Growing and changing as a martial artist

[Kempohands]

I first joined KarateForums 5 years ago, and posted a few times for a couple of months, but then stopped for years until recently. I've looked back over some of my posts from years ago and can't believe how much some of my ideas about the martial arts have changed (and how much better my taste in music has apparently become, but that's another story ).

So I was curious, how many of you can recall going through profound and noticeable changes as a martial artist, beyond the realm of skill? Is this more likely to occur for us younger martial artists? I mean, five years ago when I signed up here I was 14 years old and my mind by nature was, and still is, more malleable. So I'm definitely particularly interested in hearing from more experienced martial artists. Does one generally become more set on solid foundational ideas concerning the martial arts with the combination of age and experience? Or is it the nature of the beast for practitioners to change their ways of thinking throughout their time involved with the arts?

[tallgeese]

Everyone evolves in some way. I can point to a few big moments that kind of affected how I do things now. I was lucky enough to come out of a program that was based around principles rather than rote technique, this made it much easier to evaluate what and how in integrate new skills.

The first probably occurred when I started boxing during college. This built on my foundation and gave me more fluid hands and movement.

Next, was when I took up my second form of kempo. This was really a mental finishing school for me and really made me understand what I was getting myself into while fighting.

Then came my introduction to shootfighting. This would introduce me to the ground game and competition. If was from this that I started to utilize more full resistive, movement based training into my sd scheme. This is a trend that would continue thru my MMA days, getting more refined and finally kind of culminate into my teaching pattern I use today.

Finally, for the last few years, I've be shifted towards really focusing on the ground game and integrating it into what I already do.

You'll move a bit each time you hit one of these points. If you're structured around a good foundation, with a clear goal in mind, it can really help focus your game. This is where most of the innovation that you will individually do to your personal fighting style occurs.

Typically, this happens as you build new patterns of response around your core movements. If you find, thru experimentation and growth, that you core isn't getting you to the goals you have any more then you might end up radically altering your central response patterns and strategy. I've seen both occur to other people.

When I look back at testing footage from earlier tests, I can still see the basic premise of my core art. When I look at footage today, I still see that. However, there are certain aspects that have moved around the periphery of this core. Many are simply changes in the way I pattern tools and lots of that goes back to things I've been exposed to while cross training.

That's one of the reasons I really believe in cross training, not to throw out all you've done, but to build on it and fill in gaps until you can fully and most effectively meet your goals.

By the way... I think we've probably all gotten better taste in music as we go

[Kuma]

Mine was an interesting conversion. I first got into MA because I quite simply wanted to be involved in combat sports. I went through the whole kickboxing and NHB thing and enjoyed it immensely.

Somewhere, however, I did a total 180 and now I train primarily for self defense and consider myself a traditionalist. Whereas before I would poke fun of those who did kata, kata is now one of the parts of karate I truly enjoy and see many benefits to. Whereas before I was all about MMA, now I see much more of what karate truly has to offer.

[bushido_man96]

I have looked back on some of my old posts, and I have seen that some of my standpoints on some subjects has changed, as well.

Over the years, most of my changes in viewpoints have come from what many view as the spiritual aspects of the arts. I used to embrace romantization of some things, like the Samurai, for instance, but have since learned that romanticization can at times be close to exaggeration, or at the very least the culling of what you want to belive of something, and leaving the rest behind.

Over the years, I have come to feel it isn't the job of the Martial Arts community as a whole to attempt to influence its practitioners in the aspects of spiritual development. Nor do I hold on to such precepts as "never hit first" or others like it. I feel that if I want to seek out things like spiritual enlightenment, I can do that on my own time, and not during a time when I want to be practicing techniques.

[Tiger1962]

I first joined KarateForums 5 years ago, and posted a few times for a couple of months, but then stopped for years until recently. I've looked back over some of my posts from years ago and can't believe how much some of my ideas about the martial arts have changed (and how much better my taste in music has apparently become, but that's another story ).

So I was curious, how many of you can recall going through profound and noticeable changes as a martial artist, beyond the realm of skill? Is this more likely to occur for us younger martial artists? I mean, five years ago when I signed up here I was 14 years old and my mind by nature was, and still is, more malleable. So I'm definitely particularly interested in hearing from more experienced martial artists. Does one generally become more set on solid foundational ideas concerning the martial arts with the combination of age and experience? Or is it the nature of the beast for practitioners to change their ways of thinking throughout their time involved with the arts?

I totally understand what you mean.

When I first started training 8 - 9 years ago, I was very gullable and naive when it came to everything about martial arts and I believed a lot of stuff my seniors told me, but as the years went on and I became more proficient at martial arts and did a heck of a lot of observing and research and follow-up, I discovered that just like everything else in life, in martial arts there are going to be people who try to mislead you about things, "pull the wool over your eyes", politics and double standard-speaking. You see, initially I thought karate was supposed to be "flawless" and the people who trained "flawless" in character but that is not true. Oh sure there is good and bad. But mostly, I learned to take what people told me with a grain of salt and find the answers out for myself.

Now, I sometimes notice people who are my juniors that train, who are often "blinded" (not literally) or blindly loyal to people in their school and don't know any better. It's not my place to tell them for a variety of reasons. They will eventually grow, and find out for themselves like I did.

[DWx]

My opinions have changed so much over the years and I expect they will keep changing. I'll admit that when I first joined this forum I was probably a little naive in my opinions, mainly because I was somewhat ignorant and hadn't given things a great deal of thought. Again like Tiger1962 said, I also tended to just go with what my teachers said just because it was my teachers that said them. Over the past couple of years I've read far more books, articles and websites than I did during my first 5 or so years in MA and they've helped shape a lot of my opinions and as I encounter more, what I think will be developed further. IMO I think it would be wrong if time and experience didn't have an impact on what you think (either reinforcing your current views or totally changing them) because it would mean that your not really taking anything onboard.

