What is Your Personal Martial Arts System?

What is Your Personal Martial Arts System?

Whether you study a traditional martial art or you just dabble with some techniques that you have seen on television, you have an individual path in the martial arts that is unique to you and only you.  Even if you are in a class of fifty other people who are all doing the exact moves and katas as you are, yours are different then theirs are.  Your techniques might be faster with less strength than the large man practicing behind you.  Of clumsy in comparison to the eight year old kid in front of you.  Both of your techniques might be performed perfectly and yet they are different.

Most systems of learning the martial arts have a master list of moves that the student is taught at each level of training.  One level generally ads upon the last to build you up to be an expert in that system of study.  But even if you follow the lessons to the letter all the way through many years of training and receive your black belt, your personal system of the martial arts will be different from someone else who could have started the exact same day as you did and tested at the same test.  The foundation of Your system might be the traditional system that you studied but Your art is your own.

With the popularity of MMA fighting in the world it has become more accepted to have a martial artist alter their path of training to fill in the holes that they have for their own person style of fighting.  Most fighters would tell you today that no system is perfect for any one person so they have to pick and choose the skills that they need to be successful.

I don't have interest in cage fighting myself but I have been following my own personal system for over thirty years now.  I wasn't able to study at the one and only club we had in my area due to the financial state of my family for more than two months.  I loved the martial arts from the first time I saw them on television and with what little training I received I was hooked.  I took a dirt floored end of the basement of the apartment house we lived in and created my own dojo.  I made a kicking bag out of an old pair of jeans filled with other clothes and rags.  I tied the legs together and wrapped it in about forty rolls of electrical tape.  I then hung it from the sewer pipe to the toilet and I was in business. (I have to say that the plumbing in that house was impressive because I beat that thing up regularly. )

I developed my own system mostly with kicks and punches, as I didn't have anyone willing to let me practice on them.  (I did say willing) I developed great balance and skill but ultimately what I was after was this idea I had of what a black belt was.  I had no way of getting a black belt from a traditional school so I set out creating a list of techniques and mandatory practice requirements for each level so that I could promote myself through my own system.  I set my standards roughly twice as hard as what I knew the standards were for my local club so that I could feel confident in the rank I had. (even if I never told anyone)

I trained for hours every day meeting the requirements that I had set to move myself farther in my system.  I made it into the third degree black belt phase before I graduated from high school and went into the Army.  I was lucky to be stationed in Korea for my first duty assignment and I experience the culture where most of my techniques came from. I got to do some training with the Korean soldiers who seemed to know the martial arts like kids back home knew how to play kickball.

It wasn't till my second assignment in Colorado where I received my formal first and second degree black belts in Tae Kwon Do.  I trained in a couple of different systems while there which only reminded me of the holes in my training.  I was deadly in a kicking contest but a simple body shoot took me out of my element and I was helpless on the ground against someone who knew how to fight there.  Since then I have trained extensively in Jui Jutsu, Aikido, Aikijutsu, Taejutsu and many others to learn the art of fighting on the ground and in close quarters.  It was only because I had received my formal black belts that I felt justified adding  these other systems to my own style of training.

It has not been a respected path to create your own martial arts system, let alone promote yourself to black belt.  That is precisely what I am suggesting that you do with one small change to the plan.  The title of black belt is a very time tested and respected rank for which I have no desire to tarnish.  My suggestion involves levels of training instead of belts. (I will discuss this in another blog)

Before I get to far into that let me explain more about why you should create your own personal system of study.
        First, because every person is different.  They have different talents and natural athletic abilities.  They have different body types from those who are tall and skinny to those of you who are built more like a fire hydrant.  They have different values.  Some are more interested in the spiritual side of training and others are interested more is self defense and street survival.

Second, every person needs to be part of the building process and hold themselves to standards that they set themselves.  They may still be studying traditional arts and using those standards as a base line but they will feel more invested if they place additional standards on their training.

Lastly because perhaps they find yourself in a similar situation that I did where there just isn't a place for them to train in another style of the martial arts.

Ultimately it is about you and your personal growth.  You need to decide what an expert looks like in your system and actively aspire for that in your life.  This include, not only technique, but fitness, diet, spiritual growth educational growth and sharing your journey with others.  Being part of a community of like minded people is essential to your personal growth.  I heard it said that we become the average of the five people that we spend the most time with.  I choose to spend more time with martial artists who value the path to mastery through the simple acts of martial practice.  I hope that this means you.

My wish is that you let this idea roll around in your mind for a while and see if it feels like the right path for you.  Perhaps you are a seasoned martial artist and would be willing to help me build a library of techniques for future students to use to develop their own system.  Either way feel free to send me a message by either commenting here or on my Google plus page.  

Again, I thank you for sticking around and reading this.  I hope that it inspires you to start putting together a list of things that you want to study.  I hope to have some techniques up on YouTube at some point.  But until then Just Keep Climbing.       Keith