BB Magazine Article--More Than Six Months of Any Martial Art Unnecessary

[Tony10]

I think that's the point, Ryu and everybody above: of course you have to continuously train your skills, but after six months of any martial art (assuming you go more than once a week), anything you learn you're probably not going to use in a street fight.

Let's use BJJ as an example: in a streetfight, could you ever see yourself using:

a) a clock choke?
b) a helicopter sweep?
c) an escape from a cradle hold?

However, one could easily imagine using:

a) a rear naked
b) an arm bar
c) the guard

So let me turn this jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none argument around for the hell of it, while acknowledging (as a JKDer) what Mike said--I think that five ranges thing is a great rule of thumb--but consider this:

For self-defense, would you rather:

a) Be able to perform the: axe, spinning crescent, crescent, jumping roundhouse kicks... or... have fight-ending power in a side, round and front kick (just those three)?

b) Be able to master all the tricky stick movements of Kali with blinding speed.... or, have a devastating caveman strike?

c) Be able to master numerous blue-and-above gi chokes and submissions, or: have an awesome mount, an awesome guard, awesome escapes and a quick and deadly arm bar?

So if we're just talking street, who's the real JOATMON? The master of the basics, or the guy who's basically a master at (fill in the blank)?

[MikeJKD]

I think that Ryu is right, too. The more you train the "advanced" stuff, the more likely you are to find the basics under pressure. There is a reason we train both self-preservation and self-perfection. The so called advanced stuff is just a more in-depth way to look at the basics (if it's done right) and since reality is constantly shifting the way people fight, then a student NEEDS to put in consistent time over a lot of years to keep up with the changing times.
Mike