“To earn a black belt in a new art can and will take years. Reading and learning about another art can take as little as a week or a day depending on the book!”
We’ve seen Ana, Anthony and I all comment on the importance of being well rounded and cross training, but some of us don’t have the time to train in and seriously rank in several different martial arts. We should at least though, look to the roots of different arts to know their what, how, and why for what they do!
Miyamoto Musashi writes about how we cannot completely know or understand the pros and cons, the strengths and weaknesses of our own principal art that we train in if we do not know the strengths and weaknesses of other martial arts (Kaufman and Miyamoto 5). To earn a black belt in a new art can and will take years. Reading and learning about another art can take as little as a week or a day depending on the book! I read Karate Do My Way of Life by Gichin Funakoshi on a “puddle jump” flight from Atlanta to Columbus, Mississippi last March. I learned a great deal about the history of karate that I did not know prior, and it took me only an hour and change to read!
It’s important for us to keep learning about martial arts constantly even once we reach a senior level. It will help you in teaching classes as well. You will have more nuggets of knowledge to share with your students.
I suggest you go and buy a new bookshelf, it will encourage you to keep reading. Let’s be honest, an empty bookshelf is very depressing. You WILL want to go and buy more books for it.
Tell me something about a martial art that you DON’T train in. Leave a comment and I’m sure we’ll all learn a lot from each other.
Citations
Kaufman, Steve, and Musashi Miyamoto. Musashi’s Book of FIVE Rings: The Definitive Interpretation of Miyamoto MUSASHI’S Classic Book of Strategy. Tuttle Publishing, 2012.
