Starting my own style/system

[sensei8]

I've not started my own style, nor do I plan to!! I'm no one special!!

You've been given some pretty good advice here, and I wish you much success!!

[chrissyp]

I've not started my own style, nor do I plan to!! I'm no one special!!

You've been given some pretty good advice here, and I wish you much success!!

Thank your sir, you've always been full of great advice and wisdom on these forums! I'm no one special either, i'm just a man....but so was mas oyama and funakoshi until they did their own thing (btw, i'm not comparing my ability/ideas to their ideas btw, just examples of people who went and did their own thing)

[sensei8]

There's nothing wrong with wanting to create a style. Imho, there's two mindsets here for wanting to create a style...

1) To share it, thus teach it!

2) For personal reasons!

For the newly created style to catch on, the methodology and ideology must excite that student body, and usually it starts with just one student. If you've no students to teach your new founded style, you'll be having a conversation by yourself.

Things start out small, then if you're fortunate enough, it'll have a snowball effect. That has everything to do with brand management!! You'll have to become a proponent of what you've created.

Some practitioners create styles; personal styles, and take it to their graves. Their personal styles are usually a mixture of things that they've learnt over the many years and then add them to their core style. Oh, it'll be noticed, and it'll be difficult to keep it under wraps because humans are curious creatures. But, mums the word!!

I suppose I've created a personal style because I feel I'm quite eclectic in my MA. I've cross trained throughout my entire MA journey; adding this and that to Shindokan from different styles. But my loyalty to Shindokan prevents me from violating the essence of what Soke created; I don't want to bastardize his creation!! That is MY believe and MY choice, not anyone here can change that. Selfish? NO!!

Either way, what you've created must be effective across the board!! This must me, somehow and someway tested until it is!! BJJ is effective because Helio Gracie tested it against the world until the wheels feel off...that brand management was bold and effective!! Same thing for, for example, Shotokan...Goju...Wado...TKD...Judo...etc!! Nothing happens overnight!!

Will people laugh and ridicule and scoff and snicker when you mention that you've created a MA style? Yep!! They might be affable towards you when you speak about it, but I suppose that that's to be expected! You just don't accept that, and forge on in your belief...actions speak louder than words!!

Hang in there, do what helps your MA betterment, and the doubters can just, well, go eat a pizza!! Oh yeah, if what you create is effective...sign me up!!

[tallgeese]

I'm with bushido man in this one, teaching a primary art with a spin based on your personal experiences is a great way to go. It gives you depth in a primary skill set while filling gaps in that are lacking within it.

Typically, when you've laid the ground work to do this, you've seen how the pieces fit. You have a good, stair stepped understanding of not just your primary art, but fundamentals of the others as well.

Understand, I'm not naysaying your efforts or goals, just talking about the ease of implementation. If you're going to create a system, remember that system is a word with some serious connotation that you HAVE to put thought into.

You're going to need to have a ground up curriculum that has a progression of learning across all the skill sets you're discussing AND a plan to integrate those at each level. That sentence is BIG and a lot of work. But you MUST do it if you're going to move forward with this idea.

Let us know what you're planning.

[Luther unleashed]

I had this conversation In Another thread and it's been a while since a post but I wanted to share.

I recently started my own program (7mnths ago now) and when I did this I had a decision to make, "what to teach"? I have a very mixed backround in martial arts. I hold rank in multiple martial arts, some black belt levels, some as low as orange belt levels, but even at the lesser levels I learned things I found valuable to a potential program.

I decided to create my own style in a sense I suppose. I mean, I created my program to be how I wanted it, and not teach any one way I learned from any one instructor. I use "Tang Soo Do" as the foundation martial art, and incorporate other things I feel are beneficial to the program. I chose to keep Tang Soo Do as the primary martial art being studied because I personally enjoyed this training the most, and I felt it was very much the direction I wanted the program to go as far as what Tang Soo Do is about and that's the very core values that I believe in. Respect, honor, discipline, mental cultivation.

So in the end, different degrees and stages incorporate different styles but no matter what other style is taught, Tang Soo Do is always present. Instead of calling it "LEX KWON DO" I simply call it "integrated Tang Soo Do"! This way the students understand that they are not learning "Traditional Tang Doo Do" but a blend with a foundation in Tang Soo Do. This way I'm free to create, add, and take away as I see fit without worrying if I'm being true to a specific style, and freedom IMHO is what creates beautiful art, I prefer to be more open minded then a specific style and I believe my program has a better chance of getting better, because it's more open to new things.

