Mixing techniques?

[mourning_]

is it wrong or a bad idea to take techniques and mix them together tofit your own personal needs?? even if you change one or two things ?

[AndrewGreen]

Isn't that the whole idea? Figure out what works for you and make it work?

If it's all untested theory and demo's on dummies then it's kind of silly... unless of course that is what you are looking for, but if you're making it work on live opponents then isn't that the main goal?

[CagedWarrior]

The sooner you do that, the sooner you'll realize that some techniques work and some don't. Once you realize that, you'll get good at those, hopefully, and then maybe you can be a good fighter.

[Jay]

thats what trinaing and practice is for so you know what works and what doesnt

[Goju_boi]

it's not wrong,but for me my instructor doesn't want me to be doing kickboxing things in a karate class,well a karate sparring match.

[White Warlock]

it is not wrong, unless you really haven't developed a mastery of said techniques in the first place. in which case you will merely be mixing a mass of unskilled 'concepts' together... and hitting your opponents with a blob of goo.

It has been repeatedly recommended that you obtain mastery of at least one style before considering merging various concepts. Without an understanding of how a system can work fluidly... rather than piecemeal, you are going to do a disservice to yourself, and likely to anyone you teach in the future.

[JusticeZero]

First, master one art to use as a solid foundation, Then you can look at taking ideas from elsewhere and trying to find ways to express them with the structure in your foundation.

[AndrewGreen]

Nah, that makes no sense.

So if I want to learn to play basketball I got to master dribbling before learning how to shoot?

But that's all one sport?

ok, so schools got it wrong, you should master math before you start LA or Science or any other subject?

Different people have different goals in the Martial Arts, some want to master and preserve a traditional system. Others have no interest in doing that.

But mostly I'd say that gets said as a way of instructors keeping there students from wandering of and trying things that involve giving there money to someone else

Like if walmart where to tell you that you can't shop anywhere else until you'd bought everything they had to offer. Only the RIAA tries to do that sort of thing

[White Warlock]

Nah, that makes no sense.

I guess we're going to disagree.

Seriously though, it does make sense. Hopefully i can present why it does in the following paragraphs.

So if I want to learn to play basketball I got to master dribbling before learning how to shoot?

But that's all one sport?

Yes it is, and it's not an appropriate comparison. In basketball, there really is only one uniform way of doing things.

ok, so schools got it wrong, you should master math before you start LA or Science or any other subject?

Actually, depends on the type of science, although most of them do require a firm grasp of mathematical concepts. LA, i'm assuming, is language arts. I see no reason for this straw man presentation. As far as i'm concerned, yes, schools (colleges/universities) do have it wrong.

Different people have different goals in the Martial Arts, some want to master and preserve a traditional system. Others have no interest in doing that.

That is true, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about ensuring you have a firm grasp of the material being presented. It's not all merely a bunch of strikes and kicks, as i'm sure you know.

But mostly I'd say that gets said as a way of instructors keeping there students from wandering of and trying things that involve giving there money to someone else

I have never stated such to a paying student, nor has a paid instructor ever said it to me. Indeed, nobody in this community is paying me, and yet i state freely that it is a viable approach.

Now i think i understand what you are saying, in that there are many unscrupulous instructors out there and their goal is to obtain your cash, not necessarily provide you with quality instruction. Of that i agree wholeheartedly. The goal of learning the arts is not paying a teacher, it is learning the arts. If someone is studying a particular system, and that system doesn't provide them the insight or knowledge they pursue, then by all means they should pursue other studies.

But, there is an underlying concern... which is that if they fail to grasp some critical elements to the study, and thus dismiss entirely an approach that would have made the application of techniques all the more effective, they blunt the knowledge they were provided by adopting alternatives, or making changes, to what they only 'partially' learned.

The goal should be to learn and understand, not collect and filter, thus one of the reasons why it is important to master the basics of a particular system before running off to mix & match.

On a personal level, i can see your point. However, i know the errors i committed by mixing and matching before obtaining mastery of a particular system in advance. These errors, i found out, are universal with eclectic practitioners. Because of this, i believe that my 'initial' path was in many ways counterproductive. By stepping back, i was able to obtain a degree of mastery in a particular system, and thus opened myself to seeing the flaws inherent in my initial approach. Since then i've developed, what i percieve to be, a degree of mastery in other systems... and have since adopted and merged, but not necessarily 'changed.'

This, i believe, is the fundamental flaw with much of the studies made today. A dilusion of the work and insight presented by generations of artists, to bring instead a flood of substandard practitioners. And, in turn, a flood of substandard instruction.

Like if walmart where to tell you that you can't shop anywhere else until you'd bought everything they had to offer. Only the RIAA tries to do that sort of thing

I have no love for these merchants of exploit, nor is using them as an example entirely applicable, unless your goal is to compare them to that of unscrupulous instructors. If such is the case, then my earlier stated agreements maintain.

[Goju_boi]

"But mostly I'd say that gets said as a way of instructors keeping there students from wandering of and trying things that involve giving there money to someone else"

that was how my last school was.They wouldn't let anybody do any style outside that school,and they wouldn't let any student do any martial arts related thing outside that school without permission.

Anyways,so what you guys are saying is that people shouldn't train in more than one style untill it is fully mastered?