Do BETTER martial artists train ONE art or MANY arts?

[Touch Of Death]

And how did you arrive at this conclusion?

What do you choose in a fight? Kenpo Kicking or Tkd Kicking. If you choose TKD kicking, when were you planning on using kenpo?

 

[ShotoNoob]

... As far as studying many or several at the same time, I do not recommend this until you have a firm grasp of the first one.

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I think it best to devote yourself to one primary art. I train a basic style of traditional karate for the reason given in the quote. I think it best to be master of the simple rather than fail at trying to simplify the masterful.

 

[Tames D]

As much as I hate Bruce Lee quotes, I have to say I believe in adapting what is useful and reject what is useless. I borrow from many styles/systems.

 

[Steve]

It depends on your own desire. When you see someone applies a technique such as

- MT flying knee,
- TKD flying side kick,
- Judo leg lift (Uchi Mata),
- Shuai-Chiao leg twist,
- ...

that you don't know how to do it, do you have the desire to learn it?

When Bill Gates saw the Apply Lisa desktop user interface, he said, "I want it.". He then evolve his DOS into MS Window. Without that desire, today we may still type on our keyboard such as

dir *xyz* /s /p, ...

Fwiw, Apple stole the interface from Amiga, which was several years ahead of its time.

 

[Shai Hulud]

What do you choose in a fight? Kenpo Kicking or Tkd Kicking. If you choose TKD kicking, when were you planning on using kenpo?

When I need a cool, oriental-esque esoteric-sounding name of a technique to shout while executing it!

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Fwiw, Apple stole the interface from Amiga, which was several years ahead of its time.

Since the early Apple guys came from Zerox. I believe Apple got their desktop UI from Zerox Star (a close system word processor). When Bill Gates got his Window UI from Apple Lisa, I got the same technology from Zerox Star back in 1984. If the IBM vice president didn't cancel my ACE project (IBM believed PC hardware market was what they were interested in at that period of time), it could be hard to know whether MS would win or IBM would win the PC software market in that competition.

It's hard to believe that I had competed against Bill Gates head on once in my life.

 

[Instructor]

One.... for a good long while.....


Then many...

 

[MJS]

Lots of very good points in this post. To comment on each part:

I'll repost the OP because we are starting to wander.

Like the answer to a lot of questions, it depends. If you really have a great instructor (which is different to believing you have a great instructor) then all you need to know should be available to you in a single MA. The irony is, a really great instructor will probably invite you to explore the other martial arts to expand your understanding.

Very true. Can't really add much more to this.

Unfortunately few of us are in that situation so I would suggest it is of value to most people to cross train once they have a reasonable understanding of their base style. The important thing is to chose an art that complements your training, not one that replicates it.

Couldn't agree more with this! I've been training for 20+ years, and while I do like to give credit to the people I've came across during the years, I can literally use 1 hand, to count the number of people that were actually worth training with. Sad I know. But I look at it like this...sometimes you have to wade through the garbage to find the rare, hidden gems. They're certainly out there, but as you said, they're few and far between.

 

[Jenna]

For me it'd be efficient and street-smart combat proficiency with a Stoic attitude toward the self. I imagine the gentleman/woman citizen who's confident enough not to posture, analytic but not callous, and with a genuine concern for his/her surroundings and the immediate community. He'd/she'd be calm and controlled, but would always diligently practice because the time it will be needed is hidden, so readiness and the resolve to take immediate action and do what is necessary is of supreme importance.

That's just my take on what an ideal martial artist would be, though I admit I may have been reading too much Kropotkin.

Yours, friend?

I like how you see this It is idealistic? Jxx

(kropotkin would have an even harder time today persuading consumers that their blind infatuation with their iphones it is not mutual!)

 

[Jenna]

Better than who?

whomever you would want to be better than in any part of your martial practices.. Jx

 

[Jenna]

I'd say do both. In my case I've been in one art for nearly 10 years and sampled other arts along the way, but maintained the same base art. Exposure to other systems and ways of thinking has strengthened my understanding of my core system. I advocate training with as many different people as you can to see all the possibilities of application.

