King Kabuki said:
So in my opinion it's NOT a good idea to only learn what you deem useful physical aspects of an Art and then move on. It's kind of cheating the system and typically comes back to haunt a person later on as most guys who are experienced Martial Artists will tell you. Being a "dabbler" is almost never good when it comes to just about anything.
I think that most people can't tell what is really useful until they have been at it a long time. Most new black belts in TKD, for example, will throw the round-house exlusively. It is a good technique, fast, comes at an angle, and can go to the head or body.
The sidekick or other kicks are seen as too slow to be effective. But eventually you learn that they just need to be set up properly. So someone who only does the art to 'complete' it doesn't really understand all that goes into it. They leave with the conclusion that a sidekick is useless and then start quoting Bruce Lee and say, "Dismiss that which is useless..."
Except that they forget Bruce Lee could do it ALL. He might have said you should rarely kick to the head, but I ask you...could he kick to the head? The answer, of course, is yes. He could. Why is that? Because he understood that rarely does not mean never. Plus he saw the importance of learning a difficult skill.
Those who ARE successful at it usually got that way through many an ass-whoopin'.
Yes. Unfortunately this is true. I'm going through it all again with Sambo as well. I do an additional training session on Sundays with guys that have more experience than I do. It basically consists of me squirming on the bottom and trying to escape/get a sweep/etc. And they are always telling me, "Don't quit. We like having you come for additional training. You're a good training partner. Don't get discouraged."
And I don't really. You have to get an ass whooping at first. Plus memory of it keeps you humble even after you get better.
Furthermore you get your butt kicked even after you've been at something for awhile. We all have highs and lows. We all get out of shape. Getting a good ass whooping is sometimes just the motivation you need to stop being lazy and get back to training. Too many people view it as the worst thing in the world that can happen. A reason to 'give it all up' because you've wasted years at training at something useless'.
We train, we make adjustments, we train some more. Nothing is really wasted...