“Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.” ―Matsu Basho
The Breakthrough
I believe that is possible to master all of Martial Arts – Karate, Kung Fu, Jujutsu, you name it. Don’t believe me? Well, keep reading….
The first question that most people tend to ask is “Which style is the best?” The answer is ALL of them, and NONE of them. Contradictory? Well, that is the problem. In order to comprehend the complete body of knowledge of Martial Arts it would be necessary to study everything. That is because each Martial Arts style is specialized and comprises only a portion of the greater body of knowledge available. There is no comprehensive system that has it all. In fact, I challenge anyone to make such a claim. The closest that I have found is probably Aikijutsu, which is basically a suppository of battle-tested techniques compiled by Samurai over hundreds of years.
However, even if you were able to get your hands on every technique that ever existed, the problem is that it isn’t organized in any way that makes sense or can be easily studied. All you would have is an overwhelming sea of information. What you need instead are the core concepts or the boiled-down fundamentals that exist within all of Martial Arts. This would be the senior technology – this would be the Ultimate Martial Art, from which all others styles can be derived. But what is it? Where can you learn it? The truth is that it has never existed…until now!
THE BREAKTHROUGH IS SCIENCE.
In order for there to be an art there must first be a science. The Ultimate Martial Art is therefore derived by a process of deductive research in order to establish the science of Martial Arts. This formula would provide the only route to an actual technology of Martial Arts:
1) A comprehensive list is made of all the known techniques.
2) All duplicate or extraneous techniques are thrown out.
3) Any blanks are filled in by interpolation.
4) These techniques are categorized based on common concepts.
5) The fundamentals common to these techniques are isolated and codified.
6) These fundamentals are organized and applied as a technology.
7) This technology is constantly re-evaluated as to its effectiveness in actual combat.
These directions are so simple that people might say, “I knew that.” And they probably did, but their specific Martial Arts system has most likely not followed the essence of this methodology. The reason for this is usually one of two things.
First, most Martial Arts systems are “closed”, which means that they have very little interaction with other systems. They often protect their knowledge from outsiders and are fixed in their methodology. Typically their techniques are not tested against those outside of their system. Now, while it can be important for a particular Martial Arts system to be taught with a specific method, the fact remains that if it is too closed it will not include certain concepts and techniques vital for a complete technology.
Second, the majority of the combative systems such as Brazilian Jujutsu contain samplings from all kinds of other Martial Arts systems but no specific method for study and application. This is the eclectic or “open” system. Although, this is usually the best method to develop an effective fighting style, it is often confusing and even dangerous to learn, and is typically lacking in fundamentals.
The ideal Martial Arts system on the other hand would be “dynamic”, which means that it has the ability to grow based on fundamental principles. It is founded on a science that is codified and studied as a complete technology, and can be applied to all of Martial Arts. This would be the result of following the above formula, and is what I consider The Ultimate Martial Art.
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