Switching Martial Arts?

I have switched from various styles. My first was from Shotokan to Thai Boxing which was done because I had moved. three years after that I changed from MT to Shito Ryu because again I moved. Four years later I tried an eclectic style which Incorporated various arts because I had to move. two years later I felt that I was only learning by visiting other schools and that all the "instructor" did was hold sparing session and had little knowledge of what he was really teaching. I moved to a school which taught a traditional style of Okinawan Karate and stayed there for 6 years even though I moved 2 hrs away. I left that style for the one I have been learning and teaching for the last 7 years and have never looked back. The last one was because even though I was loyal to my instructor and school, I did not feel that I was getting the same loyalty. My last Sensei was a extremely capable 80 year old Okinawan who I met by accident and took me into his home. He was one of two people who were documented as breaking someone elses makiwara.

As you can see the main reason for my leaving a style was moving. Changes were relatively easy except for my last one. I had hit heavy bags without gloves before but it was not until my last Sensei that I started hitting Makiwara 200x a day. The skin on my knuckles had to calcify over time. The other thing was that the style of punching got me more power than ever before. People can now hear my arms and legs when I punch or kick. When I began I would get an odd type of pain my forearms but it eventually went away.

Kata were also different as they were done in a more natural stance than I was used. Then each move was practiced at the makiwara again.

Hi there,

I trained Judo for 3 years, from 2010 to 2013, and I found that although it was a great fitness tool, an excellent confidence booster and a cool way to test yourself against a resistant training partner; it sadly lacked in what I wanted most from Martial arts, which was the ability to protect myself on the streets.

So I switched to Wing Tsun after a friend recommended it to me. I've been training for about a year now and it's definitely what I was looking for! The movements are easy to learn, principles are very logical, it's very practical and I have a great instructor.

(I also found that when I went back to Judo on the odd occasion, a brown belt student and friend of mine mentioned that I was a lot more "centered" after training Wing Tsun, and I found it easier to relax)

Anyway, that's my transition from Judo to Wing Tsun. It was hard to stay committed at first but now I'll stick with it for a good while (that is until I want to try something new!)

- Joe

just like martial ars evolves so should a martial artist. I think there comes a time when you need to not only challenge yourself physically but mentally too. Continuing your learnng and putting together what you know in other styles and seeing how things benifit one another is the road some chose to follow some even reinvent styles that they have learned and make a new one out of what they've studied its all the process of evolution. You need to find your calling and try it and if its not right for you you need to keep learning until you find your nich. Maybe you'll find out you would lke to study more than one style or a mix you will never know until you try it. Its easy to be a big fish in a small pond and in the end that doesnt benifits you for long. Its a preference of trial and error to find sucess.

It depends on what style one is changing from. If one is an adult, say female, of average strength for a female, and is a practitioner of a submission art, somehow find themselves battling a much larger male, also a practitioner of the same, I don't care how good she is, odds are if she lands on the ground, mass and strength are going to defeat her. Someone like that is better off striking, and running, or at least staying mobile. If she is quicker than the larger one, she has a chance to stay on her feet, deliver strikes that will incapacitate them, allowing her to run safely.

Problems encountered would be learning something completely new, and depending how her training was wired into her brain, she would need to break the instinct to grapple and replace it with strike.

Why switch? Wouldn't it be easier to add to what you already know? It definitely would safe time. Yes, I trained in several disciplines to add on to what I already had, not to replace. I started in Karate and needed more agility so I got into Chinese Kung Fu. I got into Taiji when I was injured longer term and used it for my physical therapy. I found relaxation in the techniques at the right time made my Karate faster so I added that. I also was never taught real well the grapling and joint locks in Karate so I asked an Aikijutsu teacher to help me out in that department and he has done a great job teaching me the basics and principles of this part in Karate and I added this and still am working on it.

When you throw things away you have to start over. That's a lot of waste. When you have understanding you can salvage and add.

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