Cross Training Questions

cross training?

what u mean by cross training? is it both use different martial art to spar, or? how should it be carry out?

Public Comments

1. combination of martial arts, example, kick boxing and wrestling (mostly used in UFC, pride, WEC, etc.)
2. We think the best definition of cross training is the study of more than one martial art, with the goal of becoming a more complete martial artist, or well rounded fighter. A sound approach to cross training can be found in an article by David Camarillo. The article is titled "Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, Integrating the Arts". Dave Camarillo is a world class judo and jiu-jitsu compettor. He is a highly regarded coach and currently teaching at AKA in San Jose. He has trained many of the UFC fighters you might be familiar with, like Josh Koscheck and Mike Swick. Here is a link to the article. http://www.dcacademy.info/judo_jitsu.shtml David's article addresses cross training in judo and jiu-jitsu, but his approach to cross training we believe would be correct in any cross training regimen. Sincerely, The Orange County Judo Training Center
3. to me it means, when talking about the martial arts, becoming a much more well rounded fighter and hybrid martial artist, like training in many various martial arts forms like muay thai, tkd, savate, boxing, full contact karate, many different forms of kung-fu, and sanshou for striking and greco-roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, sambo, judo, hapkido, aikido, brazilian jiu jitsu, american catch wrestling for grappling. and also krav maga for street fighting defense.
4. As was mentioned, the idea behind cross training is to fill out the gaps of each style that you already train in. For instance, I used to take Tae Kwon Do. I learned how to kick and punch (mostly kick). Later, because my teacher injured himself, I began training in boxing to round out my hands. As I could then kick and punch, I took up Judo so that I could wrestle -- take people to the ground and/or keep myself off of it. It also taught me some basics about ground work. However, to develop my ground skills further, I also started to train in Submission Grappling and MMA. Through that, I learned how to effectively move, reverse positions, strike, choke, and attack joints on the ground. Each of these arts alone has a gaping hole. Tae Kwon Do and Boxing are useless once you're grabbed, and even worse than that should you find yourself on the ground. Judo and Submission Wrestling, on the other hand, aren't much help until you're already grabbing somebody -- and without at least some degree of striking defense, you're probably going to have to eat some hits to do that. But when put together you can comfortably fight in any range of combat, as well as dictate the range of combat, if your opponent isn't as well versed as you are. As for how you could cross train... Keep in mind the 3 significant ranges of combat. There's FREE MOTION STANDUP (when neither opponent is touching the other), there's the CLINCH (when at least one person have some kind of hold on his opponent), and there's the GROUND (when at least one fighter is on the ground). Techniques that dominate the standup range are mostly striking techniques, but some takedowns can be used from there. The clinch is mostly about off-balancing opponents and throwing them, but some clinching techniques lend themselves to strikes. The ground is all about dominant position, from which you can rain down strikes OR apply chokes and joint locks. If you are cross training effectively, you should be practicing AT LEAST one art for each range of combat. Some arts cover two ranges of combat, and sometimes you'll later want to add an additional art to fine-tune a skill. (ie: in TKD, I learned how to kick and punch, but I made my punching dramatically better by learning how to box.) You also want to make sure that each style that you train in practices their techniques against resisting opponents, with hard contact/intensity. Here are some styles for each range. Standup: Boxing, Kickboxing, Kyokushin Karate, Muay Thai, Savate, and Sanda. Muay Thai and Sanda cross over slightly into the clinch range, since Muay Thai does clinching with strikes and Sanda includes takedowns. Clinch: Judo, Sambo, Wrestling (Collegiate, Greco Roman, whatever as long as its not WWE). Judo and Sambo heavily cross over into the ground range, since they also practice position reversals, chokes, and joint locks. Ground: Brazilian JiuJitsu, Kosen Judo, Submission Grappling All of the above ranges also teach some takedowns, so it has a slight cross over with the clinching range.
5. Ok so crosstraining is Basically just training in the art that is your "primary" art like maybe muay thai or sanda or some kind of kickboxing right?...so when you cross train, you train in another art to get other points of view. I would suggest cross training in the opposite of your original art. For example, I train in Sanda and Muay Thai which are very similar....so I would CROSSTRAIN with Judo or Jiu Jitsu since its all throws and locks and holds etc...no strikes. So basically you take factor A (your art) and train in the opposite which is factor B. Good Luck!
6. cross training means using another sport to get benefits to your own. Not just between self defence sports, it also means using a non-related fitness or strength type sport to add advantages to your own. Like weight lifting to help with olympic wrestling power or even doing sprinting. Or doing swimming to increase cardio and recover from muscle soreness. There are a lot of opportunities for different sports to cross train with others.
7. People get it confused with MMA, and use MMA when they should be saying Cross training.