Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 26

As sensei Abernathy said in one of his
articles, all martial artists of old were
generalists. They had to be. They all had a
primary weapon as a specialty, but they
would be fools if they had no knowledge of
other weapons, or empty hand techniques.
After all, what do you do if you drop your
spear by accident? Other than pray. They
may not have been as good at throwing as
a modern day Judo practitioner, that is his
specialty. They did however, know a few
throws, and where able to pull them off in
the heat of a “kill or be killed” battle.
Something that I doubt the modern Judo
practitioner would be able to do. Sports are
not duels to the death.
So then, how did these people learn these
58 - Totally Tae Kwon Do
Cross Training
By Richard Conceicao
With all the seminars, workshops, and other educational opportunities
buzzing around, the issue of “cross training” has once again reared its
head; I thought I would indulge myself with some thoughts on the
matter.
other skill? Did they cross train? Not really,
at least the way we mean it nowadays.
Each classical art (Jap. RYU) included all
of these skills in the curriculum. Chinese
arts have four “compulsory weapons”.
These being staff, spear, saber, and
double edge sword. While each person
used the weapon that they were told to, it
being the army after all, they had to have a
working knowledge of them all. This
extended to empty hand arts. It was felt
that each weapons way of being used and
distinct motions taught the empty hand
practitioner something of value, even
though you were never expected to use a
weapon ever. You even see this in many
Okinawan karate styles. You have to learn
Kobudo as part of the style.