Evolving our Arts

[bushidomartialarts]

Andrew recently started a thread about realizing the weaknesses of our arts.

How many instructors here are going outside of tradition/canon to help fill the holes our arts all have?

For example, kenpo tends to be short on ground work. A lot of kenpo schools are adding a bjj or mma curriculum to round out their schools.

I find kenpo doesn't focus enough on awareness and avoidance. When I teach class, I'll typically spend a few minutes drilling on escape, awareness and good sense.

 

[crushing]

The GM of my TKD organization Monte Beghtol is open new things and going outside what is generally considered traditional TKD and is known for his quote, "If it works on me today, its Tae Kwon Do tomorrow."

To take it further, at my club we are known as the 'ground guys' in the overall organization, because we do quite a bit of grappling and BJJ in comparison to the other TKD clubs. This is due in part to the BJJ and wrestling experience of one of the teachers at my club.

During 'Black Belt Workouts', where the different clubs come together (encouraged for 4th Gup and above) the clubs may demonstrate and share their strengths with the other clubs. When my club hosted a Black Belt workout we had a class on takedowns and takedown defenses.

 

[Andrew Green]

Yes, we constantly evolve, but then we are sport based so I don't think we could stop evolving without a lot of effort.

But I don't think every system needs to evolve, which unfortunately many people seem to think they do. And I don't think every system should evolve towards what works in other systems.

There is a place for preserving history, Beethoven's symphany should not really evolve, and the things some of the classical martial arts masters should be preserved as well.

I also believe that different systems have different strengths and weaknesses, and that this is a good thing. We don't need to fill in the blanks, there's that peanut butter theory, on spreading it too thin.

Anyways, imagine all the boxing gyms suddenly realised they where falling short on takedowns, stick fighting and kicks and decided to add them to there training. While they might get better rounded, there punching skills would lessen as time was devoted to other things.

Boxers as it stands, are the top of the chain when it comes to punching, that is all that they do. If the boxers sacrificed there punching to become well rounded the top level of punching overall would decrease.

Specialization is just as important as being well rounded, we need people doing both.

Suppose all the medical doctors started studying astrophysics, computer science, geology and quantum mechanics to be better rounded. Would you prefer the well rounded doctor, or the one that put all that time into medicine?

We need specialists in order to make advances. We need historians to preserve the past, and we need well rounded people to bridge the things the specialists make advances in.

One of my pet peeves with the current state of martial arts is that a lot of people want a club that does everything really well, such a club doesn't exist. Or people do something, toss in a little bit from other arts and claim them as being there.

We can all learn a lot from each other, but we got to stop having pissing matches about who hass the best system, and start looking at what systems has what and what ours is missing. And listening to the specialists from other systems.

When a wrestler says some method of stopping a takedown won't work, well, takedowns are what they do, a system that does a couple takedowns a month and claims it will doesn't have the same level of authority there. It would be like a medical doctor making claims about quantum theory with a guy with a Phd in quantum physics sitting there saying "No, that's not true" And the same goes for the reverse, there is a reason a PHd in physics doesn't let you write perscriptions.

 

[tellner]

Sera is weak on ground work, so our teacher adds in Minangkabau Harimau. We're lucky enough to have people with good boxing and wrestling backgrounds so we adapt what we do to deal with them in class.

 

[The Kidd]

Were a TKD school but we have added BJJ classes and my instructor adds in some Aikido and I add in some other self defense.

 

[meta_aesthete]

We need specialists in order to make advances. We need historians to preserve the past, and we need well rounded people to bridge the things the specialists make advances in.

One of my pet peeves with the current state of martial arts is that a lot of people want a club that does everything really well, such a club doesn't exist. Or people do something, toss in a little bit from other arts and claim them as being there.

We can all learn a lot from each other, but we got to stop having pissing matches about who hass the best system, and start looking at what systems has what and what ours is missing. And listening to the specialists from other systems.

Andrew, with this talk of acceptance, you forget that some specializations are worth more than others. You obviously don't understand that t3h tr00 n1nj@ specialize in "t3h r34l str33tz", rendering j00 n00bs totally pwn3d in all r34l situations.

But, in all seriousness, I couldn't agree more. I think a big issue is that people need to be honest with and about themselves when they choose an art. Being a historian is a noble pursuit, and even fairly "outdated" techniques can be effective out in the world -- it's a slim chance that the disorderly drunk at the bar is a Gracie (if so, go to another bar!). But you have to be honest about your interests and personality and how your art complements them.

 

[MJS]

Andrew recently started a thread about realizing the weaknesses of our arts.

How many instructors here are going outside of tradition/canon to help fill the holes our arts all have?

For example, kenpo tends to be short on ground work. A lot of kenpo schools are adding a bjj or mma curriculum to round out their schools.

I find kenpo doesn't focus enough on awareness and avoidance. When I teach class, I'll typically spend a few minutes drilling on escape, awareness and good sense.

Yes sir, I do it all the time and I think its a very good thing to do! Then again, seeing that you're in Kenpo yourself, I'm sure you've heard the statement, "Its already in there, you just need to be able to find it." While that may be true, at least for myself anyways, I do BJJ and Arnis, as those two pretty much cover the ground and weapons. This isn't to say that the Kenpo techs. are not good against grappling type attacks and weapons, but for myself, I like to further expand on those areas. IMHO, if someone really wants to understand something, its good to look at an art that specializes in what you're looking at. Arnis, being that its a FMA, and knives are a big part of that art and culture, what better place to look to, to really understand the blade?

Mike

 

[FearlessFreep]

Our instructor has trained quite a bit with David Meyer (BJJ) so although the name says "Hapkido" we do alot of ground fighting as well (Saturday morning class is ground fighting class). He also has a friend com ein and teach Taekwondo sparring onm Wednesday nights (and our instructor has done Taekwondo sparring as well, he's just not interested in teaching it or attending tournaments any more)

So our 'Hapkido' style ends up being a combination of Hapkido, Taekwondo, BJJ, and Muy Thai. However, it's not a matter of just the instructor going to a seminar and picking up some techniques; he's either trained a lot with some very good people or he brings in the people to augment what we are doing.

Seeing as this is my first exposure to Hapkido, I really don't always know where the Hapkido ends and something else begins. It's all just what I train and it's all in me and if I ever get to a point of training others then I guess the art evolves.