Cross Training

[Lady Kitana]

hey

I know this question has been asked before by many people so I am sorry .... I am currently studying kenpo for about three years and I am thinking of trying another style over the summer because my school is cloesd durning those months and Iam also curious as to what else I can learn. can anyone recommend a style that I could take thats different from kenpo? I don't want to get too confused lol any advise would be great . Thanks !!!!!

[CheekyMusician]

Well I don't know much about kempo....but am I right in thinking its a striking art?

If so, and you want to avoid confusion, why don't you try a more ground based art such as judo or BJJ?

[Sohan]

Gung fu would be great, too. It is different enough from what you presently study to be interesting, yet it will make your kenpo better too.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[scottnshelly]

Moved to Comparative Styles and Cross Training.

[Jersey Devil]

Often times when people talk and advocate about cross training, they're talking about mixing up martial arts from two different aspects of the fighting game.

For example, you do kempo, a striking art, which could be grouped with a variety of other styles such as kung fu, karate, TKD, boxing, and muay thai- all these styles would be regarded as striking arts.

Crosstraining in too many striking arts I think is kinda futile, unless you are addressing specifics (i.e. the punching combinations of boxing or the elbows and knees of muay thai).

To go full circle in your martial arts training, I would suggest a grappling style such as Judo or BJJ. This way you learn all aspects of a fight- striking, clinching, and groundwork. Natrually if you were a grappler, it would be suggested that you cross train with a striking art.

Just my 2 cents

[Whitefeather]

I would go with JerseyDevil on that one. If you train in one genre of martial arts (striking, grappling, punching, kicking, etc), then, if you are going to cross-train, it would be best to pick a different genre to try out. Generally speaking, if your art is mostly striking, than you should try out Judo or BJJ. Personally, just from my reading, I think Judo is a better complement for striking arts, but I will probably get flamed for saying that. Doing this works wonderfully if you are trying to make yourself a well-rounded martial arts person. Alternatively, if you are just trying to get a different perspective on your specific genre (striking art), then you should try something as different as possible while staying in the same genre (and while staying inside some boundry of sanity). So, basically, if you want to be a more rounded martial artist, go with a grappling style. If you want to gain a broader perspective on the whole striking-art gig, than you stick to the most different (but still sane) striking art from your own, i.e. karate or boxing.

Have fun!

David

[Sohan]

Often times when people talk and advocate about cross training, they're talking about mixing up martial arts from two different aspects of the fighting game.

For example, you do kempo, a striking art, which could be grouped with a variety of other styles such as kung fu, karate, TKD, boxing, and muay thai- all these styles would be regarded as striking arts.

Crosstraining in too many striking arts I think is kinda futile, unless you are addressing specifics (i.e. the punching combinations of boxing or the elbows and knees of muay thai).

To go full circle in your martial arts training, I would suggest a grappling style such as Judo or BJJ. This way you learn all aspects of a fight- striking, clinching, and groundwork. Natrually if you were a grappler, it would be suggested that you cross train with a striking art.

Just my 2 cents

That is certainly correct. Too many striking arts is too confusing to the body, plus you won't get the reps to make certain movements hardwired into your system. I think Bruce Lee said he was more concerned with the guy that had done 1 move 10,000 times as opposed to the guy that did 10,000 moves 1 time.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[bushido_man96]

Jersey Devil made some good points about the other striking arts. Some things that they could offer may be beneficial in other ways. For example, an olympic style of TKD might help with your footwork. Or Boxing as well.

But, the ground work of BJJ or judo may be what you are after.

[CTTKDKing]

Jersey Devil made some good points about the other striking arts. Some things that they could offer may be beneficial in other ways. For example, an olympic style of TKD might help with your footwork. Or Boxing as well.

But, the ground work of BJJ or judo may be what you are after.

I study olympic TKD and we have a new student of about 4 months, and he has been studying Kenpo for 5 years. He has learned quite a bit from TKD classes with us about evading, and coutering that he said they don't work with as much in his Kenpo class. TKD might be a good choice for you to learn a lot of good leg movements, and good footwork techniques.

If you want to get away from the striking art world I would recomend BJJ or maybe you could try some shoot wrestling or Judo. Try visiting schools of these different styles and see what looks best for you. Only you can decide what's correct in feel for you.

[Zorbasan]

there are three choices

another striking art. try one that concentrates on different aspects. from what i understand, kempo uses multiple quick techniques. so something like karate, which is kind of a 1 strike kill policy would be benificial.

or, you could do a grappling art such as hapkido or jiu jitsu or even bjj

third choice would be a weapons art. if your looking at practicality then something like kobudo or kali would be good cos the principles of the techniques taught can be applied to things you can find anywhere. or if you just want something cool to do, you could do an art that teaches weapons like katana, sai and nunchucks