To Generalize Or Specialize, That Is The Question?

[Deaf Smith]

My feeling is you look at your goals.

If all you want is some H2H SD skills, Krav Maga and be done with it.

If you wish to had breath and depth to your skill set then first master one art. It may be a hard style of Karate/TKD/TSD/Shotokan/etc.., it may be a soft style of Kung Fu, or grappling like Jujitsu or Judo or Hapkido...

Then when you fell you are compentent, branch out. Lean a totaly different style to complement your own.

And as for firearms, there are several schools of thought on how to use them, from several ways of sighted fire to point shooting (and several variations of that), not to mention rifles and shotgun. That alone can keep you busy for quite a while (I should know!)

But first get a base. An art that you can use as a yardstick to others you learn.

Deaf

 

[meth18au]

hmmm... I say, do anything and everything that you find yourself interested in and drawn to. That may be one thing, or several. Only you can decide that.

That is how I ended up studying the several arts that I have. Not because I had a goal of different skillsets that I felt were important, or I needed to fill in holes that an art has. Rather, I just found myself thinking, hey, that art looks good, I want to explore that. Next thing I know, years have gone by and I'm still doing it. It's happened several times. It's fulfilling.

This is so true...

It rings 100% true to my ears...as this is exactly what has happened to me during my journey. Every style, every teacher, everybody has something to teach you- I never limit myself anymore!

There still is a balance to be achieved though. i.e. You can't wrestle for 1 week, and take enough knowledge out of it, or do Kung Fu for a day and take enough knowledge out of it. You can generalise, but there still needs to be a significant investment of time in everything you do, in order to take the right skills away from it.

 

[geezer]

This is so true...

It rings 100% true to my ears...as this is exactly what has happened to me during my journey. Every style, every teacher, everybody has something to teach you- I never limit myself anymore!

There still is a balance to be achieved though. i.e. You can't wrestle for 1 week, and take enough knowledge out of it, or do Kung Fu for a day and take enough knowledge out of it. You can generalise, but there still needs to be a significant investment of time in everything you do, in order to take the right skills away from it.

I couldn't agree more. I was just working out with a guy that skips from one art to another. He is at best and advanced beginner at boxing, grappling and stickfighting. We did some contact eskrima and I basically owned him. So he says, "Man, you're really a martial artist!". Hold on now before my my head starts swelling. I'm the least capable guy in my eskrima class. It's just that I've made a commitment to it, so I'm a little better than a beginner. The guy I was sparring hasn't committed to anything long enough to gain much competence.

My point? Cross training is great, but as you said above, you need to balance it with some commitment or you end up being a jack of all styles and master of none.