Why does someone start their own style?

[kidswarrior]

Well I am only 40.

Well, just brag why don't ya'? :lol:

I have been training for 21 + years in a formal setting. Before that I just got my butt kicked until I would get mad and fight back and then usually hurt someone so they had to go to the hospital.

So, Rich, MA was a kind of an anger management program for you, too?

 

[kidswarrior]

I would much rather be training at "Sifu Sam's School-o-Sticks" and have Sifu Sam tell me that he did some Modern Arnis and some Chinese stickfighting and he'll teach me what he's put together for a program. That way I get a feel for what I am I'm learning and I can make my own decision as to whether Sifu Sam has what I'm looking for or not.....instead of training in something called "Modern Arnis" and learning only after the fact that I wasn't held to the same rigor as other students in the lineage of GM Remy Presas.

Starting a separate system doesn't always have to be about ego. Sometimes its about honesty.

Well said, new MAist or not.

 

[jks9199]

I think there are three primary ways new systems are started, and I think they reveal the reasons, as well.

First, sometimes people see something lacking in the existing styles they are aware of and decide the only remedy is to create their own to solve that problem. Sometimes, it might be for a specific purpose, like someone who decided to create a theoretical MMA-oriented style. Other times, it's to address specific training needs, like how I understand Krav Maga was created. This approach isn't inherently bad. But it's not automatically good, either.

The second way new styles form is almost by accident. A person has been training for years, and developed their own take on their style. As they acquire students, they naturally teach their own version -- and after awhile, it gets recognized as being "their" style. Sometimes, this process is more deliberate than others. I'd put small-circle jujitsu, Ed Parker's American Kenpo, and (according to their history as I understand it), many of the different karate styles developed in this manner.

Finally, there are the styles started to start styles. These are often keyed to egos... And to minimal training in lots of styles. And to lots of unreadable, illegible foreign rank certificates or self-appointed boards and soke-ship councils... Yeah -- these are almost always bad, in my opinion. A few (who generally would argue that they ARE NOT creating a style, just doing their own thing) are good -- but most are about money and power.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Well, just brag why don't ya'? :lol:
So, Rich, MA was a kind of an anger management program for you, too?

Yes it was. I was able to control people without breaking them. I also learned how to better deal with weapons.

Many would consider it horrible of the teasing I went through and also horrible how I would loose a temper. Later I learned to let it out so it would not explode uncontrolled. Yet when scared, and being the big guy who was quiet and let others push him they always seemed to take it to some point where it should not have. That is when someone usually got hurt.

Even though I learned more efficient ways to hurt people, I also learned how to control others like I said without permanent or near permanent damage. In the end I did learn to go with the flow of life.