mixing to your own style

vasilist · Yellow Belt

hello i am new to forum and i liked the organisation of lists.
I read (in google) many art vs art topics (i know it is prohibited here, this post's point is not to create a debate)
I like many of the "classic" arts like karate, win chung and many of that type, cause when i looked some fights,i can tell that my way of thinking is pretty close to them.
So my question is if it is possible when you study one art, by your time you spend to practise and the time you spend watching the styles of other arts (experimenting it through the art you chosen) to achieve good technique ,stances and speed aswell or if you are grounded by the technique you pick.
example to make myself clear
when i see "mid-level" tournaments in karate i see stadily strong hits while in kung fu much faster hits with less strenght, so karatekas hit less with stronger and decisive hits, but the kung fu guys are lot faster with less powerful hits
but when i see higher level and "epic" fights in each art
both are fast to blocking/attacking and with explosive hits so my theory is
take an art and experiment and just copy some things that suits you from other styles and the rest is up to your practise, not to the art
so am i right or the art limits you from the first place?

Montana · Pre-Black Belt

Since you don't list any information in your bio, like where you live or any systems you study, I'll try to figure out what you're trying to say here.

If I understand you correctly, you want to know if you can just do a little bit of this system, a little bit of that system...mix them all together and be any good?

My response would be....no.

Like building a house, you need a good foundation of basic principles and techniques, regardless of the system, and somebody to show you how those principles are incorporated and built upon as yoyu progress in learnibng a system.

Now, once you have learned a system and understand fully the pribnciples of that system, THEN you can incorporate other philosophies and techniques from other systems into what you are doing.
_________________
If you don't want to stand behind our troops, please..feel free to stand in front of them.

Student since January 1975---4th Dan, retired due to non-martial arts related injuries.

tallgeese · Black Belt

I'll second Montana here. Fundamentally, you have to be solid. You HAVE to have built some form of response framework to respond to an attack. Systems do this differently, I'm a big prinicple based guy. Others talk about strategy and tactics (see Forrest Morgan's excellent book, Living the Martial Way for a great breakdown of defining your art thru this), or (in my opinion) a less efficient manner of high volumes of techniques to address several different scenarios.

Without this, you're not going to get far. Or good. The time it takes to understand this will also bring the technical aspect of your game up to par. The two go hand in hand.

Now, I am a huge advocate of cross training. Particularly if you have either: a)varied goals in the martial arts (ie. competition and historical preservation) or b) self defense and combatives (rarely does a single systems contain all ranges of combat, practical weapons, and firearms, ect.)

I started out as the second, and have slowly started to morph towards the second. You have to constantly re-evaluate your goals and make sure your training is geared towards meeting them.

I suggest reaching purple or brown (4th or 3rd kyu) in your initial system (if it's meeting your goals) before seriously studying another art (that should put you around 3.5-4 years in a good time to have a fundamental understanding of what you're doing.

However; I want to point out that a new model is and has emerged since the birth of mma as we know it here in the states. It's an example of how it's surge in popularity had effected training outside the scope of just technical skills. You see a lot of gyms now offering BJJ and MT simultaneously. A beginner will start in both and progress thru. I think that forward thinking ma schools will start doing this as well.

Again, I like this model especially for self defense oriented guys. The goal is to become as efficient as possible as quickly as possible in as many venues of combat as possible. This is best done by studying multiple disciplines at once.

As an example, you don't build a modern cop by having him to hand to hand arrest tactic for a while, then once he's shown high end proficiency there give him a baton and make him drill that alone for a time, and only then hand him a firearm. You train him at the same time in multiple forms of conflict resolution. That way, he's more prepared for more situations across the board when he hits the street. As one might see, there is a serious drawback in this in relation to the time commitment it takes.

So, there are great ways to cross train, and quite a few models to adhere to. But, as a new beginner without unlimited, paid for training time focusing on one method to understanding then branching out is probably the most time tested method.

vasilist · Yellow Belt

Thanks of the answers, i will jut try make myself more clear.
If we try see the effect of training and the meaning of being a good MA fighter it is 2 things! Speed and power. Those might come from different ways like stance, style, muscle power, weight balance of you and oppopent when you hit him,body motion bla bla bla

Before i left something confused, i didnt say to do karate mai thai judo kung fu kick bocking all in 5 years. What i said is study only my technique (whatever each one picks) and just take ideas from others MA, not mixing the whole systems.
I also said that even with the differenses i see in mid level fights at each MA, the legends of each MA dont show (at least to my eyes) differenses, they are all very fast, with explusive power no matter which art they come from.
So i rephrase my question, lets say i will train SAME hard in whatever i choose will in the "end" (in the long run)it will have the same effect in the body (speed, stamina, strenght) or some MA are for speed, some for pure strenght and whatever?

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