Is video training in martial arts effective?

Question

I was just wondering if I could learn martial arts effectively through training video.

Answer 1

Well a definate yes across the board on this question.

If the dvd's are step by step and very detailed you'll even know and understand the smallest part of a technique such as the thumb facing towards the sky while applying a armbar, for example, in a jujitsu instructional dvd series.   It all depends on the "teacher" in such a video.  Steve Crawford's "American Jujitsu", was one of the best, DVD instructional videos on the market when he was doing those and he still may be for all I know.  Mike Swain's judo DVD's are used as a reference for technique by a lot of judo practitioners as well.  

There's nothing wrong with learning .... period.  Even Tanner of the UFC used instructional DVD's to learn his ground game and he faired well through out his career in the UFC on the ground and in his stand up.

Any way is a good way to learn man.  As long as the techniques you are learning are being practiced on a mat or well padded floor with a partner then you're gaining knowledge dude.  Any one can give you their opinion on what they think about DVD's all day long, but the best way to find out is to actually check a DVD series out whether you need to or not and compare them to what you already know.  I brought in a member of "Para Rescue" out of the U.S. Air Force to view and practice Steve's Crawford's DVD's with and he was very impressed by the techniques and the step by step instruction of Crawford's DVD's.

There are a ton of other good DVD's that I have ordered over the years that were just as good as anything that I had learned in a dojo and in some cases the DVD's were even better at explaining the techniques than any dojo instructor I had ever met.  The best way to approach DVD learning is by getting a hold of a DVD series in a art form that you already have dojo instruction on and comparing the DVD to your own personal knowledge of the art.  I'll bet you'll find the DVD to be more in-depth when it comes to technique.

The people in the instructional DVD market aren't going to put out c**p in the modern day times man because they know they're being watched very closely by organizations such as "Bullshido" these days.  To be honest there hasn't been one single DVD series that I've ever ordered that has been a disappointment.  I've spent my life comparing one art form to another because of my "childhood" ( long story I won't get into ) and I've found that many of these DVD series are on the up and up and that every one of them is a sound way of learning.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

A onetime UFC champion, Evan Tanner, was mostly self-taught from videos.

Sure, a good coach is best, but if you can find an equally motivated partner, you can practice a lot of submissons, moves, and throws from books, videos, and websites.

Just learn basic combatives, and you can be way ahead of the game.

Here is a great website with about all of the basic moves: (in three parts - copy and paste all three together)

http://www.globalsecurity.org/

military/library/policy/army/

fm/3-25-150/

email me at [e-mail] if you need more info.

Answer 3

yes, and no.

if you just go buy some videos...you will only get so far. most are demonstration. not teaching videos. or they only show certain parts.

but some are designed from the ground up to teach a complete art. and yes you do get tested and corrected by a real instructor. you have correspondance with them, and can actually earn rank. and more than one of these teachers (very well known and respected people mind you) have told me their long distance students progress faster and better than their regular students.

the correspondance is the key...they have to see you do it...and be able to correct mistakes you make....most times you video tape yourself doing the requirements and send it to them. they watch it and send you your tape back with their corrections on it. most require you to periodically train with them in person, and all of them require you to test for black belt in person.

anyone who says you cant learn from video is in my opinion living in the past. there was a time when you couldnt. but i have done it...ive learned alot from videos.

dont close your mind to any method of learning.

of course its best to have a real life instructor...but you can still learn and progress without one up the block from you.

Answer 4

Can you teach yourself martial arts from books and videos? Yes.

Can you teach yourself correct and effective martial arts that will actually work for self defense? No way in h***. That should be commen sense. I mean can you learn to do open heart surgery succesfully by watching a video or reading a book?

You may be able to imitate the moves, but without feedback and correction from a good qualified instructor, who will teach you right and ground you in good fundimentals and basics, all you will be doing is punching air and if you ever have to use it to defend yourself, you will be in deep s***.

How can you think that you will be able to learn how to fight from watching DVD's and books, that cannot include many of the littlle things that are needed, and must be done correctly, in order to work? In order to learn a martial art correctly you need the following:

1) A good instructor who has knowledge of the techniques, and can give you feedback on what you are doing wrong.

