bruceb
26th July 2003, 22:02
Oh how the stories change as to what one is told, and what one must do to become a better martial artist.
Beginners are told not to cross train, and then they catch their teacher or higher ranking students cross-training, and the advice is still not to cross-train .... they aren't ready yet.
Well, as the years go by, one finds that the advice of "not to go outside of one's particular training style" is but a test to see who will look for something more, and who will quit.
Well, we have the Amazing Randi Fanclub of pretenders who criticize everything from their armchairs, and tell people how they hate this or hate that .... just like it was the same kind of test to see if anyone will actually physically go and check out what is in the big wide world against their advice?
I don't need to mention names because they will find this thread and begin again.
No .. I don't want to get into that, again.
How long do you think one should take to assimulate the general terms of another style of martial art after attaining basic skills in a 3-4 year period of their main practiced art?
It seems to me, that a good teacher can educate a good student in 6 months, or less, if that student has a broad knowledge of arts before cross training. From that basic training, in less than two years most people can attain dan ranks, if they are so inclined.
What gets me is .... how the good students need to ignore the advice of the naysayers who just want that someone to break the path through the woods before they, the naysayers, venture out of the nest of the mother art? Go figure.
The more I talk to people who try or experience cross training, the more I find that the general concencus says it is wrong to cross-train and that one style of practice can keep a student occupied for a lifetime. I don't think so.
Maybe it is our modern cheeseburger world where we want not just the cheeseburger but a sample of everything that is to be had. That is to say, once enough people prove they can go through the woods and come back, then others figure it is safe ... it can be done, so they quietly cease their objections and quietly cross train too.
In the last twelve years I have trained in martial arts, all the teachers who told me not to cross train eventually cross trained after I told them of what I was doing checking different styles of martial arts. Kind of makes all their advice "NOT to cross train" a great big lie. If it is not a lie that has been bought into then it must be, at least, an urban myth.
Things to consider in your answers.....
How much brainwashing goes into keeping students in the nest, and how much freedom to cross train is there out there?
What have you done outside of your main style of practice, and what advice did that teacher give you?
My main question is .....
How much has "keep the birds in the nest" changed to "go out and experience the world" in the last 10-30 years of martial arts?
(The space of time to which the question applys will depend on how long you have been alive, and how much you have seen in those years)
*************************************************************
My reply ....
I tend to see a whole lot of changes in keeping open a students options to be allowed to Cross -train, where not too many years ago it was not only bad form, but severly frowned upon to train anywhere outside of one teacher. Most of the teachers I meet today actually encourage students to experience and Cross-train. I think that bodes well for todays martial arts students.
Now ... if I could just get some of those armchair quarter backs to practice and cross train as much as they comment ....
Beginners are told not to cross train, and then they catch their teacher or higher ranking students cross-training, and the advice is still not to cross-train .... they aren't ready yet.
Well, as the years go by, one finds that the advice of "not to go outside of one's particular training style" is but a test to see who will look for something more, and who will quit.
Well, we have the Amazing Randi Fanclub of pretenders who criticize everything from their armchairs, and tell people how they hate this or hate that .... just like it was the same kind of test to see if anyone will actually physically go and check out what is in the big wide world against their advice?
I don't need to mention names because they will find this thread and begin again.
No .. I don't want to get into that, again.
How long do you think one should take to assimulate the general terms of another style of martial art after attaining basic skills in a 3-4 year period of their main practiced art?
It seems to me, that a good teacher can educate a good student in 6 months, or less, if that student has a broad knowledge of arts before cross training. From that basic training, in less than two years most people can attain dan ranks, if they are so inclined.
What gets me is .... how the good students need to ignore the advice of the naysayers who just want that someone to break the path through the woods before they, the naysayers, venture out of the nest of the mother art? Go figure.
The more I talk to people who try or experience cross training, the more I find that the general concencus says it is wrong to cross-train and that one style of practice can keep a student occupied for a lifetime. I don't think so.
Maybe it is our modern cheeseburger world where we want not just the cheeseburger but a sample of everything that is to be had. That is to say, once enough people prove they can go through the woods and come back, then others figure it is safe ... it can be done, so they quietly cease their objections and quietly cross train too.
In the last twelve years I have trained in martial arts, all the teachers who told me not to cross train eventually cross trained after I told them of what I was doing checking different styles of martial arts. Kind of makes all their advice "NOT to cross train" a great big lie. If it is not a lie that has been bought into then it must be, at least, an urban myth.
Things to consider in your answers.....
How much brainwashing goes into keeping students in the nest, and how much freedom to cross train is there out there?
What have you done outside of your main style of practice, and what advice did that teacher give you?
My main question is .....
How much has "keep the birds in the nest" changed to "go out and experience the world" in the last 10-30 years of martial arts?
(The space of time to which the question applys will depend on how long you have been alive, and how much you have seen in those years)
*************************************************************
My reply ....
I tend to see a whole lot of changes in keeping open a students options to be allowed to Cross -train, where not too many years ago it was not only bad form, but severly frowned upon to train anywhere outside of one teacher. Most of the teachers I meet today actually encourage students to experience and Cross-train. I think that bodes well for todays martial arts students.
Now ... if I could just get some of those armchair quarter backs to practice and cross train as much as they comment ....