, we don’t need to pick just one! Heck, why not attend a few and combine
the stuff into our own system!?
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| Wasted time and effort |
This
is the problem of the media age. It’s just too easy to get lost in the huge
amount of information all at once, but without certain filters in place it can
be exceedingly difficult to make the right selections and see if they fit
together. I remember a guy coming to an instructor friend of mine who teaches
sort of JKD-inspired MMA and asking for Wing Chun lessons, in order to better
deal with the clinch range. Asked how he would deal with grappling, the guy
answered “I do aikido for that purpose”. He did not think for a second about
the gap between the underlying principles of the two systems, but started from
the perceived strength of each. Also, and even more importantly, he flat out refused
to join that MMA+ class (as my friend called it) which already had worked out
the work in different ranges of combat; instead he preferred developing his own
system after the hefty experience of six month of martial training.
Another
issue is the failure to recognize the most probable challenges and problems you
would face, depending on your reason for training, but instead focusing the
rare extremes that get the attention of the media. This is where people
dedicated inordinate amounts of time to various lapel grabs and two-handed
holds, while completely neglecting tackles, headlocks and standing guillotine
chokes. In other words, inexperienced practitioners engage in cross training looking
for solutions, while not seeing the problems in the first place.
The
way I see it, there are two paths to finding the proper fit in cross training,
and they are not mutually exclusive.
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| Yeah! |
One,
join a club/group that does something different than you, and accept being
their “toy”, thus experiencing the problems their style might put before you.
Then go back and see what answers you can find by digging deeper into your own
system, its technical principles and tactical tenets. This may require some
adaptation of the stuff you have been already doing, but that is where the personal aspect comes in.
Two,
if unable to solve the problem on your own devices, then go elsewhere for
instruction. However, keep an eye open for the potential problems that may
arise from their solutions, i.e. opening doors for new problems, especially if
those new problems are more serious that the ones you came to solve.
Personally,
if training different systems, I usually keep them separated for a while before
even looking at amalgamation possibilities. Sometimes, in fortunate
circumstances, such possibilities will present themselves, kind of jumping out
at you as a pleasant surprise. Other times it will take conscious analysis and
pondering to direct your research. Of course, there is always the possibility
of not finding the right fit between the two, and that’s perfectly fine. In
that case you can either drop one thing, or stay with it for its own sake.
Naturally,
you may be entirely satisfied staying for the same system for years or decades,
and I have utmost respect for people who do that. Again, people’s motives for
starting a martial art may vary widely and wildly, so as long as your are able
to find something according to your needs you should be fine…just be honest
with yourself.
