Unique individual way.

[Richard Kerr]

What ever Martial Art I have trained in I have always tried to apply the moves into my freestyle yet more often than not the techniques are hard to apply in the way they are taught therefore they change shape slightly thus creating a different form for every individual.

I think this can be said for every system and this is why there are so many out their. The trick I feel is finding a unique way that suits you as a unique individual through trial and error, and remember practice makes better.

Is there one system that suits all?

[nutter]

I ain't an individual right mate, so I do it the proper way.

[Richard Kerr]

I ain't an individual right mate, so I do it the proper way.

Your not? Ok then so your practicing Sheep style. Keep copying and following, see what happens.

[danfaggella]

Ignore the "mates" with me Rich.

No there certainly isn't a system of effective martial art (self-defense or sport) that fits everyone perfectly, everyone has to tweek things a bit for thier preferance of size or whatever. Bruce Lee was big on advocating this, and so am I: Practice legitimate martial arts, beleive in no gospel truths, take from everyting what you can, throw out what is flashy or simply does not work. This is a good way to develope sharp, truely effective skill, in the street and the ring.

Keep learning and tweeking and developing!

[J-Luck]

Ignore the "mates" with me Rich.

No there certainly isn't a system of effective martial art (self-defense or sport) that fits everyone perfectly, everyone has to tweek things a bit for thier preferance of size or whatever. Bruce Lee was big on advocating this, and so am I: Practice legitimate martial arts, beleive in no gospel truths, take from everyting what you can, throw out what is flashy or simply does not work. This is a good way to develope sharp, truely effective skill, in the street and the ring.

Keep learning and tweeking and developing!

Danfagella... were you at Daymons' UFC party? Mat was there, but I didnt know some of the people there. I didnt know if you came with him or not.

[Richard Kerr]

Ignore the "mates" with me Rich.

No there certainly isn't a system of effective martial art (self-defense or sport) that fits everyone perfectly, everyone has to tweek things a bit for thier preferance of size or whatever. Bruce Lee was big on advocating this, and so am I: Practice legitimate martial arts, beleive in no gospel truths, take from everyting what you can, throw out what is flashy or simply does not work. This is a good way to develope sharp, truely effective skill, in the street and the ring.

Keep learning and tweeking and developing!

Thanks for your insight.

[danfaggella]

J-Luck: No I didn't know about that, was in Boston on saturay anyways. How was it though?

PS: Have you ever grappled Matty? What do you think of him?

Kerr: Anytime man, what you are talking about it what I adore, and what I strive for daily, in all aspects of life (martial arts, chess, ect....)

[gregimotis]

I guess I tweak them all into myself eventually, but I like to feel like I 'know' an art. By that I mean, I want to understand why it's done this way and what sort of philosophy goes into it.

Aikido is a good example of a style with a philosophy and a character. Western boxing also has a character and Muay Thai's personality is different than boxing. It's hard for me to define these personalities in words, I suppose it's a combination of history and culture and technique and application.

As I've gained this insight over the years, I've started training whatever style I'm training now as a pure style. I try not to blend it in my mind with other things until after I think I'm seeing the 'mind' of the style if you will. I'm sure this is not a unique approach, but I came up with it myself and I find it more satisfiying than the 'MMA' approach. I'd decribe that as studing everything as a hybrid and immediatly discarding what won't work outside the original styles ruleset



Do others who have studied a variety of arts relate to this at all?

[danfaggella]

Oh of course. When some people first walk in BJJ they won't feel like certain things are effective, but for one to start widdling away at technique they need to spar with the moves and fully understand the concepts and techniques. I haven't really thrown that much out of my training, because I havent trained for years and years, but certain techniques click, and certain techniques need to be done differently for different people, and often even a master of such a style will have no problem with such tweaks because they work better for some people or in some situations. I just like to understand the concepts, principles and techniques of all different style and work with it all, use what I can use when I spar, see what I like and analyze stuff, try to understand things. I relate to you, definitely.

Please go into more detail on the "MMA" appraoch, is sounds like your tapping into a cool perspective on how different people cross train and I always love perspective.

[gregimotis]

Please go into more detail on the "MMA" appraoch

By that I only meant to only consider styles based on your goal and not as individual concepts. So for instance, if self defense is your goal, you might not bother at all with the guard game in BJJ excepting how to get off your back quickly. On the other hand if you are training for MMA you would see that the western boxing stance commits way to much to the front leg (opening up the danger of shoots and thigh kicks) and not train that way at all.

In both cases, the student is not really learning the styles, rather they are learning the parts of the styles which contribute to thier current goal. If a person is driven by a goal then this is probably a more efficient way to train. To me however, training this way would rob a person of appreciation for the various styles.

[danfaggella]

You're talking about eliminating stuff prior to really understanding its purpose?

PS: I know what you mean about that front leg thing, I tend to lead a lot on that front leg, mainly because I'm more confident in my jab-cross and my kicking.

[Richard Kerr]

I guess I tweak them all into myself eventually, but I like to feel like I 'know' an art. By that I mean, I want to understand why it's done this way and what sort of philosophy goes into it.

Aikido is a good example of a style with a philosophy and a character. Western boxing also has a character and Muay Thai's personality is different than boxing. It's hard for me to define these personalities in words, I suppose it's a combination of history and culture and technique and application.

As I've gained this insight over the years, I've started training whatever style I'm training now as a pure style. I try not to blend it in my mind with other things until after I think I'm seeing the 'mind' of the style if you will. I'm sure this is not a unique approach, but I came up with it myself and I find it more satisfiying than the 'MMA' approach. I'd decribe that as studing everything as a hybrid and immediatly discarding what won't work outside the original styles ruleset



Do others who have studied a variety of arts relate to this at all?

Your way of thinking is very interesting and yes in my prime I learnt in the same way you do.

[Richard Kerr]

J-Luck: No I didn't know about that, was in Boston on saturay anyways. How was it though?

PS: Have you ever grappled Matty? What do you think of him?

Kerr: Anytime man, what you are talking about it what I adore, and what I strive for daily, in all aspects of life (martial arts, chess, ect....)

Chess and Martial Arts compliment each other.

[Richard Kerr]

By that I only meant to only consider styles based on your goal and not as individual concepts. So for instance, if self defense is your goal, you might not bother at all with the guard game in BJJ excepting how to get off your back quickly. On the other hand if you are training for MMA you would see that the western boxing stance commits way to much to the front leg (opening up the danger of shoots and thigh kicks) and not train that way at all.

In both cases, the student is not really learning the styles, rather they are learning the parts of the styles which contribute to thier current goal. If a person is driven by a goal then this is probably a more efficient way to train. To me however, training this way would rob a person of appreciation for the various styles.

Excellent, I like your way of percieving things.

[Richard Kerr]

By that I only meant to only consider styles based on your goal and not as individual concepts. So for instance, if self defense is your goal, you might not bother at all with the guard game in BJJ excepting how to get off your back quickly. On the other hand if you are training for MMA you would see that the western boxing stance commits way to much to the front leg (opening up the danger of shoots and thigh kicks) and not train that way at all.

In both cases, the student is not really learning the styles, rather they are learning the parts of the styles which contribute to thier current goal. If a person is driven by a goal then this is probably a more efficient way to train. To me however, training this way would rob a person of appreciation for the various styles.

Yes, I can see your way of looking at this subject.