too many arts ?

I have to agree with BrianS--that is one heck of a schedule. When do you eat? Sleep?

It's a lot to do at once, but no reason you can't.

hey sorry i exaggerated. I teach taekwondo 2 nights per week (mon+wed) and i train in taekwondo with my instructor 2 nights per week (tues+thurs) I'm doing a sport coaching in martial arts course through the international college of Kenshusei in kickboxing/muay thai which fulltime is classed as 8 hours per week. So i train in kb/mt 5 days mon-fri per week from around 12-2, i'll do the lunch time classes in muay thai and a class in boxing also, and try to kick the bag after lol. I just swapped one of the boxing classes for a bjj class offered on a wed from 12-1 and got hooked so got a few privates in it and am looking at giving up a day or two of kb/mt and going to the bjj instructors academy and doing more bjj. If i do i'd stay behind and work on my muay thai on the bags there to make up for it. So that's how i fit in the tkd, mt and bjj. And as far as judo, i was just going to ask my tkd instructor to give some of us some judo drills to practise instead of doin wtf sparring.
Make sense??
Here's the web addresses if you're interested, i do the mt kb and boxing (and one bjj class) at www.mkk.com.au and just starting the bjj at graciejiujitsu.com.au. So yeah it's only around 5 hours per day training/teaching and that's all i do. You guys prolly work 8+ hours right? So it's easy to fit in :-) for money i teach tkd obviously and do bartending/security on the weekends.
Hope that cleared things up a little lol.

Talking about four different arts at once is still a little much. I would hold off on the judo for a while, or go judo, then bjj. Learning different styles to compliment what you already know and train is good, but take some time to do it. I've been one to crosstrain, but I did have to live life outside the martial arts.

You are doing too many when you are either getting tha styles confused on your head, no longer improving or advancing in either one or burning out from over training.

thanks for the feedback ! Well i've been doing taekwondo since i was 8, am 19 now and just started my own club. Have been doing muay thai/kickboxing for almost two years, will be qualified to teach in 6 months, and have just started bjj. If i don't do the judo is that too much ? Am i trying to get good at too many styles? Also what are you're thoughts on them complementing each other ?

Personally i think it is a good idea to do many different arts so that you can flow from one to the other..or possiably incorperate them into one fighting style..changing your style to suit your opponent.
Also i think..as long as you stick to the rules and bounderies set by each MA whilst practising it in your dojo then you will be fine...

Take care..and be safe...

Neo.

Jack of all trades, master of none. I would say maximum two arts to compliment each other and give you some progress. A stand-up art and a grappling art. TKD, Muay thai and kickboxing are all stand up. BJJ is grappling but more ground oriented whereas judo is also grappling but more throw/clinch orientated. I would pick one of each of these and train like hell...

I would tend toward two different arts at a time, unless you added a weapons art. You have basically "stand up" and "grappling" arts, and then "weapons" arts, so no matter how many different classes you attend, you're only dealing with those different scenarios. If you're studying two or three different "stand up" arts, you'll get them confused... the same with grappling.

A lot of training is "muscle memory" and your muscles only remember a certain number of things. If you're trying to kick 15 different ways, you probably suck at most of them and never develop a good, solid kick in any art... just different ways to put your leg out.

FWIW...

Once you have a skill base, you can add to it, but while you're learning basic skills... stick with one or the other.

But because i've been doing tkd for so long and am now an instructor and running a club, you still don't think adding a different stand up art to get a different perspective and gain new skill sets would be a good idea? Even tho (or because) they're so different?

I get the impression that bjj and judo complement each other beacuse one's mainly throws and the other groundwork? So you get both sides of the coin in the grappling game? I do agree though and will stick to bjj, but am just saying that for the sake of more discussion, wouldn't it be better to train in both at the same time ?

Maybe instead of adding more types of martial arts, you should learn a musical instrument, a foreign language, sailing or whatever. It will more likely serve you better in life to be a well-rounded person than a well-rounded martial artist.

<< A lot of training is "muscle memory" and your muscles only remember a certain number of things. If you're trying to kick 15 different ways, you probably suck at most of them and never develop a good, solid kick in any art... just different ways to put your leg out.

FWIW...

Once you have a skill base, you can add to it, but while you're learning basic skills... stick with one or the other. >>

Just call me old fashioned. I still prefer a few basic techniques that work for me than 3000 variations that don't.

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Maybe instead of adding more types of martial arts, you should learn a musical instrument, a foreign language, sailing or whatever. It will more likely serve you better in life to be a well-rounded person than a well-rounded martial artist.


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Have to agree with Matt on this one. If you thing ANYTHING is more important than being a well-rounded martial artist, I believe you should be claimed a heretic on this site and perma banned.

Nothing, nothing nothing nothing, is more important than our martial persuits.

Let the inquisition begin.

Anyone got a rope?


.. All in good fun.

The tradition of the warrior/scholar comes from both eastern and western cultures. The Samaria and the Knights had gentlemanly pursuits along with their martial training. I am aware that other cultures had a similar perspective. Maybe the humanities are an important aspect of martial training. Maybe being better at one will make a person better at the other. Could calligraphy help a person to learn to better use a katana? There were some who thought so. Even if it doesn’t, it does make the practitioner a more balanced person. This maybe should be a separate thread but in answering the original question, "too many arts?" No, just too many martial arts.

Fine. Throw cold water on my comedy.

My humor is rarely appreciated.

I appreciated your humor but I am also looking for some serious thoughts on the subject. Is the ideal and value of the gentleman warrior dead? Does crosstraining exclude non-martial arts? Can training in calligraphy increase your martial skills? Is it possible kaelcoster would be better off (in his martial pursuits) not training in yet another martial art but instead doing origomi? Were the warriors of old onto something or were they just wasteing time when they could have been training their fighting skills.

No one can truly master an art...all it means to be given a black belt and made a master..is that in someone elses point of view..you have the konwledge and skill needed to be given that title...
There is too much to learn to ever truly master an art..always more to learn

Be safe..
Neo

Also i would have to agree with Wristtwister

You're right. Being serious I do believe in those concepts. You have to have some poet to balace the warrior or you'll just burn in hot and fast. Always yin for the yang, that kind of thing. (cus hitting yang to yang just plain hurts too much )

Let him be. He is only 19 and things always decreases in inverse proportion to time.

Wow to be young again!!!!

I wish I could do this. Cross training in Wado Ryu and Ashihara is allot to take in consisting of a total of 29 Kata and 30+ 2 man techniques etc. Its alot to practice. Work tends to get in the way, I would love to learn Judo and Aikido to blackbelt level aswell as my current styles, but there's only 168 hours in the week.







Osu

Also thanks to 'everyone' lol you gave me something to think about which influenced me alot in the last couple of days. I am now looking at various non-martial art activities i can take up w my gf lol. And really also thanks to everyone haha confusing

Hello kaelcoster:

Always a fun question. I'm "old school" one unarmed, one healing practice, and one weapon art. You choose the order of study. Any one is more than sufficent, at any one time.

10 years, a good foundation, 20 a solid understanding. Side by side the person with 5 years will not be as depthful, nuanced, as subtle as the 20 year person studying a single art. Throw too many arts together at the same time and you get "martial succatash" technical chaos.

Merely my opinion, I am frequently mistaken...
Jeff