What are we?

[Rick]

Yeah what i've found is that thru all the different styles i've done i've just become a huge melting pot of moves and i always end up using the ones that work the best for me... Sometimes i do some moves in a different style than what i mean them but it all works out.

 

Rick

[47MartialMan]

You forgot one:

 

"Verstile Martial Artist"

[Bad_Vibes]

You forgot one:

 

"Verstile Martial Artist"

 

haha,

 

How about "Martial Arts Technician"

[47MartialMan]

I think most here are MATechs.....funny that sounds like Master Auto Techs

[delta1]

I'm amazed you guys are able to effectively keep up with all the styles you study.

 

The trick is to concentrate on principles and concepts, not just a cool collection of moves.

[47MartialMan]

 

Well said........

[White Warlock]

When in the heat of battle don't instincts just take over. How do you control the style your using.

You don't. You make the style 'part' of you. What you learn, at the beginning, is just a bunch of actions and ideas. However, if you practice diligently, they become ingrained... a part of you. It is then that when you act, it is not you attempting to implement a technique, or choosing which style to apply. It is you, and your morphed interpretation of all that you have learned.

 

Examine, for instance, the way you eat. Do you control whether you use a fork or a spoon to eat your soup, or does it come naturally, through repeated action and an ingrained understanding of what works, and what doesn't? When you consider that dedicated practitioners study diligently for extended periods of their life, sometimes extending to decades, it is not unreasonable to assume that what they learn becomes a part of who they are.

[SevenStar]

When you actually fight (in the ring) how does your body know how to respond if you have trained in all these styles. When in the heat of battle don't instincts just take over. How do you control the style your using.

 

the plain and simple answer is - you don't. when I'm fighting, I odn't really care what style I am using - your instincts take care of all of that - what is ingrained is what you will use.

 

I still think some are misunderstanding my definition of MMA though - it's not really just studying multiple styles, in the sense of tkd, karate, wushu, etc, as rick stated he has done. In the past I've studied kali, karate, jun fan, longfist, etc. but never considered myself an MMA until I started training stiking and grappling and also the the conditioning that comes with training combat sports - things that are common to the MMA venues.

[italian_guy]

I pick Dual style system because now I'm learning two different style but I do not mix them at the moment so I don't consider myself as a MMA. However when there is an overlap of the two style I benefit fron yhis cross training....

[shotochem]

I am pretty much a single style person. My core is Shotokan. However I train with others who have come from various styles and we all tend to swap moves and techniques from each other.

 

Theres nothing like that time before and after class when we all just experiment and trade moves with each other.

 

Good friends good fun!