What's your opinion on cross training?

Cross training in not necessary. However, that is a choice that the individual makes for themselves.

The problem is that people ignorantly view styles as a striking style or grappling style. When the facts are that if you have a good teacher that is teaching their art it has both striking as well as grappling. Since you mentioned TKD I'll use it for an example. When taught correctly not just as a sport you will learn to strike, choke, joint locks, pins, throws, pressure points, vital strikes, etc. Therefore it is not a striking style. But if you in in a school that focuses mostly on a sports version of the art you are likely not to be taught certain aspects of the art. It then becomes what Sensei Scandal refers to as a partial art. This is because it is only teach a portion of the art and not the complete system.

The reality is that if you are learning a true traditional or classical martial art you will learn all different aspects of f\self defense. Then there is no need to go to a different style to learn how to fight on the ground as you will learn that in time in your school, You won't need to change to a different school to learn joint locks as you will learn them in you school, etc.

Many are misled to believe that arts like judo does not include striking or that it is not for self defense. The reality that it does include striking but often many schools aren't teaching the striking or that the students don't stay in the school long enough to learn the striking techniques and strategies that are taught in judo. Judo also teaches weapons defense but many school haven't kept it in their curriculum. Some thing are taught only at a Dan level. Some school may begin introducing these things to their students sooner.

I've studied judo in different schools. In one school we learn self defense. We were taught weapon defense, multiple attacker defenses, striking, etc. The other school it was purely Olympic Judo. There was no striking or self defense. No one took a swing at me and that forced me to take that strike and throw and choke the guy out.

Had my only experience been that 2nd school I would have believed the judo was only a sport. I would have thought that judo was grappling only. But it is a close quarter combat art.

I am against it for the most part especially if we are talking about a person that has limited time to train and practice and is new to martial and/or fighting arts. Most individuals don't have enough time and energy to devote to learning and training in one art-much less two. Then there is the question of if they are closely aligned or similar and will confuse a new student. I am never in favor of someone doing that which might create confusion for the student learning and developing a good foundation in an art and sometimes two arts at the same time will do that; especially for novice type students. Once a student has studied something for 3-5 years and developed a really good foundation and understanding of things in that art and they have the additional time to take up another then I am much more open to the idea. There are some students I still don't recommend doing it even if they want to and I would always tell students and fighters that they had to talk to me first before doing so. The reason for this was also based on the student and how well they were doing and if they struggled with learning and developing things. Students that struggled a lot or had a lot of problems with learning things and meeting my expectations and standards I would never support taking up something else. That would usually be a drain on their time, effort, and energy with me and hurt them and their progress and jeopardize them being ready for testing and that was something I always considered and was up front about with them. It does have it positive aspects to it as well though so I do support it but I say that with some of the things in mind like what I mention. Occasionally I would get some push-back about it from a student. Usually once I sat down and talked to them about it as it related to them and their situation they would accede to my wishes and opinion about this.

Cross training in my oppinion is the only way to truly be well rounded and proficient since most arts don't do such a great job teaching both striking and ground work.

Really mixing any striking art with a ground art will make you deadly enough to put most people down.

Whether its Muay Thai and jiu jitsu, or kickboxing and sambo.

as for mixing striking arts I personally find that my old karate experience made me a better fighter once formal MMA training made me break bad habits.

I throw my power kicks to the body and legs with the goal of breaking an arm if they block. They are very powerful, but Because i step into them I telegraph way too much. So I would never land one of these on the head. So I use a more traditional karate round kick to the head focusing on speed, and snap since it doesn't take much for a KO on a chin shot. So taking the best from each striking arts has its merits as well.

I think cross training is not wise if you are a beginner to martial arts and should only be done if you have done martial arts for about 5 to 10yrs. Bc, mixing several arts can cause confusion and a blend of the art.

I know I do it. I call it dabbling. I like Muay Thai, BJJ, Krav Maga, and Judo. For me it's no problem and I transition easily into those arts.

However some martial arts are so different from eachother it would be hard to adjust and other things.

Depends I suppose.

What is your goal? I ask because many martial art styles achieve a goal through different means. In other words, the way you throw a roundhouse in Muay Thai is sometimes very different from Taekwondo. What do you want to get out of Muay Thai that you can't get at a good Taekwondo Dojang?

I think how you define cross-training has a big impact on how I'd view it - I'm against style hopping and I hate the way a lot of people define MMA as taking elements from different martial arts and combining them - I just think that's putting too much stock in having technique rather than actually learning to use them.

