Hi. My name is Roméo, im 15 years old. Annnnddd... im not really new to martial art. i do kyokushin karate, kung fu and JJJ. (kenjutsu but self thought). BUT how ever i needed some answers from martial artists out there... Do you guys think is possible to create my own martial art? i mean like its been a dream sense i ever started arts in general. But like i just feel its like impossible. I want my own dojo one day. I called the martial art 'senpo' just meaning a 1000 steps (which it represents meaning of hard work) I desided to conbined Kung fu, Kyokushin and maybe some silat in there. But i might need to learn Silat if thats the case.
anyways yeah hope maybe some people will help me with this.
Thank you!
Hi Roméo,
My first question would be, simply, why?
I'm not asking that just to shut you down, though I think the overall tone of this post will be "it's possible but not advisable." When I've seen "new" styles created successfully, it's generally because a highly experienced individual has, over the course of time, had their personal practice morph into something that doesn't really resemble any of its constituent parts. For example, the GM of my style of eskrima, Ciriaco "Cacoy" Canete, developed what he called "Eskrido." It was essentially his practice of eskrima informed by his additional background in karate, boxing, and various grappling and throwing arts (e.g., judo, jiujutsu, and aikido).
Now, Cacoy had decades of experience on which to draw. But, as importantly, I think it was about misrepresentation. At some point, what you're doing diverts enough from what you're named that it feels a bit misleading to leave a name as is. So some people decide on a new name as a way of saying "know that what you're signing up for is different than you might have been expecting."
Can anyone do that? Nah, I don't think they can. I don't think I could, despite having decades of experience in various things. But when Cacoy does it, people know that HE knows what he's about. He's firmly established his expertise. (For some reason, I've slipped into present tense. Please know that GM Cacoy passed some years ago. But he was brilliant.)
Now, I've just said that I wouldn't be comfortable creating my own "style." And skribs mentioned going through a similar exercise themselves recently and making the decision to stick with "taekwondo." Similiarly, I'd stick with something generic, like "eskrima" or "FMA." Despite the fact that I've also studied taekwondo, boxing, kickboxing, etc. I don't feel a need to create a style.
That said, if I were to start teaching again, I'd think hard about how to describe my personal practice, which is ultimately what I'd be conveying to students. My training doesn't look precisely like that of my original Doce Pares Eskrima teachers. I've spent time in Inosanto Kali since then, and incorporated elements from other things as well. So what I'm really "offering" is not a style, but... me, as a teacher. What a student would be getting is me. And I'm a bit of a mess from a training background standpoint. I'd like to think it doesn't look like a mess when I teach, but that's on me to present it in a coherent way.
Establishing a style feels, to me, like a way of plastering over that meandering, sometimes chaotic, process of developing as a martial arts practitioner. Putting a name and a curriculum out there is a way of lending cohesion and legitimacy. At this point, I feel neither comfortable doing that nor that I particularly need to. I know what I know. I could teach it to others. If they don't want that, the door works in both directions. No worries.
Another variation on the "why" that always occurs to me is accountability. Being part of something bigger than you means you're accountable to it in some way. Since skribs has been here, I hope they won't mind my using their example. Skribs is using the term "taekwondo," so they're beholden to some degree to teach content that looks like taekwondo. And that's a good thing. They're accountable. Not to an organisation necessarily, but to an idea. Same with me.
When you create your own style, it can SOMETIMES be a way of saying "I'm not accountable to anyone because this is MY thing." And I get why that would sound appealing, but it can be a way of letting yourself off the hook. Take your kenjutsu practice for instance. A legitimate kenjutsu teacher could look at your sword swing and say "you're not doing _____." And you could say "but this is senpo, and we do it this way." You could reference the fact that you're its founder, so you must be right. But would that actually make you right? Would it actually make your technical performance of the movement right? Or would it just be a way of FEELING right?
My advice: Don't create a style. If you want to learn silat, learn silat. It's got more than enough content to it to keep you busy for decades to come. Or stick with kyokushin. Or whatever. But looking to incorporate silat into your new style after what could (at most) be about 10 years of experience, when you haven't studied silat, is putting the cart several hundred kilometers ahead of the horse.
My advice would be to train and let that evolution happen over time. Explore by all means. But the end product is you. Not a new style. Just my thought.