Basically I'm saying do what you want and I'll respect it personally. Just sharing how I dealt with a similar idea I had. Good luck to you, and keep in mine that you can always make changes down the road if you wish. Take care.

[sensei8]

Create a new style is easy, but the hard thing is proving it is effective; that's the hard part!!

[Luther unleashed]

Create a new style is easy, but the hard thing is proving it is effective; that's the hard part!!

Of course. The one thing that seems to be a thin line that needs to be clarified... Is one creating a style with a large mixture of many martial arts? Is one creating what they believe is something new? Is it a blend with a strong foundation like my situation? In my case I have little need to prove it's effectiveness I feel, because it's in large, a well know martial art. It's as effective as it is already. Adding and mixing shouldn't change the core of this fact of weather it is or not.

For the people that blend arts it should be effective in a sense but as usual the question remains how effective is taekwondo? Tang Soo do? Karate? Or anything. Effective for what? Self defense, focus, discipline, health?

[Luther unleashed]

To add onto this topic, and my last statement really... I really find myself interested in style at times. In what ibteaxh, I blend known styles and teach what I know as wealth to studenrs. What style is it really, I think it's the styles they are and the name I choose is really the name of the program I teach. Nothing in what I teach did I make up, we'll there's actually one thing I do that I was never taught and I call it freestyle blocking, but all else is a specific martial arr.

I find it interesting when people take martial arts and blend them and give it a new name. I'm OK with it, but I think it's really the original martial arts blended aren't they? I they give it a name so students can achieve rank in it, can identify it, and take pride in it. If there was no rank, would one still feel the need to name their "art"?

I don't mind what people do and that's the beautiful part of it all, but IMHO I just think that names should be used on an original or unique style and not a blend of already named styles. Like I added integrated in front of tang soo do, I easy could name it "luther kwon do" and it's still the same material so it's not that important I suppose, I just think it's more true to what I am teaching to specify it's a blend. Arts like kajukembo are really the same thing, and again I think unless there's something new, it's a blend of already named styles and not a unique art itself, just a mixture.

I mean no disrespect to any bodies system they practice. My opinion is just an opinion and if your happy I'm happy, just a preference thing, what you teach is the same whatever you choose to call it to identify it.

[muttley]

I have thought many times about opening my own dojo (in Shotokan). To me, you do not need to "create your own style". People who do that are generally after some self-fulfilling power trip (imho).

There really is nothing wrong in opening a Shotokan dojo with added influence from Muay Thai or some other style, you do not have to claim your own special style for this.

I have often wanted to open a Shotokan dojo with more of an influence on joint locks etc and stuff more dedicated for issues that you may come across in real life. To me, that would be a kid of Shotokan/Aikido hybrid with a smattering of full contact sparring thrown in, but it would still be primarily Shotokan. Sharing your own experiences is far more important than some "new style". I want to share my experiences of working in prisons with angry young men, and how I used my martial arts to assist me in this, but I haven't got to that stage, yet.

[JR 137]

To add onto this topic, and my last statement really... I really find myself interested in style at times. In what ibteaxh, I blend known styles and teach what I know as wealth to studenrs. What style is it really, I think it's the styles they are and the name I choose is really the name of the program I teach. Nothing in what I teach did I make up, we'll there's actually one thing I do that I was never taught and I call it freestyle blocking, but all else is a specific martial arr.

I find it interesting when people take martial arts and blend them and give it a new name. I'm OK with it, but I think it's really the original martial arts blended aren't they? I they give it a name so students can achieve rank in it, can identify it, and take pride in it. If there was no rank, would one still feel the need to name their "art"?

I don't mind what people do and that's the beautiful part of it all, but IMHO I just think that names should be used on an original or unique style and not a blend of already named styles. Like I added integrated in front of tang soo do, I easy could name it "luther kwon do" and it's still the same material so it's not that important I suppose, I just think it's more true to what I am teaching to specify it's a blend. Arts like kajukembo are really the same thing, and again I think unless there's something new, it's a blend of already named styles and not a unique art itself, just a mixture.

I mean no disrespect to any bodies system they practice. My opinion is just an opinion and if your happy I'm happy, just a preference thing, what you teach is the same whatever you choose to call it to identify it.

At the end of the day, is it even possible to create an entirely new style? Somebody somewhere has already done practically everything, and everything's just a new spin on what's been done before. Unless someone figures out how to hover/levitate unassisted while shooting laser beams out of their eyes, then it's all been done before.

Wait, isn't there a character in the Tekken series games who does this?