Kenpo and Boxing

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

.

 

[Cyriacus]

Whats that figure of speech?

Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None.

People who specialize are better at what They specialize in.
That said, some Arts can blend easy.
Like Boxing and Wrestling.

EDIT: That said, I dont agree with the statement being replied to about everything needing to be subpar to Crosstrain. Its more a question of the Systems, and why Youre learning.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Actually cross training is only a good idea if all of the avenues you train are subpar

Why do you say that? No style is great at everything-they all have things they are sub par in, but also have things they are above par in (hopefully, otherwise its just not a good style lol). The important thing is to find whats good and bad in the different styles and keep the good(or what you consider good) of each style. Imho, it's only when they discard the good and keep the bad that its detrimental. For instance, if you trained in Judo, then learned Muay Thai, the Muay Thai would be beneficial because while Judo is great in close, it is nowhere near as good as muay thai if you can't close the distance. That's when the muay thai should kick in, and make you good at both distances. The only way i can see this as a bad thing is if you discard Judo's throws in favor of something like Muay Thai's punches (not saying they're bad, just for the example) and ignore Muay Thai's kicks for a similar reason, but i have faith most people are able to distinguish which is better/more effective when seeing two different ways of doing a certain thing.

 

[Kframe]

Im young at martial arts, only got 1 year in. I got my start in boxing and then moved on to mma. Boxing has served me well everywere i have been. The defensive manuvers, not just covering up, work. The parrys(which IMHO are undertuaght in boxing) the picks, the single and double arm blocks and of course the slip and duck and weave and bob. I have used them all to good effect in mma. When i first started MMA i knew i was going to take leg kicks, so i watched videos of them and how to defend them. Found out the easiest way to defend a leg kick was to check it. So first day when that leg kick came in i knew what to do and was able to deal with it.

Now i have since gone to another mma gym with a entirely differnt style. My new gym has alot of Kenpo in it, some boxing and muay thai and alot of Ju jitsu. In fact im busy trying to learn some kenpo combinations, IE 5 swords, glancing wings,ect. In addition to learning more active traditional deflections. I have found that mixing my boxing with the kenpo has been easy for the most part. My hang up is learning to fight at what boxing consideres the in fighting range. I also struggle with learning to strike with something other then my fist.(knife hand,elbow, backfist) Thanks to learning how to punch in boxing i can apply the same biomechanics to the kenpo combinations and they hit the training aids hard and with a satisfying thwack. Disturbingly for me, im finding that as i pick up more kenpo im dropping some boxing. For instance im using the single arm block(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrfyBGir0w0&feature=player_embedded) allot less now, instead using body movement and deflections a lot more. Which bothers me as i dont want to loose that skill.

I think that one does not need to learn boxing to improve there kenpo. Having said that, they can take BOXING TRAINING METHODOLOGY not the techniques but the way they train them and use that to improve certain aspects of kenpo. For instance, i find focus mits(with a body protector if doing kicks and knees) to be AMAZING. Thats just one training method you can use from boxing that would be benificial to all. What the boxing supporters are saying is, you dont need to train boxing, to use there methodology to improve your martial art. Heavy bags, focus mits, and what not. Another big thing we did in boxing was a form of controlled sparring for defense practice.(I still do this) We would gear up and start sparring, but this time for the 2-3 rounds, we take turns. One guy only tries to strike, the other defends. The tempo starts out slow and builds up. The striker(usualy a coach or senior student) will call out occasionaly what he wants you to do or what he is going to throw so that the defender can work on specific things. I love this, it helps me rep all of my defenses, against someone moving and throwing at me with power. If i miss, i feel it. I LOVE IT.

Again, you dont need boxing to use there methodology to train. You can find the methodology on line with a quick google search and implement what you want and leave out what you think is useless. I will always love boxing, i has been nothing but benificial to me, and continues to help me in all my martial studies.