2) Resisting opponents to train with that can help you learn to perform the moves correctly under pressure.

3) A school that will train realisticly, making you perform under some type of stress, so that when it really is needed on teh street you will not freeze.

So long story short, yes you can learn to imitate the moves on your own, and look cool, but do not in any way expect them to get you anything but hurt if you ever have to do them for self defense.

Hey I have an idea, lets train our soldiers via video and books. That would save a ton of money on housing and feeding. We could send them like DVD's. One for each week of basic training, including a rifle, ammo, and uniform. Then once they complete that, we can send them DVD's on there MOS(Military Occupational Specialty) such as "How to fly an Apache Helicoptor made easy". D*** we been doing things the wrong way all this time.

Now would you feel confident relying on soldiers who were trained this way? Then why would you want to rely on martial arts trained this way?

Answer 5

Compared to an overcrowded school with few instructors, yes, compared to one on one, or a relatively small school or a school with many instructors, no.  Also, controversy was caused a while back when, forgot who it was, this American Kempo Karate guy had an entire Karate training course completely on VHS.  It took the people from white to black belt, and it even came with certificates and everything.  All that was required, was a training partner willing to drill the moves with you.

Reportedly, the video series became phenomenally successful after a client won the American Karate tourney, claiming he had trained entirely from the instructions from the video, with help from his friend and training partner of course.  I don't know the name of the series, but I do know that it is quite extensive and expensive; I think 200 VHS tapes when it first started (probably 200 DVD's now), for a total cost of nearly 1,000 clams.

As a general rule instructors are divided on the issue; some maintain that "information is information, and its willingness that matters" while others say "unless you feel flesh and bone clashing with flesh and bone when you block a punch how on earth are you supposed to learn?"  The issue is likely to never be resolved.

As for myself; I got formal training for about 2 years and made it as far as orange about to test for green when the club closed for lack of funds, I drilled the basics for years on and off whenever I was in the mood to drill them (no discipline), and when the Tae Bo craze hit in 2002, I tried it, hated it and thought to myself "h**l I'll just do Kata if I want aerobics........" so I purchased a Kata training manual.

Thus, I have Goju Ryu fundamentals, but I practice Shotokan Kata, I feel a little lost man.  Also, my knuckles are soft as cotton; I don't do hand conditioning.

Its better to go to a school with PERSONALIZED training.  In my experience in my Goju Ryu days, I improved the fastest whenever there was someone there looking at ever inch misstepped, every block not raised to the proper level, every breath not taken at the right time, that kind of thing.

Video instruction vs an impersonal school with 100 people and only 1 instructor, videos man, all the way.

Video instruction vs a small school or better yet a personal instructor?

You can't compare, you just can't; nothing, and I mean nothing beats 1 on 1 instruction, or even 5 instructors training 20 students, for a ratio of 4 people per instructor.  I know Kung Fu schools of old, the Shaolin temple included, would have such a ratio; a master simply would not accept more than 5 students to get a school started, and each of those 5, to expand the school, would not accept more than 4.  When the school got really big, beginers would be taught by intermediates, intermediates by advanced, and the advanced 10 years in the school students, would be trained by the master himself.

The way its done in modern China these days, is that they toss 10,000 kids out onto a courtyard, and the ones that survive the training, go to either Shaolin or Beijing, and the most promising among those, the ones that stand out, get personalized training but its not like in the "old days."  In Taiwan, I know, they still train the old fashioned way and there is a reason for this; even though most of the old masters never sought out glory as it is contrary to the ethics of Chinese martial arts, they still, nevertheless, received handsome rewards from deeply grateful students.

