# Online Martial Arts Study



## manikmaxx (Mar 8, 2015)

Hello everyone, I'm new here. My name us Maxwell and I am a student at Humboldt State University in California. Im majoring in international studies with an emphasis in chinese cultural studies. This semester I am taking an ethnography course which focuses on the cultures of specific communnities from the point of view of the insider. For my term paper I would like to investigate and study people who learn martial arts from a distance via video, internet, etc. For my part, I have begun to practice Wing Chun from the Master Wong system.

Some of the questions I seek to answer include:
1. Who chooses this mode of learning and why? What are the reasons behind the choice?
2. The what, when, where, and how of an average routine. 
3. What are some non-practice related things long distance users do in addition to their training? Supementary material.
4. What an individual gains from such practice? How does the community benefit? 

I am currently seeking volunteers to help with my study over the next several weeks. Any help that anyone could give me would be great. At this point I am obligated to say that anything posted will remain anonymous in my report unless otherwise specified by you. Although the report I will write seeks to bring benefits to the community, these benefits will most likey be in understanding only. There is no direct benefit to those who volunteer other than my appreciation.

If you have any questions you can respond here or email me at manikmaxximus@gmail.com


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## Andrew Green (Mar 9, 2015)

You may find this a tricky one, online training is generally looked down on as it can, at best, only cover a small portion of what makes martial arts interesting.

It's a social activity and one that is designed to be used against an opponent.  You can no more learn martial arts on your own then you can basketball, you need people to "play" with.   You can dribble a ball around and shoot baskets, but it's very far from learning the entire game.

There are lots of people that will use video to supplement their training, and their are groups that get decent results working as a group through video and occasional seminar or road trip.  But distance learning as a primary source, especially on your own, is just not going to give you anything close to a full picture.

I can say that 100% of the people that have wandered into my school after doing nothing but "self-training with videos" where terrible, but thought they where really pretty good.  

Online training and videos have definitely elevated martial arts quality as a whole, We now have access to so much more information then even just 10 years ago.  But nothing will ever replace having a team and a coach to train with.  Everything else is just a supplement to that.


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## Xue Sheng (Mar 9, 2015)

Andrew Green said:


> You may find this a tricky one, online training is generally looked down on as it can, at best, only cover a small portion of what makes martial arts interesting.
> 
> It's a social activity and one that is designed to be used against an opponent.  You can no more learn martial arts on your own then you can basketball, you need people to "play" with.   You can dribble a ball around and shoot baskets, but it's very far from learning the entire game.
> 
> ...



What Andrew said.

Online\Video\Distance training in Martial Arts is at best a supplement to training with a real live teacher on a regular basis


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## Mephisto (Mar 9, 2015)

I agree with Andrew, online training is a bad idea. The self taught approach in martial arts is less than ideal. I've met some self taught guys that "train" from YouTube videos and books and they're never as good as they think they are. Some say it's an option if you lack  near by schools for training. I'd just say it's not an option in such cases. A surgeon can't just go to school online because there are no schools near by, he'd have to choose another profession. In any ways martial arts knowledge is a lifelong study that requires as much dedication as a doctorate degree.

The only acceptable use I see for video is training with the intent to visit the maker of the video for feedback and correction. Or video use as reference material along side qualified instruction. That or pure entertainment. Some experienced martial artists can glean more information from an instructional video but if question there ability and qualifications to teach anything from that video.


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## Instructor (Mar 10, 2015)

Email sent..


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## Mephisto (Mar 10, 2015)

Perhaps at the end of your study you could do some test related to the art studied via the distance program compared to students that have attended a class. There would be many variables to account for but you might be able to come up with some reasonable comparison of distance learning to class learning. We could probably help you come up with some good ideas.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Mar 10, 2015)

Andrew hit the nail on the head.  Videos, books, online training are good supplements while you train with a regular instructor.  By themselves they are not that good as this is a physical skill set and for that you need other people to work with and someone correcting your mistakes before they become ingrained.


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## manikmaxx (Mar 16, 2015)

Thank you for your replies. Most of what you have said I realized going into this study. I would have like to make the study a comparison between online and school learning but unfortunately comparison studies were not allowed for the topic as that falls more into the anthropology department rather then the ethnographic. The purpose of my study, therefore, is not to determine the success of people studying martial arts online, but rather the social and psychological aspects of those who do follow the online videos. Thank you again for your replies. I figured that most would use online videos as supplementary material only but your views on the argument are enlightening on the general attitude towards the subject.


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