[QUOTE=Water Dragon;761792]OK. I have a little time before Judo so I can respond to this. My stance is not that one is more complete than the other. My stance is that you can’t call one more incomplete than the other.
First, I wouldn’t go to Shuai Chiao to learn striking. You can get a lot of combinations, and a lot of good sparring in, but you’re not going to become a striker in a Shuai Chiao class. If you do, it’s gonna take a long, long time.
Same thing applies to groundwork in Judo. You’ll learn it, but not to the sophistication of a BJJ guy, it’s also gonna take a lot longer.
I went from straight Shuai Chiao for 4 years, to training MMA and Shuai Chiao at the same time for two. I also did 3 years of BJJ before I came to Judo. That’s what I’m basing my experience on. I know what I got from each art, and how they influenced each other.
Back to the discussion.
SC and Judo are both fundamentally throwing arts. That’s what they specialize in.
I wouldn’t go to SC to learn weapon (especially knife or gun) defense either. My old SC coach also did Kun Tao. Wanna talk scary stuff? To this day I might throw someone if they come at me with a knife, but I’ll use the Kun Tao way of defending it. I like my odds better.
Anyway, you go to Judo or SC to learn to throwing. That’s what you’re gonna get good at if you train right. If you want to learn to strike, you go learn that. If you want to learn groundfighting, you go learn that. Then you bring it back with you.
Mebbe it was different even 100 years ago, but now we have ready access to experts in every form of unarmed martial arts. Why not go to the best if you have the opportunity? To me, anything else is selling yourself short.[/QUOTE]
I would agree with your generalizations.
There are notable exceptions, but in general, you are quite correct.