"I will be happy if you understand that the essence of the martial arts is not the strength, not the art, but that which is hidden deep within yourself."
-Gogen Yamaguchi
"I'm looking for all ways the human body can move... I'm not even a mixed martial artist, I feel like I am a master of movement."
-Conor Mcgregor.
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| Kicks In Jeet Kune Do from Wing Chun and Tae Kwon Do |
To begin, I would like to deflate something which irks me. MMA, while referring to a specific style of fighting composed at first of Tae Kwon Do, Boxing, and Jiujitsu, and now is mainly composed of Muay Thai kickboxing and Jiujitsu, has nothing to do with any specific style. When I first learned about the practice of combining disparate martial arts together, the above fighting style had yet to exist, and certainly was not yet popularized. Many people when I discuss MMA assume I am referring to the above fighting style especially used by the UFC, but more often I am not. Any martial art style when mixed with another is 'MMA' but even people who love tradition have to accept sometimes that a name can become representative of something other than what it is actually about.
There are endless varieties of martial arts. It is a personal dream to practice as many as possible. This is attainable, no matter how many I do get to experience. I have already trained for most of my life in various styles, especially Tae Kwon Do. I have gotten to practice Baguazhang and Taijiquan, alongside Muay Thai, kickboxing, and Hapkido. I see no longer that one martial art style is better than another, just certain practitioners are more able with what they possess.
But what happens when you have done so many arts, what develops?
It is only a recent phenomena where someone makes a conscious choice to create a new martial art style, and this is relatively unnatural in terms of the progression and evolution of martial arts as a whole. I say this because more often than not these new styles are crap, where only a tiny portion turn out to be a gem.
To me, the proper evolution of martial arts is where a martial art style develops because this is what a certain individual does, and it is often not deliberate. I recall once being in a room with hundreds of other practitioners, and while they varied in degree and rank, most were very able in their ability. And watching them do a form together, I noticed something interesting; even though they all did the same style of the art, the same moves there was still a difference in how one person did it from another. This was the subtle exchange of martial arts in that it influenced them in what to do, and how they influenced the martial art itself they practiced for how they did it. It was true they all crossed their arms a certain way between each sequence of moves, and yet there was still a slight variation.
Most often than not a new style emerges because somebody does their style in their own way, and this by no means their way is wrong, and someone approaches them to learn. In reality the new style which develops is both the style they learned, and what they introduced in their own way to the style. It worked for them, and others saw this and desired to learn that way.
That to me is the most proper way for a new style to develop.
I was once tasked by a teacher to synthesize the various styles I had learned of Tae Kwon Do, and to put them together. I am still working on this, but it eventually led me to working on developing my own style; taking what works in the arts I have practiced and merging them together without them conflicting.
It was through this I began to realize that certain techniques work better than others in certain situations. That for an opponent I could not overcome the defense of, perhaps approaching them through circle walking might work. That there is a time when a front punch would work, and a situation where only a palm might. Where a roundhouse kick from Tae Kwon Do would not work and that from Shotokan would, and times where the Shotokan kick would do nothing while the Tae Kwon Do or Muay Thai kick would.
Learning these situations and what would be the appropriate response takes much times, and even more time to become engrained so you do not even have to think about what is appropriate to the context; you just instinctually know what is best to respond with. And you learn this through trial and error certainly until the tiniest variance in their movement of the arm or leg, their body positioning will tell you whether to use a karate based punch, or a Wing Chun. When it is better to elbow, or to hook punch, and so on.
I think it dangerous though to mix styles too early. One becomes confused about what they are using and when, and even start to blend styles together, which I consider sloppy. When I practice a form, I make sure that I know each move in the method it was taught me. When I do Chon Ji utilizing Chung Do Kwan, I use their method of crossing the arms as I was taught. When I do Chon Ji using Moo Duk Kwan or Chang Moo Kwan, I make sure I cross my arms at the hips or keep them parallel; at no point when doing Chon Ji while utilizing Moo Duk Kwan do I cross them in the method of Chung Do Kwan; which is often what happens when you start to train in different systems, even when they are the same school of martial art. People obfuscate the techniques, and the integrity and purity of each style which should be preserved and respected becomes murky.
I believe that before you begin to train in another style, you must have a foundation of another to build off of. Kind of like how Muslims will read other scripture such as the Bible or Sutras, but read it through the lens of their own belief system and truth as they know it through the Koran.
Martial arts is similar. My ability to do Chung Do Kwan by itself without drawing onto the style I had learned before it was because I had spent ten years with that style, and thus could distinguish between what were elements of Moo Duk Kwan, and what were the elements I was learning in the next style I learned. I could find the commonalities and the disparities, and learn to use both. But to learn that new style, I had to stop using Moo Duk Kwan. I had to learn to stop using it completely, and for three years did nothing but Chung Do Kwan; not once using a single technique from the style that had formed me into the martial artist I was up to that point. I had to essentially forget that style existed, and though of course when I practiced it again it came back as though I had never stopped, it was after all a part of my soul, when I wanted to I could easily switch between styles, or even merge them together. One kick from Moo Duk Kwan, the punch that followed from Chung Do Kwan.
But I could only do that, and preserve the purity of each art I used, because I had the foundation to distinguish them. Many just begin to practice different arts at the same time, and inevitably without a distinct separation between the two they blur together in a kind of muddy water.
It is not the case you can only learn one martial art style at one time. At the Chung Do Kwan school I eventually began to learn the ITF style taught there, and Hapkido as well as certain weapons training. But I was able, keeping my previous ten years of foundation, to distinguish them and always know what I did, when.
This allowed me to learn how to do later styles; to make sure that when I wanted to I did a roundhouse kick from Tae Kwon Do if I wanted to, instead of erring and using a Muay Thai kick when I meant to use that TKD kick.
If you are to master any art, even while practicing others, I firmly believe this is how you have to do it. You must spend at least the time to become a black belt (around five years) in that first style before building from it concerning others. Otherwise you might become sloppy, and few good martial artists are like that. In fact, I have never met one.
Nowadays I have set agendas in the arts I develop for myself. And in a sense they are new styles, but rather than going about the practice with a mindset, I want to make a martial art style which does this, which though a valid way to do so, I don't feel comfortable as being the proper way, I ask myself, what works with what, given certain conditions?
Nowadays the style I practice hails from dozens; the kicks I use together can range from TKD to Wing Chun to Shotokan, the hand strikes from Hapkido to the elbows of Muai Thai. But rather than stitching these styles together, I am learning how to weave them. That does not mean I do not practice those techniques which do not jive together- I always train everything when able to, instead I keep in mind what I am trying to do, what I am trying to improve with myself, and how I could perhaps give back to the arts I have learned.
I learn from each style I do; it's faults and weaknesses. The elbows I learned in Krav Maga and Muay Thai have taught me to keep my elbow in as close as possible when I hook punch; the Bagua I have learned has taught me that it is not circular or linear which is stronger, but that when combined together the circular application through a linear technique is strongest. Each art teaches me a way to approach the other art and make myself better. And that is really the key to mixing martial arts; not to make a sloppy ball of arts, but to craft something truly awe inspiring because it favored not one particular thing, save in improving everything co-dependently.
(Try To Identify How Many Different Styles Are Used)
And here is a great video (granted it was sped up for cinema purpose) which shows Pencak Silat, Muay Thai and Wing Chun techniques blended together by Iko Uwais
"Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it."
-Bruce Lee
The best fighter is not a boxer, karate, or judo man. The best fighter is someone who can adapt on any style. He kicks too good for a Boxer, throws too good for a Karate man, and punches too good for a Judo man."
-Bruce Lee
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