Sticking with it

[red5angel]

We have discussed this sort of thing in different ways for a while now, with no real satisfactory answers, in my opinion. I consider it a good question for MMA guys as well as Classical study guys.

Do you think that there is a top end to what you can accomplishin a style? Is there a point where you basically stop learning, there is no more advancement? Is it necessary then to go to a new art?

I ask because I see a lot of schools where the instructors have been in a long list of arts for thier 15 - 20 years of experience. In my mind to get an art down takes about 2-5 years of hard training, and that is just to get it right.

[yenhoi]

When you can fly from rooftop to rooftop - only then have you completed your style's teachings.

[Merryprankster]

You'll never stop learning or improving. However, there are diminishing returns on your investments.

Also, the things you correct are getting subtler and subtler--that is, the things that Lloyd Irvin fixes in his movements are far more subtle and specifc than the things I fix in mine. :)

I plan on doing BJJ forever, but I also plan on getting a BB in Judo at some point and getting some MT matches under my belt.

[Budokan]

I think it's true you'll reach a point where you get diminishing returns on the physical aspect of MA, but the mental aspect is still open-ended. It's also the harder of the two for a MA to conquer.

[Martial Joe]

...

[Shadow Dragon]

I think it depends on each practicioner and what he wants to get out of the Style.

[Stacey]

I dissagree that it takes 2-5 years to learn a style.....it takes this long to learn martial arts and get past the surface punching and kicking and into the fighting style itself....if you leave right at this critical point you are a hampster spnning on a wheel...frantically running, but getting nowhere.

[dre]

Well . . .

Speaking from personal experience, you can learn an entire system, but not be *Good* at the entire system yet.

I know the entire French Fencing system. Am I good at every single move with every single weapon? Of course not, absolutely not. Even though I know the moves, it will take me years to refine and become proficient at all of them. Also, right now, my levels of proficiency are very uneven, I am very proficient in some waepons, but only compotent in others, this will take time to solve too.

So I think it's very possible to know a whole system, but not have all the little pieces of that system tougether.

[GOLDEN ARMOR]

I think what he was trying to say is that u start to get used to the style after 2-5 yrs not be a master. ( I hope so) I think that after about 4-5 years of hard dedicated training u start to flow with the style & it starts coming natural to u. After 5 years u have just begun ur journey into ur art & are just getting a glimpse of whats to come.

The top sifu at my kwoon dosn't think of himself as a master & he has been training in the same style for over 45 years. The martial arts is a endless journey.

[PaulLin]

A good CMA should give rooms for both Internal and External development, regardless of which one is the main concern. And the room should be infinitive.

The top was reached not because of there is no higher level, it has to do with the person's mind.

If a person lost the meaning of the art, or the meaning was fulfilled, then it will end up no where to grow.

The meaning of the art, related to why are you practicing the art, should be changing and renewing form time to time. Each meaning will be higher level then the previous.

There is a way that the growing of the art is roofless.

[shaolinboxer]

It takes a few years (2?, 10?) to be able to imitate the motions and applications associated with your style, but it can take a lot longer to discover your own flavor of formlessness.

[red5angel]

Shaolinboxer is pretty close to what I meant. you cant master a system in 2-5 years but you can know it. It takes much longer to master the system, and some people just never get there.