My last
post, The Way of the Intercepting Fist, reminds me of a debate which has raged in the martial arts for
longer than it may be possible to know, a question to which every martial
artist must ultimately find their own answer. The debate is a simple one: is it
best to study one style, and concentrate solely a single system of fighting, or
is it better to branch out and gain experience in a variety of different
styles, potentially sacrificing depth of learning? This question ultimately
frames a trade-off like those found throughout the animal kingdom; a limited
supply of something (in this case, our energy, time, money, and attention) must
be allocated among many possible candidates. This can be compared to different
types of animals which allocate different amounts of parental care to their
offspring; for example, elephants, which can take a year to even give birth to
a growing baby, and then will care for it long into subadulthood. By contrast,
sea turtles will lay thousands of thousands of eggs in their lifetime,
producing just as many young, but provide absolutely no parental care beyond
burying these eggs, and about 99% of young are lost to predators.
So, do
we specialize, like the elephant, and put all our “eggs” in one basket, or do
we generalize, like the sea turtle, and spread our efforts far and wide, and
gain great breadth of experience in our training? On one hand, we will have
great, focused depth in our learning, and on the other a wide range of preparation
and experience.
Starting
my martial arts career as a Jeet Kune Do enthusiast, I never thought much of
this question; interdisciplinary practice (“cross training” in other martial
arts) is a central part of Jeet Kune Do, and I never doubted that it was the
wisest and best route. More recently, though, as my training has matured, I
have become more moderate in my views, and started to appreciate the rapid
progress one can develop in concentrating their training and specializing in a
single style.
I have
since then become more moderate in my thinking, and am convinced that the
answer to the specialist vs. generalist problem is different for every martial
artist; we all come to the martial arts seeking something different, and
different combinations of specialization and interdisciplinary training will be
necessary to achieve those goals.
As a
resource for myself and fellow martial artists, though, I would like to lay out
this debate as it has played in my head and write on both side of the argument.
The martial arts are full of deception and contradiction; teachings can seem antipodal and mutually exclusive, yet in my
experience, the clearest truths most often arise from the simultaneous acknowledgement of seemingly irreconcilable views
of reality. In many arts, for example, students are first told to be "relaxed, but tense", or told to "use less muscle, be less forceful" one moment, and "give it all they've got" the next; at first, it sounds like the teacher is contradicting his or herself, but often one finds that such contradictions are only in appearance, and beneath it all there is a unifying truth.
The two sides of this debate are one expression of the Yin and Yang of martial arts training, two inseparable parts, opposite forces which tug at the student, and in which she or he should fine her or his personal balance, matched to their individual needs and goals. Through the awareness of polar opposites, like a tightrope walker balanced by two ends of a long stick, we find our center point. It's my hope that in exploring this debate I can offer a resource to examine the truth underlying this central contradiction in martial arts training.
The two sides of this debate are one expression of the Yin and Yang of martial arts training, two inseparable parts, opposite forces which tug at the student, and in which she or he should fine her or his personal balance, matched to their individual needs and goals. Through the awareness of polar opposites, like a tightrope walker balanced by two ends of a long stick, we find our center point. It's my hope that in exploring this debate I can offer a resource to examine the truth underlying this central contradiction in martial arts training.
For my
next two posts, I will outline my thoughts supporting each side of this debate,
which I will call “One Style, Many Styles”, and encourage readers to examine
their own preferences along the spectrum of specialization to generalization.
Please comment and share your own thoughts and experiences on the subject; I
welcome the input and am always looking for new insights into this fascinating
argument.