Muay Thai and Taekwondo for example are almost identical in the techniques contained within those styles, the difference between the pair is which of those techniques are favored by the sport that the style has become identified with, some schools take that to a degree where they only teach the art to be used in the sport, in that kind of case I agree with JW Bulldogs that the competition aspect has become a detriment to that particular school and by extension that school may become a detriment to the style. People watch Olympic Taekwondo and believe that TKD only practices kicks and doesn't enforce keeping the hands up to defend the head. People watch Muay Thai in kickboxing matches and believe that the style contains no throws or joint manipulations. Both Muay Thai and Taekwondo are actually very complete styles on a technical level but because of the competitions and the rules that they contain the sparring experience that you'll gain from training with them is vastly different and that's what makes it worth training with both of them.

If you can find a teacher who teaches everything that a style has to offer you can learn everything that you need to know for fighting in all three of the major elements, striking, clinching and ground-work.

But that's just knowledge and in martial arts knowledge alone just won't cut it "Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. Wisdom is knowing it still has no place in a fruit salad" this is where I believe in cross-training. Both Muay Thai and Taekwondo contain punches but they don't practice it to anywhere near the extent that a Boxer does - trade punches with a classy Boxer and you'll soon realize just how average your Muay Thai or Taekwondo teacher was at using their hands, it's not the technique that separates the Boxer from The Muay Thai or Taekwondo student it's the time spent practicing that particular skill.

Both Muay Thai and Taekwondo contain ground-work but even schools that teach it don't practice it to anywhere near the same extent as a Brazilian Jiujitsu school or a Wrestling academy. Both Muay Thai and Taekwondo contain throws but neither have the kind of emphasis on that skill as a Judo Club will.

If you've learned at a club that only teaches for a particular rule-set by all means you can go to other schools to learn new techniques but if you've learned at a general school then what you'd be wanting from cross-training is experience against fighters who specialize in refined areas or just fighters who have different emphasis to your own.

It can be helpful or not. Many variables.

I do not recommend "cross-training" (that is an inaccurate term) to beginners or new people at all.

Once you have a good foundation, it may be of help to you. I even found it enlightening to train with other teachers in the same style. That is not technically cross training, but you get information from a new perspective.

You are training a martial artist (yourself), and what ever you learn enough to use is them part of that art you can call your own.

I am a Shotokan guy. there are some more of those here. Something new could be learnt from each of them, just like one could learn much (as I have) from the goju guys.

Cross train if you can after becoming versed in your basics (1st or 2nd black belt), and you should have no regrets.

I am a very big proponent of cross-training but a person should first study one art or type of fighting first for several years before taking up another. This is especially true if they are similar in nature like two stand-up striking arts for instance. Unfortunately many instead rush this entire process and don't develop their skills in that first art fully enough before taking up a second one. That first one or primary one then is in some ways a weakness for them a lot of times and they lack a really strong foundation in any art or type of fighting even after taking up a second one.

I also think they should try to take up arts that shore up weaknesses and compliment each other. By that I mean a stand-up art with a grappling type art so that a person is more rounded in their skills, knowledge, and ability. That way they are less likely to develop bad habits and encounter confusion than when taking up two arts that are similar in nature but yet different in their approaches to aspects that they might have in common or share techniques for.

In closing one of the examples I use and give students and fighters is the following. If you were going to have someone build you a house and you had two carpenters to choose from, which one would you choose? One carpenter has a semi tractor trailer full of tools and equipment but can't use that so well. The other has only a pick-up full of tools and equipment but can use that in his truck extremely well. Who would you pick to build your home?

Even younger students, or those with little intelligence will say they want the second and would choose him to build their home almost every time. They can even see and understand the value of ability, experience, and quality over quantity. Unfortunately though some or many take the kitchen sink approach to cross-training. They rush it and them taking up a second art way too soon and often think that the more things they cross-train in the better they will be and include anything and everything they can. Instead they should narrow that down and be more patient and focused in their approach, developing their skills to a higher level in just the first art before taking up a second and then focus on just those two for some time before delving into any others.

My opinion is:

* Any traditional style has everything you need in it. But the question is always does the instructor know and teach all of the style. The truth is very few do these days. The odds are that they do not know the whole style, or that the students don;t spend enough time training to ever learn everything.

* I have no problem with cross training. But I see most young people grabbing a few techniques from this style and that. They never develop or fully understand what they do. to them martial arts is nothing more than a bunch of techniques. Every one has a different mix. If someone is planning to cross train and they study a traditional style then I think they would get much more out of cross training if they would not cross train until they have a strong basis in their original style. That to me means 10 to 15 years of serious training minimum.

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Cross training is not always needed.