Purity of YOUR style!

All, I know many of us are regular cross-trainers in various different arts, but what effects does it have on your personal style?

If one has a core style, let's say Shoto-Kan and one also trains/trained in Muay Thai and/or BJJ, can one still say they are at Shoto-Kan fighter or do they HAVE to declare they are a MMA fighter as the fighting "way" of the individual is NOT the Shoto-Kan way any more as varying techniques WILL sublimely filter through to one's arsenal of techniques.

I know this as I find myself, when sparring, using many techniques from the various Arts I've studied.

While I've crossed trained in a wide variety of MA, I'm still a Shindokanist because it's my core style.

If you are working off of the seed principles of your core martial art, it is your core martial art. That said, if your art focuses on closing and infighting as a tactical doctrine, and you find yourself kiting and sniping with kicks one day, you are not doing your core art.

Honestly, I'm just a karateka, because that's what I decided to call myself.

I currently train in Shorin-Ryu, and have been training in it nearly as long as I trained in Shuri-Ryu, so aspects of both are present in my karate. In addition, I actively trained in judo for 4 years and now incorporate that into my karate. Every now and then I have also done seminars for things like escrima, Krav Maga, and Muay Thai and I have taken aspects of those that I have learned and incorporated them into my karate. Periodically I train with people from other arts, and the things I learn from them I also incorporate into my karate.

Because of these things, I can't call my self a "Shorin-Ryu stylist" because if I demonstrated my karate next to someone who had only done Shorin-Ryu, I would look quite different. I can't call my self a "Shuri-Ryu stylist" or even a "judoka" for the same reason. In all actuality, unless you are training specifically for style purity, you will most likely develop your own style of whatever martial art you practice. If I were to pass along my personal method of practicing karate, I could call it Shorin-Ryu since that it what I hold the highest rank in, but it isn't REALLY Shorin-Ryu, in the strictest sense.

I don't think anyone's personal version of the arts is, or should be, specifically "pure" if you're looking to maximize combat effectiveness. Granted, if you're training for a different reason, one built around preserving a tradition for example, then one might be able to argue a "pure" version of an art.

For the rest of us, who are taking tools out of the box and using them when it's needed, pure is going to have a loose definition at best. Even if you're using the same tactics from the same art as another individual, and even if you're both solely training in a single art, each of you will look slightly different due to body type, attributes, mindset, ect. That's even before we look at the multiple variables that the environment and situation in which our two hypothetical fighters use said skill in.

Rather than overall skill sets, I'm more likely to cite where a tactic came from than what kind of stylist I am.

My purity comes from my physical abilities - I train to be in shape. Martial arts or defense is just a fun set of rules to keep my training real. I don't think I will ever need to defend myself with force. I don't think I need to be in a competition anymore - so martial arts is purely for physical condition and maybe for same mental health.

I consider myself more a Martial Artist than necessarily a TKDist. I do love TKD, but when I do other styles, I don't try to look for the TKD aspect that might be in it, or how it fits with my TKD concepts. Instead, I look at how I can make the various skills work together so I can be a better Martial Artist.

Along the MMA comment, however, I don't think I would call myself that, either. I think that it is to the point where MMA really is its own style, and in that style they train the standup and grappling to the point where they don't do one or the other; they do both, and know how to range it all together.

there is no such thing as a pure system.

I would call myself a Traditional Karateka. But my present style has evolved down the tree of styles over the years. I have studied some Wing Chun and Ju Jutsu, perhaps years ago, but I still use their principals in my Karate. Cross training can work, it can work well!

there is no such thing as a pure system.

Could you elaborate here, Jissen? I'd like to see your rationale.