That is, they did not seek out large payments, only whatever dues were owed to support the school which usually wasn't much as the master usually did something else for a living (they did not do kung fu full time), but, the students were often so grateful for the instruction, they made generous donations whether in the form of gold, wine, or even precious, priceless antiques, many that were family heirlooms.  Do not forget that China is a very old country, so some family heirlooms go back as far as 1,000 years.  Some masters were so respected, they received priceless trinkets worth thousands.  As a result wealth accumulated, and because the PRC government was actively persecuting the wealthy, many Kung Fu masters had no choice but to relocate to Singapore, Taiwan, and some went into Tibet, where the PRC's reach isn't as strong in the historically "Han" parts of China.  The PRC's pressence is still felt in Tibet, but not as strongly as in historic China.

The end result has been, that Taiwan and Singapore, have the largest concentration of traditional Kung Fu schools, and it was only after the PRC relaxed its policies regarding Taiwan as a "rebellious state," that traditional Kung Fu resurfaced in mainland China.  Kung Fu was however, also preserved by criminal organizations, and since obviously enough there weren't enough Taiwanese teachers to go around, the PRC started scrapping the bottom of the barrel, offering convicted criminals, members of the triads full pardons if they would train kids at the Beijing Kung Fu institute.

It is largely because of the pressence of criminals in modern Kung Fu, that there has been so much abuse, the truth is Kung Fu training is strict alright, but its not supposed to be abusive.  It gets even worse; only a ridiculously small handful of Kung Fu teachers willingly relocated to mainland China, and they were given the Herculean task of retraining an entire generation of Chinese in the 60's and 70's who didn't even know what the h**l Kung Fu was.  This may sound far fetched, but the PRC persecuted and expelled martial arts teachers so thoroughly, that an entire generation of Chinese outside of Hong Kong, did not even know their country had its own martial arts.

The recent revival, has to do with the mistake the PRC realized they made in expelling its martial artists.  Again, the biggest reason they did it, is the unintentionally accumulated wealth, which most of the time, the teachers did not even keep for themselves as many still opted to live as simply as possible.  Another factor had to do with the fact that martial arts teachers in China have historically been respected, so much so that with a word, a single martial arts teacher could cause civil unrest.

Examples include the rebellion against the Manchu, right before the burning of the second temple.  The example after that, the boxer rebellion when practitioners of Kung Fu led a vicious attack against foreign colonialists.  The myth of Kung Fu as having "supernatural" power, got started with the boxer rebellion in fact because, despite having primitive weapons, the Kung Fu practitioners were so adept at using their weapons that even against western soldiers armed with muskets they inflicted heavy casualties when the fighting became hand to hand.  Those things took time to reload you know....

The point and its connection to video training; one on one training proved effective then, so likely it can prove effective now.  Given the choice, go for one on one training instead of books or videos.

Answer 6

Why not.

Answer 7

Assuming your a novice (because otherwise, you'd know the answer) you could probably learn just enough to get yourself hurt or killed.  Hurt by training incorrectly or killed by actually believing that what you learn would help you if you had to defend yourself.

Seriously, you wouldn't try to learn a sport by video.  Or calculus.  Or how to drive a car.  No, you'd use coaches and instructors.  Why, because there is no substitute for having a human being in front of you teaching.

Answer 8

Yes. I did some of www.russianmartialart.com this way.

Answer 9

Not exactly what you are asking  but this is pretty good. : I found my jeet kune do training improved using this: http://www.martialarm.com

Answer 10

you could learn certain things, but in general videos, books, etc. are intended to be used to supplement your regular training

I have a number of videos, but, in general I find I can only watch so much, then I have to actually practice the techniques

in order to really learn them, and know that you'll be able to use them effectively when you need to

Answer 11

not really... when you have an instructor, they can correct your technique, but with a video you're just winging it.

Answer 12

Videos are a good supplement when you have specific questions, but not as a substitute for an instructor or Sifu.  The only way to learn is to do, to feel and work with others.

I had questions on a sabre form, totally spaced out, found the video and it really helped, fill in a blank, but it is no substitute for training with others.  And really no substitute for a skilled instructor or Sifu.

It's like any kind of training at home, you're always the baddest dude in the gym, but when you are with others you will see good qualities in what they do and aspire to greater heights.  Some exercises have to be done with others, sparring, grappling, push hands, etc.