Is 6 inches close enough?

Went to a new club to train this evening.  New in the sense that it was new to me.  The club itself has been going for a decade or so.  Thus, been around for some time and a reasonable amount of members.  However, as seems to be the normal, more kids than adults.  Even so, there was a dozen adults and a couple of dan grades.

Went through the usual warm and basics to get the joints, tendons, and muscles warmed up and flexible.  Particularly as nobody told "Winter" that it's time is over and it should relent and hand over to Spring. It actually snowed today!

Anyhow, I digress.  The warm up and the basics were a good solid workout.  We then moved onto some more combinations which tested my co-ordination, balance and flexibility! We then moved onto some pair work.

This was the fairly straightforward "attack, block & counter-attack".  All seemed well but i noticed the the face punch from my partner stopped several inches from my face.  Good, you may think.  But this is a martial art and as a Dan grade of nearly 30 years I am sure I could handled a punch that did actually intended to hit the target.

But no....if i did not move the punch would still be 6 inches short of the target.  This infuriates me as I thought "What is the point" tends to run through my mind in this situation.

I was taught that the "Art" in martial art was also to denote the expertise you gain through training.  Which meant, the "art" was to know when to pull the punch within millimetres of the target or to let it go through.

Do we really practice martial arts today? If sense, we do not....

Which Style should I practice?

Everytime someone finds out that I practice Karate and have done so for over 30 years, there is one question that sometime gets asked.

Which style style should i start practicing?  or usually the other question is "Which style is the best?"

How do you answer these questions? 

To be honest, when most people start a martial art, typically they find the nearest club and head down for a tester session and sign up.  Or perhaps a friends is already training somewhere and they go along for a session or two, get hooked and sign up after a few weeks.

My start in Karate was no different.  I was at university and decided to go along to the karate class that was being run on campus.  I had no idea what style it was.  It was there and i went along.  Would be interested to know what other peoples experience was when they started their particular martial art.

Every style has its own unique perspective but it also shares many aspects with other styles.  The history of all martial art styles is intertwined, so any particular martial art is not defined by its own methods and practices, but by the people who practice the style.

It really comes down to the individual and how he or she "implements" the style to make it work for them. 
When starting out in a martial art, it probably doesn't make any difference where you start training as long as you are committed and give it your 100%.....every time!

The one thing I would add is that once you get past the first few gradings then it may be worth asking the question about the instruction that you are getting.  Is the instructor giving you the best instructions that really draws out the best in you.

It is always worth training at another club and training with different instructors.  After a few more gradings and particular once you have received your Dan grade (black belt in karate) it really is worth to go try other styles.  You will find techniques that are made just for you, or techniques explained and executed in a slightly different way so that they again work for you.

The challenge then becomes in ensuring you perform techniques the way your style permits particularly for gradings if you wish to continue grading !

So, does it really matter what style you start training? 

Not really.