by 1981 i had trained for 11 years in various martial arts. i had five years of hapkido with a friend who was ranked brown belt but was easily a black belt level. i trained four years in judo and wrestling. three to four years in tae kwon do (with different instructors). about five months in judo and shorei ryu karate. through those years i collected, read and studied extensively from over 300 books and over 300 magazines. i taught my friends and anyone who wanted to learn from eight grade through my senior year (probably about 50 people). i had one close friend who i taught for three years in high school.
by the mid eighties i had designed the basis for an open teaching system using all three to four ranges of fighting, which i called "creative martial arts". there was no one system used as a base. rather, i felt the need to be able to practice the arts as an individual and teach others according to their own needs, not mine. yes, i based many of my ideals on jkd but had never taken a class with any jkd instructors up to that point yet.
my classes resembled jkd classes as i understood them in the eighties. i spent more time on developing basic foundations of the tools and their application under fighting conditions. we worked on kicking, blocking, striking, throwing, sweeps, takedowns, chokes, strangling, footwork, punching, and miscellaneous controlling and maiming techniques, such as eye gouging, biting, hair pulling, etc. we also spent time working on self defense scenarios (what to do if someone attacks you) and we sparred quite a bit. we also used the basics of the filipino arts to develop attributes for weapons training.
since i cross trained in so many arts it would be difficult to call what i did by one specific art. but i didnt just throw a bunch of stuff together to teach. i studied what other arts offered, found a base structure that was similiar in any art, created a list of tools (techniques) that would work well together and fit in various ranges, and worked from there. i used mainly english terminology except when there was no english equivalent. we used the kung fu salute rather than bowing. at first i didnt have any uniforms or rank but when my students finished each ten week session that the club i was teaching at held, they didnt come back. a friend suggested that i implement a rank structure and uniforms which i did, and i ended up with about 30 students. so i started without rank and uniform and ended up with it, simply because people tend to be goal oriented and need something to identify with such as uniform of some kind.
so i guess my answer would be yes, if the person showed that they had knowledge that i didnt have and i could learn from them.
by the mid eighties i had designed the basis for an open teaching system using all three to four ranges of fighting, which i called "creative martial arts". there was no one system used as a base. rather, i felt the need to be able to practice the arts as an individual and teach others according to their own needs, not mine. yes, i based many of my ideals on jkd but had never taken a class with any jkd instructors up to that point yet.
my classes resembled jkd classes as i understood them in the eighties. i spent more time on developing basic foundations of the tools and their application under fighting conditions. we worked on kicking, blocking, striking, throwing, sweeps, takedowns, chokes, strangling, footwork, punching, and miscellaneous controlling and maiming techniques, such as eye gouging, biting, hair pulling, etc. we also spent time working on self defense scenarios (what to do if someone attacks you) and we sparred quite a bit. we also used the basics of the filipino arts to develop attributes for weapons training.
since i cross trained in so many arts it would be difficult to call what i did by one specific art. but i didnt just throw a bunch of stuff together to teach. i studied what other arts offered, found a base structure that was similiar in any art, created a list of tools (techniques) that would work well together and fit in various ranges, and worked from there. i used mainly english terminology except when there was no english equivalent. we used the kung fu salute rather than bowing. at first i didnt have any uniforms or rank but when my students finished each ten week session that the club i was teaching at held, they didnt come back. a friend suggested that i implement a rank structure and uniforms which i did, and i ended up with about 30 students. so i started without rank and uniform and ended up with it, simply because people tend to be goal oriented and need something to identify with such as uniform of some kind.
so i guess my answer would be yes, if the person showed that they had knowledge that i didnt have and i could learn from them.
that works 2nd shift, I'd be all over that 