[Rateh]

My opinions and focus have changed many times in the last 12 years. For one, I was 12 when I started training. At the time I just loved training, I didn't know why. Now looking back, I know I loved the challenge, the structure, and learning something new.

I still love those things.

After 4 years of training, I became an instructor, and since then I have focused on learning and practicing to become the best instructor I can be. Up until about 2 years ago that was my main focus. I actually tested for my black belt as part of my instruction goals, not really as a personal goal toward my own training.

After about 5 years of training, I went through a period of about a year where I wasn't feeling particularly challenged by the traditional material, and started focusing more on XMA training. I wasn't very good at it tbh.

About a year ago I started to enjoy the fitness aspect of training more.

Nowadays I'm very interested in the self defense aspects of training. Unfortunately the school I am currently training in, doesn't focus on self defense as much as I would like. After I earn my 1st degree in this style in september, I will have a 2 year wait till I can test for my second. I intend on adding a second style to my training after september.

For a while I was interested in grappling, but I couldn't afford any of the schools in my area. Since then my interest has dwindled. I have come to believe that fighting on the ground isn't a very good idea. Nor do I believe that it 90% of fights end up on the ground, like I had been told.

I've never been very good at sparring, and I worked very hard at being at an acceptable level to test for my black belt. Since then I have felt that point sparring isn't necessarily very effective for self defense, so I don't feel the need to get very good at it, good enough for testing is good enough for me.

[Kempohands]

I think what really caught me was a response I made to a topic about throwing the first punch where I replied that I would absolutely NEVER throw the first punch in a confrontation and always wait for an aggressor to be the first one to throw a strike. As I've gotten older and see more subtle shades of gray in life, I have changed this opinion drastically, and have practiced many of my self-defense techniques set up to work off of committed punches to work off as entries to begin a fight once I know a fight is going to occur and the aggressor already has his or her hands up.

Of course, that's just one piece of it, but probably the biggest one for me.

[Kempohands]

Everyone evolves in some way. I can point to a few big moments that kind of affected how I do things now. I was lucky enough to come out of a program that was based around principles rather than rote technique, this made it much easier to evaluate what and how in integrate new skills.

The first probably occurred when I started boxing during college. This built on my foundation and gave me more fluid hands and movement.

Next, was when I took up my second form of kempo. This was really a mental finishing school for me and really made me understand what I was getting myself into while fighting.

Then came my introduction to shootfighting. This would introduce me to the ground game and competition. If was from this that I started to utilize more full resistive, movement based training into my sd scheme. This is a trend that would continue thru my MMA days, getting more refined and finally kind of culminate into my teaching pattern I use today.

Finally, for the last few years, I've be shifted towards really focusing on the ground game and integrating it into what I already do.

You'll move a bit each time you hit one of these points. If you're structured around a good foundation, with a clear goal in mind, it can really help focus your game. This is where most of the innovation that you will individually do to your personal fighting style occurs.

Typically, this happens as you build new patterns of response around your core movements. If you find, thru experimentation and growth, that you core isn't getting you to the goals you have any more then you might end up radically altering your central response patterns and strategy. I've seen both occur to other people.

When I look back at testing footage from earlier tests, I can still see the basic premise of my core art. When I look at footage today, I still see that. However, there are certain aspects that have moved around the periphery of this core. Many are simply changes in the way I pattern tools and lots of that goes back to things I've been exposed to while cross training.

That's one of the reasons I really believe in cross training, not to throw out all you've done, but to build on it and fill in gaps until you can fully and most effectively meet your goals.

By the way... I think we've probably all gotten better taste in music as we go

In terms of changing fighting styles you gave a lot of food for thought, thanks tallgeese. I definitely see how I've changed a bit in certain ways, while keeping certain cor fundamental aspects of my training as the grounding for my evolution. I also got a reminder last night in class of how much growth I still need to experience in terms of fighting style. I was sparring a technical white belt in our style, though he had about 7 or 8 years of training in multiple disciplines before coming to us, 3 of which were in ju-jitsu, and about 30 seconds into the match I was able to take sweep him to the ground only to rediscover that my ground game is still very poor! So I definitely see the value in cross-training, as does my Sensei, since he brings in a professional fighter each month and a BJJ instructor to give grappling classes.

And as for transitory phases, I think my biggest one was the move away from point sparring, which was how I always sparred as a kid, to more realistic sparring for take-downs, decisions, submissions, etc. Being able to hit to the face or grab a kick completely changes things and forces you to adapt. I'm glad I did.

Thanks to everyone who's shared their thoughts so far!

[Truestar]

I've definitely changed my passion for the Martial Arts. Until about 2 years ago I didn't think of it as much. Skipping class didn't bother my conscience a bit, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it if I was simply too "tired".

However, I turned a new leaf during my red belt testing. I finally got a taste of what my Martial Art really had to offer me. After I received my red belt I started to loose weight, gain muscle and skill. A few months later I was assisting with classes. About a year after that I was 16 and getting ready to test for black belt.

Now I have my First Dan, a key to the school, and the respect of several[/i] kids and parents in my community. It really is a good feeling especially when I look back to what I was. I'm 17 years old and already feel like I've had a lifetime of experience in my school that can only be expanded on.

 

So yeah, I've definitely noticed a very large change in my life with it.