whenyou are at a school with many different styles, is it better to finish one art and then start another or to cross train?

The Shneea,

Suppossedly any given mainstream art is based upon a set of sound principles of self-defense; yet a sport aspect has been stressed in many arts these days, making them stronger in certain areas & weakening them in others --all depending upon the rules chosen for the sport aspect.

Western boxing, like many martial arts, was originally not a sport; but rather, it was made into one; the sport rules limited the overall system & created a specific focus on punching; today, western boxing is known world-wide for its hard, fast punches, but since throwing & kicking are no longer part of today's western boxing, a modern student of western boxing will most likely not get trained in how to defend against anything other than those aforementioned punches: thus strength & weakness due to a sporting aspect.

Likewise, Judo is a complete system of Jiu-Jitsu, but in a few short decades of being popular as a throwing sport, Judo is now renoun as an efficient wrestling system -- so much so that today one would be hard-pressed to find a Judo instructor that was equally efficient in the art's punching & kicking aspect (atemi waza). And the average student seems unaware of &/or unconcerned about this vital, often missing part of Judo instruction.

Your best bet (in my opinion) is to find someone who encorporates basic strikes, throws, joint-locks, etc. (simultaneously) in one system (a set of principles adhered to) -- whether it's one art or a mix. Specialize in basic self-defense first (keeping it simple & useful... learning to integrate wrestling & striking methods), then specialize in developing particular aspects of self-defense further as you see fit.

good advice

Very good post, Mike, I agree.

My advice, concerning the exact question is: yes, study an art in depth before cross training.

I wouldn't support giving the advice to start mixing before one's ability in a serious system has been conquered, otherwise confusion and superficial skills are likely to appear (like starting to study piano and drums togheter).

If a good teacher of a serious complete system isn't available, get to start with a specialized one and keep open minded. Succes will arise.

Tim, you said tha all great masters in the past cross trained, yet the Yang family, Chen, and much of tai chi legendary men did not cross train but learn directly from their father. Are you saying they weren't fighters?

I believe some of them might well have been fighters, I don't really know. I base my assumptions on the masters in the last century for whom documentation of them actually fighting exists, and the masters I have personally met that can actually fight.

You assume the "tai chi legendary men" were fighters that didn't cross train (apparently based on stories you've read). Does that mean they were really fighters that didn't cross train?
You could be right. If so, think how much better they might have been if they did cross train.

Based on the research my wife and I are conducting for a book we are working on, all the Chinese martial artists whose careers we have looked into (about 40 individuals, ranging from the Ming to the Republican era) trained in more than one art.

The deal on the Yang family people-I suspect-is that they did cross train but the official biographies simply do not mention that fact. And the reason they do not mention that fact is because the biographies have as their goal the promotion of the family style. If the biographies mentioned that Yang family member "X" learned from his dad and then went out and learned shuai jiao or something else...the public might assume that shuai jiao was better than Yang family tai chi, so to protect the family's business "trademark" style the biographies don't mention that fact.

Even in modern times, I have never met anyone who went into one specific system and stayed there for their whole martial arts career. What I have seen is people cross train but not want to say they have.

The reason for that being (in the same vein as the Yang family question) the fact that the person is identified as for example; a Tang Soo Do "master" and runs a Tang Soo Do school and does not want his students to know he "secretly" went out and learned arnis and tai chi because--he is selling Tang Soo Do, not arnis or tai chi.

When thinking about the martial arts past, you got to use your head and realize the past was just like the present only it happened in the past---um, so to speak.

take care,
Brian