Thoughts about cross training

I started my study of martial arts in February of 1977 learning Gojuryu karate, since that time I have trained  Judo, Jujutsu, Aikido, Uechiryu, Shitoryu, Shorinryu, Kobudo, Iaido and Brazilian Jiujitsu. In almost 48 years, I have achieved black belt ranks in everything except Brazilian Jiujitsu.  I have dabbled in Kail, Escrima, Panantukan, Wing Chun, Sambo and Taichichuan. During my time as a police officer I attended a dozen defensive tactics Instructor training courses. People ask me how do you remember all of that, or they will say you couldn’t possibly learn that much and be any good at it. One of my teachers told me one time "An ass can't saddle two horses son".

When I was younger I was searching for understanding, I have always maintained Gojuryu

as my core art but I have trained in several arts and with many people over the years, I have always approached the martial arts as a continuous study and that despite the many styles of arts, there are really only three approaches to fighting – striking, grappling and weapons – styles are just the founders understanding of those elements. Every style founder trained and chose what worked best for them and then taught it to others. There are only so many ways to move the body, only so many ways to punch or kick, only so many ways to twist a wrist. In my opinion the study of martial arts is the study of movement and structure, how I move, how my opponent moves and how I can use that to my advantage. Obviously this is an over simplification but if I understand how the body moves to generate power, what are the weak points of the body and how do I move it to create damage then I have an understanding of what I need to defend myself. By studying the other styles, I was better able to understand their concepts and reasoning for how they moved, what their strategies were for why they did what they did, this allowed me to better understand martial arts as a whole. Of course I don’t remember all of the kata of each style because I kept what I needed and discarded what I didn’t.

There are people who will say this style is better than that style or BJJ is the ultimate martial art, I say that it is the practitioner and their understanding that makes the style effective. Style provides us with the foundation; it is up to the individual to build upon that foundation. I have always been a practitioner that will train with anyone that wants to share or has a sincere desire to learn. In this day and age you better be able to strike and grapple, you need to stress test or pressure test your abilities.