What makes your primary style primary

[Anarax]

Why do you practice your current style? What about the style, gym, class, instructor or training culture keeps you coming back? For those who have studied multiple styles, why have you continued training in your primary style above the others? Why is it your primary style?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

My primary style is technically kempo. I haven't trained it in about 2 years, but I spent something like 18 years overall training in it, and none of the other styles I've trained have reached the 5 year mark. Honestly though, despite factually being my primary style, and my base coming from that, I'm not sure if I still view anything as my primary now, it feels more like a hodgepodge that I've trained than anything else.

 

[dvcochran]

My primary style is MDK TKD with a healthy amount of Kukki/WT in the mix. I was heavily involved in Olympic sparring in the late 80's and 90's which kept me rooted in TKD. I had to take a significant break in the early 2000's but have been working out regularly again for about 10 years. My GM is a driving factor for staying with TKD. We get an eclectic blend, so some may say we are not purely TKD, whatever that means.
I have dabbled over the years in Kali (BB) and Kung Fu and have workred out at a bunch of different schools all over the U.S. (done with my work travels), 1.) just to workout, 2.) to gain comparison and perspective about our main school.
Our website: www.mastershinonline.com

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Why do you practice your current style? What about the style, gym, class, instructor or training culture keeps you coming back? For those who have studied multiple styles, why have you continued training in your primary style above the others? Why is it your primary style?

I always think of NGA as my primary style, simply because everything else I learn fits within it.

I took stick work I picked up in FMA, and used it to replace some kludgy club (stick) work that's very late in the NGAA curriculum (so rarely gets any practice). The FMA stick fundamentals were easily adapted to NGA approaches.

I went back to my Judo training and brought forward a couple of throws (changing the Classical form of one NGA core technique in the process) and some ground basics, and just inserted them where they fit in the NGA curriculum. Then I picked up some BJJ bits and found they plugged into those same spaces (also replacing some kludgy NGA mount escapes).

I looked at some boxing drills and how folks in other styles were using the heavy bag and mitts to teach punches, and brought that into NGA, reducing (sometimes eliminating) the standing formal punch practice.

There are a few other things I did, as well, that are borrowed from other arts I either trained in or just picked up a useful move from. All of it fit within NGA, so I just kept plugging it in.

 

[Buka]

My style? The art of fighting without fighting, now, get in the boat.

 

[Flying Crane]

To answer the OP, the methodology simply makes a whole lot of sense to me, and my sifu is able to explain things in a way that helped me understand what is important and what does not matter.

 

[skribs]

I liked Tommy better than Zack.

 

[_Simon_]

I liked Tommy better than Zack.

:O

(*jokes, that's a fair call ;D. DRAGONZOOORRRRRD!)

 

[skribs]

:O

(*jokes, that's a fair call ;D. DRAGONZOOORRRRRD!)

The full story is this: when I was 7, my parents took me to the YMCA to sign up for martial arts classes. They had two different classes, Karate and Taekwondo. I was told that in Karate they wear black uniforms (like the Black Ranger) and that in Taekwondo they wear white uniforms (like the White Ranger).

If I had been in high school when we signed up, I would have gone for the black uniforms in a heartbeat.

 

[W.Bridges]

My Primary is American Kenpo, secondary Yom Chi Taekwondo.

 

[drop bear]

Either I am better at it or it is the art that best helps achieve my goal at the time.

 

[_Simon_]

The full story is this: when I was 7, my parents took me to the YMCA to sign up for martial arts classes. They had two different classes, Karate and Taekwondo. I was told that in Karate they wear black uniforms (like the Black Ranger) and that in Taekwondo they wear white uniforms (like the White Ranger).

If I had been in high school when we signed up, I would have gone for the black uniforms in a heartbeat.

Hahaha... that's awesome. White ranger was next level. But I love the reference points and reasonings as to why we made certain decisions when we were younger, it made sense at the time XD

 

[zzj]

My base style/art has very specific body mechanics and requirements that are more fundamental in nature than what I have learned in other styles/arts. By definition it has to be my 'base'.

 

[drop bear]

Either I am better at it or it is the art that best helps achieve my goal at the time.

I will add to this. So say I was a bouncer and I was training MMA. I may lean away from striking and be more inclined to try to achieve standing wrestling positions.

This would be different to say a boxer training the same style with aims of competition.

 

[skribs]

Hahaha... that's awesome. White ranger was next level. But I love the reference points and reasonings as to why we made certain decisions when we were younger, it made sense at the time XD

I think that out of the original cast, Jason David Frank was the only one who was a better martial artist than his Japanese counterpart from Super Sentai.

(That's nothing against the other 5 Americans or the actors behind the Green and White rangers from Super Sentai).

 

[thanson02]

Why do you practice your current style? What about the style, gym, class, instructor or training culture keeps you coming back? For those who have studied multiple styles, why have you continued training in your primary style above the others? Why is it your primary style?

I would have to agree with Gerry Seymour on this one. I train in the style I do because everything else seems to fit into it.

In addition, I also agree with the values that are at the core of our martial art community and I love the diversity that it offers. I enjoy how the different application systems interplay with each other and how they provide different avenues to understand how different things like types of joint locks work. Also seeing the similarities and differences between the different applications brings a joy to my heart that I cannot really explain. I enjoy the interplay between the hard linear aspects and the soft circular aspects in both application and in the core material. But above all of that, I love the community and the love and passion they have towards what we do, as well as seeing that passion expand out into other aspects of their lives.

 

[Oni_Kadaki]

My primary style is Aikido, though I've supplemented with a lot of other styles to develop my own personal approach to self defense. I would say Aikido is my primary because, between it and the Hakkoryu Jiu Jitsu I did before it, I have far more experience training in such techniques than any other, and I have come to tend to look for Jiu Jitsu/Aikido locks/throws before anything else when free sparring. That's not to say I'm opposed to striking... There's a reason I've trained multiple forms of Karate. But at the end of the day, shiho nage, irimi nage, osoto gari, and kotegaeshi just call to me...

 

[Star Dragon]

I am/have been involved with Kyokushin, Shotokan, Aikido, and Yang style Taiji, however, my current primary style is a variation of American Kenpo. Why? Because Kenpo serves as a framework that many of the things I learned in those other styles fit into. However, I am adapting them to Kenpo rather than Kenpo to them.

So in a case like that, the primary style could be defined as what provides the overall structure of one's practice.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Isshinryu is my only style. It's perfect for me.

 

[JP3]

For the O/P... I'm really tempted to say that my primary style is John Do, as its anonymous.

Anonymous,... get it...I crack myself up...

More intellectually serious... what I'm primarily up to now is Tomiki Aikido, spun very aikijutsu in flavor, which I'm continuing to work on smoothing out and lightening up as that really is more effective once you understand it. I'm doing that as the body gets older and breaks down and this sort of lighter, more fluid approach is more … Hmm... survivable for the long term physically than, say.. my Muay Thai. MT is very much a young man;'s game, but I still have the skillset sitting there.

Like Gerry was saying, you can plug things into a movement/distance slot, just like he took the regular boxing work and put it in where NGA had stuff he didn't like. That's what I di with the MT boxing training, sliding that into my traditional, original TKD training. Where MT had its kicking techniques, I added the older (to me) TKD kicks int here as alternates, which handed me another set of fight options useable at need.

So now I've got this weird amalgam of BJJ/Judo for the grappling work at very close range, TKD/HKD, Muay Thai for close-in but not grappling areas/zones, and a snappy/fluid aikijutsu thing for longer range stuff where other people might find the long striking techniques/principles... basically what happens is determined by the distance at which I find myself from the opponent.