“Just like any structure, the base must be the strongest.”
“Go branch out”.
That was a common thing for us to hear after receiving our black belts, typically after second degree. My instructor would encourage his students to begin exploring other martial arts after a certain number of years training, for it would make our Tang Soo Do stronger. It seemed counterintuitive; begin a completely different martial art in order to enhance the one I already knew? Nevertheless, sometimes you just have to trust your sensei. It took me a year or two of training in Filipino Martial Arts to understand why, or at least ONE reason why, cross training is so important.
“Same, but different”.
I asked a lot of questions as I began cross training, and oddly enough this was the answer more often than not. I was finding some similarities in the techniques taught to me by my Guro and the techniques I learned from my Master in Tang Soo. There were different energies in the styles for sure, but the actual movements themselves were not completely foreign to me. It was so mind boggling to see that even though these martial arts have separate origins, histories, and intentions, there were still major coincidences in the material. Eventually I began to train in Hapkido as well, and the same observation became apparent once again.
A concept to ponder is that specific techniques did not have formal names until recently, they just had names for movement patterns. For example, an inside-outside block wasn’t always called that, originally ancient practitioners just had a reference for the movement our body makes as we form that technique. Considering this, it makes sense that there’s a plethora of similar techniques across styles; they all have their own interpretation of what the movement is for, when the technique starts and ends, as well as any minor nuances that align with the art.
“It’s all ice cream, just different flavors”.
Understanding, and more so feeling, this notion begins to expand your mind and makes you think more abstractly about your techniques. It’s like the difference between learning to spell and writing a book; you’re able to have a deeper understanding of your skills and have the ability to comfortably play with them in many different situations, different executions, and different drills. This is what makes us more versatile martial artists, when we’re able to take what we’ve learned and deconstruct, rebuild, and adapt it to any situation we’re presented.
Just like any structure, the base must be the strongest. I realize why my instructor doesn’t necessarily recommend beginners or color belts to cross train, as you first need to have a strong foundation in order to start adding new concepts on top of the configuration. In other words, the individual first has to figure out that they love ice cream before exploring the different flavors.
