Question 084: Which martial art for me?

Cross training is an option, but cross training causes problems when in self-defense situations where you must make instantaneous decisions and actions. When you cross train ,and are in this type of situation, your brain takes too long to access the situation and take action. For example, let us say you are a businessman who travels frequently between the United States and Great Britain, and you drive a lot in each country. Everything about driving in the two counties is about the same except you drive on different sides of the car and the road. After awhile, you will probably be able to drive effectively in both countries, but when a child suddenly runs in front of the car, how will you brain react? Will it have the correct foot press the correct pedal, or will you swerve in the correct direction?

When you spar with kick boxers using their rules, you feel awkward. If they spar with you using Taekwondo rules, they will also feel awkward. Football and flag football are played basically the same, but they are different enough that players from one will feel awkward when playing the other.

Self-defense skills are a good thing to have, but for 95% of the people, they will never be needed. Most martial art masters who have trained their whole lives in their arts have never had to use their skills on the street. If this was their only goal in their training, then all the training would have been a waste of time. However, they trained in the martial arts for other reasons that made their lives better for it. There is still a possibility you may need to defend yourself. If this occurs, you may not have the best techniques for it, but you will have techniques that are effective.

You just have to decide what it is you want to do in the martial arts and then do. You can be a subject matter expert at one thing, or be generally knowledgeable about everything but an expert at nothing. Just make decision on a martial art, an instructor, and an organization that best suits your purposes and is available to you, and go for it.