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It is my personal belief that it is up to the student to train their heart out to become proficient in any martial art system; I like the quote about the practitioner who trained only one kata day in day out. However, I am not a fan of the purist attitude taken on by many martial arts instructors. I refer to the idea that this or that art is better so one should train solely in one.
In my personal experience, and I will use real names; screw the innocent and the not so innocent. I had been teaching Kali in the Calgary Taekwon-Do Academy (WTF School) in Calgary, Alberta (Canada). The owner sold the school to Master Cha a 6th Degree Black Belt in TKD from Korea. Master Cha also teaches "Hae Dong Geum Do" a Korean Sword Art.
Since then he has changed the name to Red Phonenix Taekwon-Do and Martial Arts Centre (I believe you must teach more that one art to be a martial arts centre). Master Cha and his wife disallowed me from teaching the art of Kali at their school any further. I had 3 times slots, a Tuesday and Thursday that was for 45 minutes each, and a Sunday night for 2 hours (the school isn’t even open on Sundays). Their reasoning, they didn't want to confuse the students of who the instructor was, and they didn't want to blend the Korean Weapon art or Taekwon-Do for that matter with a Filipino art, obviously a BS reason. My personal thoughts on the matter, Master Cha wanted to limit his student to no outside influence of other martial arts, that way Master Cha can teach all the BS he wants without his students knowing that there is more than what is given to them. This post may exhibit a bias of my hard feelings considering they gave me and my students a week to find a new school (we ended up training in a local park while it rained that week).
The main point of my Message is Blending and Cross Training of Arts is a must, and should be promoted by instructors! For Example a purist Taekwon-Do practitioner mostly training in a purely stand up empty hand art, would have little or no chance in a weapons fight, or a ground fight. Each system has its strong points, and its weak points. Therefore, my belief is that including one or more systems to your personal tool belt can only strengthen.
Respectfully,
Jonathan Henn
In my personal experience, and I will use real names; screw the innocent and the not so innocent. I had been teaching Kali in the Calgary Taekwon-Do Academy (WTF School) in Calgary, Alberta (Canada). The owner sold the school to Master Cha a 6th Degree Black Belt in TKD from Korea. Master Cha also teaches "Hae Dong Geum Do" a Korean Sword Art.
Since then he has changed the name to Red Phonenix Taekwon-Do and Martial Arts Centre (I believe you must teach more that one art to be a martial arts centre). Master Cha and his wife disallowed me from teaching the art of Kali at their school any further. I had 3 times slots, a Tuesday and Thursday that was for 45 minutes each, and a Sunday night for 2 hours (the school isn’t even open on Sundays). Their reasoning, they didn't want to confuse the students of who the instructor was, and they didn't want to blend the Korean Weapon art or Taekwon-Do for that matter with a Filipino art, obviously a BS reason. My personal thoughts on the matter, Master Cha wanted to limit his student to no outside influence of other martial arts, that way Master Cha can teach all the BS he wants without his students knowing that there is more than what is given to them. This post may exhibit a bias of my hard feelings considering they gave me and my students a week to find a new school (we ended up training in a local park while it rained that week).
The main point of my Message is Blending and Cross Training of Arts is a must, and should be promoted by instructors! For Example a purist Taekwon-Do practitioner mostly training in a purely stand up empty hand art, would have little or no chance in a weapons fight, or a ground fight. Each system has its strong points, and its weak points. Therefore, my belief is that including one or more systems to your personal tool belt can only strengthen.
Respectfully,
Jonathan Henn
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