Quote:
Originally Posted by GTJ
The only drawback to cross training is that you arent likely to be too expert in any one of them, but I'll take being well-rounded and adaptable any day over being ingrained soley in one area.
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Yeah. That's what I say about MMA; jack of all trades and master of none.
A raised from scratch MMA fighter usually has really shitty striking... at the same time, they usually have a bit of trouble in a pure BJJ competition.
Personally, but, I prefer to master something, rather than jack everything.
I started with Wing Chun (WC, Kung Fu) and self taught Ninjutsu (which, regardless it was self taught, actually went quite well; I focused on all techniques in it aside fighting, as I used WC for that).
After a while, my WC teacher told me he also taught Brazilian Jiu Jutsu (BJJ) on other days to supplement his WC. So I started that as well, but only for a few months. I learned the basics, but.
I also did a tad of Karate then, but only learned 2 kicks. That inspired me to start doing self taught Tae Kwon Do later on as I enjoyed the back kicks. From TKD, which I still study, I only practice the single techniques, not the style. Because my current style only has basic kicks. I learn the kicks from an instructional DVD which is really in depth in explaining how to do them (probably more in depth than most teachers go).
I was in the Infantry for a bit. But that career flunked. Yet it gave me a taste of modern combat training (I completed 9 months of full time training before leaving it).
Now I've been doing Muay Thai for 2 years in Thailand. We also do a lot of Western Boxing in Muay Thai classes, as most the Muay Thai guys have also done pro Boxing fights and the two styles are very closely related nowadays.
Now I've decided to stick with Muay Thai supplemented with Tae Kwon Do advanced kicking, and Ninjutsu technique for fun. But I always keep an eye on other styles, mostly via the internet, to see what I might be up against and hear other peoples opinions on the matter.
Muay Thai is great, because it has the potential for a career in sport. But it also is good for the street. Training in it is mostly conditioning based; I mean, you only need to practice a kick so many times to learn it, but we continue to bash a bag for over an hour twice a day with the same kick during the whole career to keep those legs tough.
But being high on conditioning, it is of real benefit. It's hard to explain; just very powerful strikes and able to take a hard hit back.
The problem with cross training whilst doing Muay Thai, from a professional perspective, you're going to waste a lot of energy that you need to use training your Muay Thai conditioning. Let's say I did BJJ ground fighting for 3 days a week, and Muay Thai for 3 days. I'd literally only be half as good as a pro Muay Thai. So it isn't practical if you want to excel 100% in the style.
Then you've to consider do you really need to cross train to be rounded? Well, I don't think so. Most people would only do it for UFC or street, nothing else.
If you want to fight UFC then
cross train. Yes. But if you want to fight street, best stick with a single style and only briefly train the rest for experience.
You can rarely ground fight on the street, anyway. Why? Most street fights are against multiple opponents; you'll get your head stomped. When it is against a single opponent, he's usually larger than you; don't wrestle with big guys. The chances of being in a 1 on 1 evenly weighed street fight is much smaller, and even if you are, you could just use striking then.
Also, you don't need to worry about how to counter a professional BJJ master on the street. The chances of getting into a fight with someone trained in that style competantly on the street when you wern't looking for it is 1 in a billion or something. Don't be silly.
I think that covers everything.