I love my martial arts journey, probably just like you. I love training. I love teaching. I love what martial arts does for people. Over the years, I have come to the obvious realization that everyone’s martial arts journey is different. What I like and enjoy about martial arts in unique to me. What you like and enjoy about martial arts is unique to you.
Some people can spend their whole martial arts career focused on mastering one particular system. That is their journey and I have a great deal of respect for that. To me, nothing is more beautiful than seeing a traditional art performed by highly skilled practitioner that has spent their life striving for perfection. However that journey is not mine. Although I have never been diagnosed, but I am pretty sure that I have an extreme case of ADHD. I get bored pretty easy and if I was to practice just one art, I’m sure that I would get burned out and simply quit training all together.
Instead, I train in several systems. My journey has exposed me to a lot of different methodologies of martial arts with the result being that I’m not a master of any particular style, but I know a little about a lot of styles. I’m not saying that this is good, it is just where I find myself.
However, what my journey has shown me is, that once you get past many of the rituals and traditions, at the core, how similar many martial arts are to each other. After all, there are only so many ways that the elbow bends. Power is power. Speed is speed. Many styles might go about things differently at the beginning, but eventually they usually come to the same conclusions.
What I try to do in my training and in my teaching is to use my Kenpo as a base from which to blend techniques and theories form other systems. Is it perfect? No. I see plenty of holes in my methods. But over time, I believe they are getting smaller. I think with an open mind and a disciplined training regimen, a lot of progress can be made. In my videos, I try to share my concepts of blending techniques using basic universal attacks as a base. Hopefully the videos will help viewers stimulate their own creative juices.
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Happy Training