Different PEOPLE now this is the wiser way imo.. training / sparring with as many different people from as wide a gamut of arts possible.. this is the most world- or street-wise approach I believe as it allows contact with as many variant fighting styles without having to sacrifice the time in mastery of ones OWN art by splitting that time over many arts.. it furthermore provides an empirical trial by fire of ones technique.. yes I agree with this and like that you advocate it also! Jxx

 

[Steve]

Since the early Apple guys came from Zerox. I believe Apple got their desktop UI from Zerox Star (a close system word processor). When Bill Gates got his Window UI from Apple Lisa, I got the same technology from Zerox Star back in 1984. If the IBM vice president didn't cancel my ACE project (IBM believed PC hardware market was what they were interested in at that period of time), it could be hard to know whether MS would win or IBM would win the PC software market in that competition.

It's hard to believe that I had competed against Bill Gates head on once in my life.

I stand corrected. There was a lot of cross pollination back then. I was remembering back to when windows and the MAC were both stealing liberally from the Amiga GUI. That was an exciting time. I will never forget someone who told me that when I get my x286 computer, I was wasting my money if I didn't run OS/2 because I wouldn't be able to multi-task. Fun times and thanks for the correction.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I stand corrected. There was a lot of cross pollination back then. I was remembering back to when windows and the MAC were both stealing liberally from the Amiga GUI. That was an exciting time. I will never forget someone who told me that when I get my x286 computer, I was wasting my money if I didn't run OS/2 because I wouldn't be able to multi-task. Fun times and thanks for the correction.

it is uncanny how much OS/2 looks like Windows 3.1 too

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

it is uncanny how much OS/2 looks like Windows 3.1 too

Back in 1983 - 1984, IBM worked with Bill Gates to develop OS/2 by both parties together in the IBM Austin site. One day when the fist Window was announced, IBM then suddenly waked up. IBM then tried to announce that OS/2 is better than Window, but IBM was soon defeated in that market. Today the OS/2 has been shipped to India and put in some boxes in some warehouse.

 

[tshadowchaser]

ah did I miss something I thought this thread was about
Do BETTER martial artists train ONE art or MANY arts?
not about computers

So can we get back on topic

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

ah did I miss something I thought this thread was about
Do BETTER martial artists train ONE art or MANY arts?
not about computers

So can we get back on topic

I assume we can use "woman" as example too. Is it better to have one wife or many wives? After you have married for 20 years, one day you may want to promote your wife from "wife" to "number one wife". When you train many arts, you will have "major" and "minor".

If the MA system that you train only uses the "keyboard input", one day when you see another MA system that uses the "mouse input", will you be interested to learn that new approach? We are talking about MA "evolution" here. If you just train one art, you won't have enough desire/motivation to "evolve". The DOS evolved into Window history is used just for an "evolution" example.

If you train

- boxing only, you won't have grabbing concept.
- Judo only, you won't have striking concept.

When you have trained both arts, your

- boxing knowledge will help you to "evolve" your "Judo set up",
- Judo knowledge will help you to "evolve" your "boxing clinch".

 

[tshadowchaser]

ok thanks for that explanation but it looked like it was going to continue to be about computers so I posted but thanks

 

[drop bear]

What do you choose in a fight? Kenpo Kicking or Tkd Kicking. If you choose TKD kicking, when were you planning on using kenpo?

It is positional. I do karate kicks and Thai kicks depending on what I think will hit with the most advantage at the time.

 

[drop bear]

I have mentioned this before. Top mma fighters who you may think in theory would be training mma from sun up to down down don't.

They train in specific different martial arts as well as combining it. And this means in the gi getting the belts the whole lot.

 

[Drose427]

I have mentioned this before. Top mma fighters who you may think in theory would be training mma from sun up to down down don't.

They train in specific different martial arts as well as combining it. And this means in the gi getting the belts the whole lot.

I give this example all the time,

Most of the best UFC fighters throughout its lifespan ahold multiple high ranks in multiple arts. They're usually BB's, even many even choose to study new arts while training in MMA, even at the UFC level. Anthony Pettis started capoeira after his debut I believe