Contrary to what you might read, cross-training in martial arts is not a new phenomenon. I would be quite confident to claim that the founding of just about every system of martial arts was the result of cross-training. Most have this fact documented and supported by the text of their founders’, but if we are to be honest it is simple common sense.
“Ten thousand streams flow into it [the sea] - I have never heard of a time when they stopped - and yet it is never full.”
- Chuang Tzu
Methods of training evolve from varied experiences and a style emerges when a strong individual forges a set syllabus of techniques based on certain fighting principles. It is with this philosophy in mind that I have always opposed the closed-door approach of hypocritical martial arts cults who prohibit their students from training. I have always been a martial arts cross-trainer. It’s not something I did after a fashion or because I grew bored. I was not a compulsive “dojo-hopper.” I just naturally moved onto other schools and styles because that was the way I felt my martial arts education was going. Today, martial arts cross-training has become a type of institution widespread through the community and not just practiced by those who want to teach or found their own styles. When I first began to see or hear the words “cross-training” and “progressive martial arts” in the UK the name Rick Young was rarely far off.
Rick Young represents what is right about martial arts cross-training from a thirst for information to keeping an open-mind in his learning to applying a commonsensical and strong ethical approach in his teaching. Flying in the face of the cliché “jack of all trades, master of none”, he has helped promote respect for different martial arts across the community by showing how much we can learn through sharing knowledge. -Jamie Clubb
As a person, who fully embraces the ideals of getting arts to suit the individual, it wasn’t long before the thought crossed my mind that I needed to meet Rick Young one day and sample his philosophy in a tangible form. He has not merely grabbed snatches of information from different instructors over short periods of time, but trained diligently in the areas of combat that interested him. It is of little surprise to me that one of his main inspirations was Dan Innosanto, the only man Bruce graded as an instructor in Jeet Kune Do. Jeet Kune Do, of course, is a philosophy that completely and controversially embraced the concept of cross-training.
Guro Dan Innosanto has and continues to cross-train in various styles, gaining many instructors qualifications along the way. Rick Young has not only gained his Jeet Kune Do and Jun Fan instructor qualifications through Innosanto, he has also gained dan grades in Judo and Karate back home and is one of the very few British-born martial arts who have been awarded a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He also won the world championships in 2004. Rick’s experience covers a multitude of arts including Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Western Boxing, various Western Wrestling styles and Filipino systems. In conclusion, meeting Rick Young is surely a must on the majority of serious cross-training martial artists’ lists.
My opportunity was dropped in front of me by a good friend, Tony Pillage. Tony’s series of seminars run under “The Way of the Spiritual Warrior” moniker and are a fantastic example to the martial arts cross-training community. I jumped at the chance when Rick agreed to teach a one day seminar for Tony in Coventry. I was further excited when Tony very kindly invited me and some of his own students to a special private lesson with Rick before the public seminar began. We covered Panatukan (Filipino Boxing) drills, which started with the split block and gunting entry, leading onto finger jabs, elbows, knees, clinches, a guillotine headlock and a rear choke.
After a warm-up the seminar began in earnest. Rick’s attitude to remain flexible and adaptable with his teaching methods was demonstrated by opening up his wealth of experience to the floor rather than going with a set plan. A request for knife defence drills became first on the agenda.
We covered the Jeet Kune Do Filipino syllabus of defences, which included blocks, strikes, locks and strips against a stab, a slash and rear threat. The locks prepared us for some of the Daito Ryu-style flow lock-drills we covered later.
Panatukan was next up again on the request list. We worked all techniques peculiar to this style from standard jab and cross feeding. Different sections were given a series of variations, including splitting, gunting, sweeping, turning and stamping on the opponent. This was my first experience with Panatukan and its interesting similarities between Kali and Muay Thai are as fascinating as its own distinct flavour.
We moved onto more Muay Thai related training with clinch-work drills, including breaks and gaining superior grips. He also had a good series of focus mitt drills using jabs, crosses, parries, elbows and knees. The pad-work bridged the technical training with the fitness related work. I was pleased to see that even when it came to fitness tests everything was related directly to combat. The drills included hand striking combinations from Western Boxing with sprawling from Wrestling.
Rick Young in Action!
Rick addressed a fair number of issues in-between the different routines. As an instructor, he represents and stands by the strong principles he builds on in his regular columns for Martial Arts Illustrated. Being a top competitor in several different full-contact combat sports, he has always been in favour of resistance-based training and being a dedicated cross-trainer and close follower of Bruce Lee’s open-minded philosophy, Rick’s core teaching ethic praises individual adaptation and initiative. However, he also knows where to draw the line. Rick recognises the trend amongst the Reality-Based Self-Defence community to attach the buzzword “live” to anything worth learning. A healthy and regular amount of resistance and pressure training is essential if you are to train for reality, however, over-emphasis on this (often internet forum fuelled) attitude has lead to many students not getting to grips with the fundamentals of techniques whilst unfairly scorning anything they consider not to be “live.” Likewise a completely unguided and haphazard attitude to individual interpretation of a technique can often mean a student can completely miss the point of an exercise. Adapting and individualising one’s training serves little purpose without first having the discipline to learn techniques.
Rick Young represents what is right about martial arts cross-training from a thirst for information to keeping an open-mind in his learning to applying a commonsensical and strong ethical approach in his teaching. Flying in the face of the cliché “jack of all trades, master of none”, he has helped promote respect for different martial arts across the community by showing how much we can learn through sharing knowledge. Students attending one of his seminars are given the strong impression that they have found a special teacher. However, in keeping with the progressive nature of Jeet Kune Do, this feeling is then followed by the immediate realisation that this discovery is actually a doorway to a long and fruitful journey. From my short experience with him I found Rick Young to be a person with a dedicated and profound passion for the martial arts in their true plural sense.
Jamie Clubb is the founder of Clubb Chimera Martial Arts, a proactive process for individual development through realistic self-defence, self-protection, combative systems
Contrary to what you might read, cross-training in martial arts is not a new phenomenon. I would be quite confident to claim that the founding of just about every system of martial arts was the result of cross-training. Most have this fact documented and supported by the text of their founders’, but if we are to be honest it is simple common sense. 
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