Great Sage, why no profile?
Good post.
dez, imo tai chi and qg can only enhance any other, mostly
external ma.
yenhoi, a teacher who has ‘mastered’ more than one style can
probably offer insight to the differences between the styles that
two teachers who don’t know the other style you are learning at all could not. So, that would be a better sit to learn two diff
styles from at the same time.
CSN, I think you are correct to a point. But, I would think about
what a HS diploma holder is capable of vs. a multiple post grad
degree holder is. The big diff there is the time involved but that
is a fine delineator for the subject. A two year student of TKD,
wait bad example as most 2 year tkd people are black belts;) .
Anyway, you see my point I hope.
Sho, I totally agree. I’ve cross trained in a lot of stuff but have
tried to stay true to my cardinal art of kung fu. I think the most
classical argument against training in different TCMA at the same
time, at a beginning level in each, is the different methods of
power generation, jing I believe.
red5, I think 5 years is a minimum. I tend to discount most
schools that don’t say it takes at least 5 years to a first black
sash/belt and at least another 5 to a full sifu/sensei level. At
5 years you should have an excellent grasp of the basic principles
and could move on to learn another art to the same point.
Surferdude, depends. If the karate or tkd school is a 2 year
bb school than probably yes, if it’s a good school with an indepth
program than see the 5 year comment above.
However, I think there are definitely complementary styles that
could fill gaps in a system. BJJ is probably one that would
fit in most peoples martial world w/o disrupting the other training.
Modern Arnis (Presas) was one that worked for me.
The version of jujutsu as taught by my torakendo kempo friends
was one that did not work for me. It was good but the
movements were very different from my chinese chin na. Not
the locks themselves but the footwork and set-up movements.
Maybe 
