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IThe idea of martial arts cross-training has been around for a long time. It was never a mainstream concept though, until the proliferation of MMA. Since that idea took hold, everyone wants (and needs) to cross-train to some degree or other. If one is running a martial arts school for profit, then some form of cross-training is almost a must. Fewer and fewer students are walking in the door, asking for martial arts training without having at least some basic idea of what they are looking for. This is a very different landscape to the one that prevailed 20 years ago, when most people walked in not knowing anything and thought all martial arts schools offered pretty much the same product. Today’s martial arts students (with the exception of very young children) know what they want — they watch the UFC, they scour the internet and they understand YouTube. In short, they are highly informed prospects. Another thing they usually understand, on some level at least, is that cross-training is fundamental to the whole concept of functional martial arts.
From the school-owner’s point of view, offering more than one program is the simplest and probably the most commonly employed solution. If the students can have all of their needs met in one location, then they need not go elsewhere in an effort to shore up the gaps in their training. This is ideal, not only for the school-operator but also for the student, who can build positive and beneficial training relationships with other students doing the same thing, all at the one location.
Ten years ago, I created a professional BJJ curriculum that allowed school-owners to take charge of their own destiny by developing their own grappling instructors in-house, thereby eliminating the need to bring in ‘outside help’. Quite often, outside helpers can turn up with their own agendas. I have heard innumerable stories of school-owners bringing in someone to run a BJJ or MMA class, only to have that person open up around the corner six months later, taking half the student-base with them. So careful thought is needed before electing to bring in outside help that may or may not have the school-owner’s interests at heart. If these hurdles can be overcome, by developing a cadre of in-house cross-training instructors, then the benefits to both the school-owner and the student are significant. A one-stop shop is definitely a better way to go.
On the other hand, from the student’s perspective, if one school doesn’t offer the cross-training they are looking for, they will quite naturally begin looking elsewhere. They may even, if they are very dissatisfied, look to leave their school and seek out another one that does offer some form of cross-training. Or they may just look for extra training at another school on different training nights. This situation is less than ideal for both the student and the instructor. The challenges are many.
From the student’s point of view, having two instructors who are not communicating with each other with regard to the student’s development and needs can be very frustrating, if not downright confusing. From the instructor’s point of view, he or she may feel a sense of betrayal or frustration in trying to lead the student in one direction, while someone else is trying to lead them in a different direction. It’s not like learning mathematics from one teacher and history from another, where the two subjects have little or no cross-over. With martial arts cross-training, the whole idea is to have cross-over. Only in very rare instances do different instructors operating out of different schools or gyms work positively and co-operatively with one another to give the student the best possible result. If the world operated this way, it would be a far, far better place. But this is just not the world that most of us live in.
Many professional fighters have more than one coach, but their coaches know this, respect the situation and try to the best of their ability to understand and fulfil the fighter’s needs. But such professional fighters are often stuck with the task of connecting up the different training ideas themselves, and most do not do a very good job of it. The odd one, who is capable of connecting and integrating the different styles of training himself, can rise to the very top of their field.
A good example of such a person is one of my Black-belts, George Sotiropoulos, who lives and trains in the USA right now. He has a near perfect record in MMA and a 100-per-cent win rate in UFC at the writing of this article. But George is an exceptional athlete with an incredible work ethic, and he’s one who accepts and enjoys every single aspect of the fight game. He came to visit me in Las Vegas a few weeks ago and we spent some time on the mat together. To put it simply, George is a learning machine; he loves detail and is a great student. His greatest attribute, in my opinion, is that he doesn’t need to have a gameplan, in that he doesn’t mind how the fight goes. He is as happy kickboxing as he is on the ground — on the top or bottom. George is all about cross-training, but then again, he has the ability to move seamlessly from one fighting strategy to another; and perhaps that ability is what defines the very essence of what cross-training is all about.
John B Will is head of BJJ Australia and teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, shootfighting and self-defence solutions around the world. Check out his regular blog at www.bjj-australia.blogspot.com
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