The martial arts are all linked in various ways, from history to technical aspects, all martial arts are interconnected. Pankration became the mixed martial arts of today, nearly all of the Asian martial arts first came from China, Boxing had greatly evolved from its original incarnation, and so on…
There are no wholly independent systems of the martial arts, that do not have influences from other systems of the martial arts. A good example of this is Pa Kua Chang (Baguazhang) and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu and how Aikido came from it. A simple look at the two systems and you will easily see that Aikido was strongly influenced by this much older Chinese system.
This borrowing of techniques and methodologies has been done for thousands of years and helps systems to progress and grow, as well as helps to situate them to the various cultures they inhabit. Look at kung fu and Karate, a horse stance is a horse stance, a reverse punch is a reverse punch, but this is due in large to kung fu being the grandfather to karate. Karate came from China to Okinawa, from there to Japan, then Korea.
Just about every martial art we have today was founded because of a system founded earlier and bears influence from it. We are all linked via these connections, as one huge martial family!
The connections and links can be found throughout nearly all of the martial arts, even “tactical” and “combat” arts. While they may put down traditional martial arts, are their punches, many takedowns, kicks, elbows, etc… not the same? Does wearing camo pants during class make the hodgepodge of classical techniques different and more effective?
The fact is, nothing is new….sure, there may be new collections of what someone thinks are the most effective or beautiful techniques, but none of them are genuinely new, perhaps altered, but not new. For all of the elbows, stomps, throws, locks, etc… they are all from older systems, which ties you to the traditional and classical, as much as karate is tied to China. This is a fact!
We are all one martial family, training and doing our best to grow in our chosen art, this is an undeniable truth. We are forever linked to our ancestors who founded the origin systems, which our arts were born, and to one another as we study said arts.