Eclectic Martial Arts

I received an email from an Isshinryu stylist in New York. He wrote: "How does TKD compare to Isshinryu? Do you incorporate any Isshinryu into your TKD regimen? It seems to me that styles today (as taught) are more eclectic than in the past, which is a good thing." This was my response:

Taekwondo and Isshinryu are very similar and very different. TKD achieves power by dropping your weight into a technique. The adjustment from rotating my hips was difficult. Now I probably do a combination of both, and my punches are pretty strong if I do say so myself... I wouldn't say that I consciously blend Isshinryu with TKD, but it probably happens anyway. I also trained in muay Thai when I was an intern in Arizona (summer/fall 1995) and that also had a profound impact on how I punch. I don't think it's possible to train in any style for a significant amount of time (which varies from style-to-style and person-to-person) and not have your technique affected by it. It's like an intimate relationship: No matter how long it was, you're a different person because of it...

Grandmaster Choi trained under General Choi Hong Hi, the founder of Taekwondo. To call him "traditional" would be an understatement. There aren't many 72-year old grandmasters who still run their own school and teach six days per week, but Grandmaster Choi does. He has many fourth- and fifth-degree black belts, a sixth-degree and seventh-degree black belt who are his students. They don't run their own schools and show up occasionally, they're in class just like the white belts. Most of them take private lessons due to their schedules and the more advanced techniques he teaches high black belts, but he's still the teacher and they're the student.

I don't necessarily agree that teaching eclectic styles is a good thing. Too often people get a black belt and think that's it. They move on, maybe start a new style, open their own school, but never really take the time to explore the deeper aspects of the style. Eclectic styles tend to be very superficial. They supposedly take the "best" of this style and the "best" of that style, but all the instructor is doing is blending techniques they know and like. The "best" of any style is something those instructors may never have learned because they didn't stick around long enough to learn it.

I think that as a student it's not a bad thing to incorporate other styles into your "arsenal." Like I wrote earlier, my muay Thai training taught me a lot about power, how to use my knees and elbows, and how to block a low kick with my lead leg. I do those leg blocks in sparring, but when I throw a roundhouse kick in one of my TKD forms it looks like a TKD roundhouse kick, not a muay Thai roundhouse kick. Your arsenal should always have one style that is your main style, chosen through careful consideration of what works for you. If my arsenal were a bouquet of flowers, there would be a dozen red roses (because I like red roses best) with some other nice flowers in for a change of color and to complement the roses. The roses are TKD and the other flowers are the other styles in which I've trained. I wouldn't try to create a new flower that is a cross between them all because that would destroy the beauty of the individual flowers!