I've been doing karate for 4 months..... is it a good idea or bad to do another MA aswell?

Question

I get 2 karate lessons in per week..... is it a bad idea to start another MA aswell as karate? (i just want to get fit.... but learn as much as i can whilst doing so!)

Or should I study karate for a while longer until I start looking at others???

My brother says it will confuse me, and its best to stick with 1 and get good at it first.

What do you reckon?

Answer 1

Only if you are bored with it - I agree totally with your brother on this one though!

Answer 2

I reckon i agree with Katana...

I train in BJJ and Boxing, not Muay Thai, but similar in that its primarily a striking art complimenting a grappling art...and it is the case where the efficient and practical approaches learned in BJJ allow for cross training.  Its one of those things where i can get to the gym an hour before class, so i work on boxing, then class for an hour and a half...its usually 3 hours well spent, and i dont have to worry about forgetting techniques...because we literally drill the basics until they are muscle memory, new moves are learned sporadically or in the in between extra classes...

karate seems like there would be more subtleties and techniques to focus on, so lending your time to another style may begin to water down the 2 in your mind...

Answer 3

This can be very confusing as you have not been doing it very long.  You will find many similarities but also many things will be in conflict.  It would be best to stay with Karate for a time until it is more ingrained and then branch into something that is complimentary to what you are doing.  Karate is more stand up fighting so you may want to look at more ground game like jiu jitsu.  This can help make you more well rounded.

Answer 4

I can only tell you what I'm doing. I have been studying Kenpo for almost 7 years. I am very interested in taking up Muay Thai and BJJ (not really, but I  feel as a woman that I need more ground than I have).  I've dabbled in some things (with seminars on ground position and submissions,Hapkido,nuan chuka,sais, board breaking (laugh, it was fu), tai chi). However, these were more for fun and exploration as I feel that I need to stay focused for my black belt. I'm very close (well a couple of years's-ish) and will definitely not be pursuing another art yet. RIght now I do regularly practice eschrima which complements my karate. And I do go through a Hapkido flow drill regularly to get more comfortable with joint manipulation (we do some of that in my style and this helps me be better at it). I may take a muay thai seminar, because again, we use the clinch and elbows/knees at my dojo and this will help me improve (and I'm really jonesing to take one, lol). But , dedicating myself to another style or taking the time to truly learn and become competent at another discipline? Not til after black for me.Then I will still be able to pursue kenpo and take on new things.

I really honestly would not have even considered exploring  any of these things for the first several years. I had my hands full getting 2 handed karate, stance, body mechanics, learning the strikes, taking a hit, more so being able to hit someone else ,katas, and techniques,etc.

Answer 5

Do Judo.  At the lower levels, Judo is nothing like Karate, therefore you have no chance of confusion.  You will also learn something that you can use in your Karate one-steps fairly quickly.   Plus Judo will toughen you up for Karate's punishment, and Karate will remind you that people actually throw punches and kicks in a fight.

Answer 6

If you want to do more MA then go for it, it's a great idea, just make sure they are on different days otherwise you will get confused.

Answer 7

I believe this may not be the best idea for a few reasons. First of all, karate is one of many traditional martial arts that takes a long time to learn, in most cases years. After four months, you may think you are really good and that further training is going to be more of the same thing, but it is indeed perfecting these subtle differences that will allow you to master the art. Until you do that you will simply be throwing punches and kicks, not truly practicing the art the way it is meant to be practiced.

Secondly, application is an important factor to consider. What part is karate going to play in not only your fighting style, but your life? It is hard to develop an art like Karate while cross training unless you really do grasp the concepts. If you're simply training for fitness, and have no desire for mastery in the art, then you may consider it. However, if you want karate as your primary foundation, then I suggest you work through it first.

And lastly, some of the other arts require quite a bit of flexibility and dexterity even for beginners. The way karate works, it kind of eases you into the methodology so that you master each section. This will make any martial art you take later a lot easier simply because you have the experience.

Answer 8

X-Train in another unrelated art.  If you're doing Karate, don't do Taekwondo or Wing Chung.  If you're doing Aikido, don't do Hapkido, traditional Jujitsu or Judo.   And if you want to test how good you are in either art, spar against kickboxers and Brazillian jujitsuka so you can get rid of some of the errors in your game.

Answer 9

Stick at karate for a while longer. Then, if you want, start on something with an entirely different style--like jiu jitsu.

Ultimately, it can work. My son studied Hwardo for 7 years (that's a mixture of several different martial arts, ranging from karate to kempo to kickboxing). When he got to high school, he started wrestling, and became a varsity wrestler (on a top-ranked team) in his sophomore year. He then started with grappling (jiu jitsu without the gi). He competes in lots of grappling and jiu jitsu tournaments and does very well...though he does get a lot of comments about his unorthodox style! Next on his list is a striking art--probably Muy Thai.

Valid question about how to afford multiple schools. In my son's case, he attends two. We pay for one. At the other, he's so good (he regularly submits his instructor) that he teaches.

Answer 10

Where the heck do you kids get all this money from?

Can I sign up to be a member of these families that can afford to send kids to multiple schools???

To answer your question - you be better off training hard in one art and attain expertise in the art, first.

After you have a solid foundation in one, you can learn another.

Answer 11

I myself think it is a bad idea, at least at this stage. Some styles lend themselves well so that beginers can learn more then one at atime and be good in both. Muay Thai and BJJ are two of them, karate is not.

Muay Thai and BJJ have no kata's, which in a good karate school is one of the main teaching methods. Karate was designed to be learned slowly, and at your level of training, you have not even sctratched the surface of your most basic technique. You have not even learned proper stance yet, let alone correct breathing, technique or anything else.

If you start another style now, your mind and body will be confused, and you will probably get very little benefit from either. As I said Muay Thai and BJJ will give you practical applications you can use faster then karate. They are more concerned with teaching you to fight faster effectivly. Does this make it better or worse then karate? Not in the least, it is just a different approach.

Karate was designed to be learned slowly for a number of reasons, some of which are:

1) It gives the instructor time to gage your temperment and charicterbefore you egt to a level where you could really hurt somebody.

2) Karate is designed to be learned over a lifetime. If anybody anywhere says they know it all about karate, they are deluded.

I see nothing wrong with cross training, but if karate is your base I suggest waitin until at least brown belt level, as it does not lend itself well to learning another art when youstill know so little about it.

Answer 12

Probably not at your stage. Stick with karate a while longer and see how it goes.

Answer 13

i'm with your brother on that.