General Curiosity Type of Question Here....

[Leimeng]

~ General question of curiosity here...
~ How long after a new/beginning student starts to study martial arts seriously do you all feel that they should be able to cross-train or supplement their studies with other arts?
~ What brings this idea up is that there are several schools were there are multiple choice style mix and match arts for their classes. I have a friend who has done one art for 30 some years. He periodically gives seminars around the country in his given art. This past weekend he was telling me about a ‘professionally’ run commercial school that has no foundational art that it teaches! They have seminars each month on a different style by bringing in experienced teachers of that style to the school. When you sign up for classes you start to learn whatever they taught at the latest seminar. There is NO foundational art. How do they develop their foundation? How do they develop their basic skills and body movements?
~ The other side of this same coin is the so called ‘formless’ JKD wanna-bee’s. (My terminology.) This group of people feel because that most arts teach all their fundamentals in the first two or three weeks of class, they just learn this stuff and practice that over and over thinking they have everything their is to the art. They use Bruce Lee as an ‘example’ but fail to remember that he spent many, many, many years in ONE art before he started to incorporate other arts to his own personal style. (I wish people would leave Bruce Lee in the Grave. He died thirty years ago and probably does not even care any more...)
~ I spent the first five years of my martial arts study with Tae Kwon Do before I even had the opportunity to learn another art. (White Crane KF and Capoeira [interesting mix, I know, not from the same school though.]) Then I studied a bit of everything depending on what was available at local schools before I started to major on Bagua Zhang and Hsing I. After a couple of years of that I started to explore Tai Chi and Filipino stick fighting.
~ With the exception of the big three internals, I still don’t see how a person can effectively cross train at the very beginning of their martial arts career.
~ I hear lots of ideas on this and want to hear yours.

Peace,

Sin Loi

Yi Beng, Kan Xue



I do – Bride to Groom
Yabba dabba doo -- Flintstone
To be or not to be? -- Hamlet
Doo be doo whop -- Sinatra

[Laughing Cow]

Leimeng.

The time it will take for a student before the "can/should" start to cross-train will depend on the student.

IMO, it is wrong to join a kwoon with the idea of cross-training, a student should rather cross-train to learn additional skills to complement his current ones.
It is a decision that should not be lightly taken and needs to be evaluated carefully.

I have been to kwoons where multiple arts were taught in individual classes, i.e you needed to sign up for multiple classes.

Personally, not fond of schools that seemingly mix and match styles and forms or teach multiple styles at the same time.

These days I see many people with a few years in a few styles and it seems there are fewer people that try to study one style only.

Looking at a lot of profiles I see few people with 10 or more years solely dedicated to one art.

Just my thoughts.

[kungfu cowboy]

He died thirty years ago and probably does not even care any more...

Probably not

[BAI HE]

I study Ba Gua. It's comes already pre-mixed
by far greater men than I.

[Repulsive Monkey]

If they are not really interested in learning their art then get them to cross train at any point. If they want to master the art they have then don't get them to cross-train at all.

[yenhoi]

How do you master a art?

People should "cross-train" as much as possible.

Styles and Arts dont fight or compete or stay healthy. They are just names in books and internet forums.

Why not cross train? Is there something special about some "arts" basics that make the other arts "basics" not work anymore? Art is about what you do, what you spend your time on. Not what those things are called off in some abstract kwoon or dojo you dont train in.

Too much time wasted on what to call this or that, instead of just doing this and that.