IMHO, I would say it depends on the person. Someone could study an art for 20yrs and think that they have come to the end of the road, but is that person really looking for things as hard as they could? This past Wednesday, I was taking a private lesson with one of my Arnis instructors. We were going over a particular drill, one that each of us has done many times. Yet, he showed me something that I never 'saw' before. He said that even he didn't really notice this subtle move, until he was watching an old tape of Prof. Presas. Prof. Presas never went into detail with this move, but it was something that he did himself, every time he did this particular drill. Its up to the students to catch it. Difference is, Prof. Presas was so good, he didn't make the change obvious, again, unless you were really watching. Its funny because sometimes you're working something, and that light bulb goes off and it clicks!
I'll agree with you on this. While mastering an art might take a lifetime, finding holes or gaps that require another art to fill can happen in a reasonable time frame. Otherwise, why would anyone crosstrain at all? Why not just stick with one art? Each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses.
Can only speak to my personal experience, so here it is. I grew tired of pounding it out 2-3 times a week in some hardcore, external arts, after 5-8 years (was cross training at the time, also, so that increases exponentially). So after 2nd black in a couple of arts, scaled the group class activity way back, and focused more on what I could/should understand/learn/be able to do, long term. Part of this is working with more senior people, part of it is in teaching, part of it is just paying attention when practicing what I already *know* and discovering new things, as MJS said.
) And sprinting a marathon is just not possible for me.
Yeah, the old *Diminishing Returns* idea. Good point.
Interesting point when you said weaknesses. I've often spoke of the same things. For example...the subject of grappling/ground fighting in Kenpo. IMHO, from what I have seen, there is little to none. Therefore, I was always saying that its important to cross train in a grappling art, to supplement what was lacking in Kenpo.
I would, more times than not, be met with people saying that its not that the art is lack or that there is a weakness in the art, but instead in my Kenpo. In other words, they're basically saying don't lump my training in with the rest of the people.
On the other hand, I don't like to kid myself. Why should I try to convince myself that something is there, when it either isn't or its limited? This is why I said that if someone wants to expand on something, you may need to go to the source. If I really want to understand and improve my Kenpo on the ground, I'm going to seek out someone who grapples. By working with those people, we can see for ourselves, whats going to work/not work, and how to make it better.
. If you're going to get better, you have to train with people who are better and/or more skilled than yourself, and that number of people should decrease in your chosen style the longer you stay with it because your skill level should increase and because of attrition, so you may have to look elsewhere if you're going to continue to improve.
