Blast from the Past

[shihansmurf]

I was surfing the web at lunch so as not to waste taxpayer money, and I thought I would google an old instructor. Well I got this...

http://hi-impact.com/

Mr Shaw had ran ads in Black Belt for years and I own a few of his tapes. One of my first posts on this site was in response to a question about Han Foo Wa, as I recall. I signed up for the video lessons out of curiosity and am eagerly awaiting the first one, more so out of nostalgia than anything else. To be fair though I think his videos have a lot of good info in them, but I'm more interested in what sort of content there will be in an online lesson format.

But this got me to thinking, if an instructor using webcams(which I don't know if this is how this program works or not, I just signed up a few hours ago) and such for immediate feedback with a student, would this be a viable method of teaching advanced students? If a teacher that had good credentials like Doc, or Tatum, someone of that caliber would it be accepted. I'm not talking about awarding rank or anything, just as a coaching tool.

What advantages do y'all see to this method?

What disadvantages do y'all see with it?

What steps, aside from just not doing this in the first place, would you take to minimize the disadvantages?

Thanks
Mark


P.S. I think its cool to see Mr. Shaw's material available again. Some of the info on the tapes is questionable but the majority of it is very good. Way too much hyperbole in his marketing but, the material is worth the price of admission in my view.

 

[MJS]

I was surfing the web at lunch so as not to waste taxpayer money, and I thought I would google an old instructor. Well I got this...

http://hi-impact.com/

Mr Shaw had ran ads in Black Belt for years and I own a few of his tapes. One of my first posts on this site was in response to a question about Han Foo Wa, as I recall. I signed up for the video lessons out of curiosity and am eagerly awaiting the first one, more so out of nostalgia than anything else. To be fair though I think his videos have a lot of good info in them, but I'm more interested in what sort of content there will be in an online lesson format.

But this got me to thinking, if an instructor using webcams(which I don't know if this is how this program works or not, I just signed up a few hours ago) and such for immediate feedback with a student, would this be a viable method of teaching advanced students? If a teacher that had good credentials like Doc, or Tatum, someone of that caliber would it be accepted. I'm not talking about awarding rank or anything, just as a coaching tool.

What advantages do y'all see to this method?

What disadvantages do y'all see with it?

What steps, aside from just not doing this in the first place, would you take to minimize the disadvantages?

Thanks
Mark


P.S. I think its cool to see Mr. Shaw's material available again. Some of the info on the tapes is questionable but the majority of it is very good. Way too much hyperbole in his marketing but, the material is worth the price of admission in my view.

I think that route may be a bit better vs. the typical dvd instruction, due to the fact that the instructor can actually see what the student is doing. Then again, it reminds me of tech. support. Yes, I'm on the phone with a live person, who is talking me thru whatever it is I'm trying to do, however, if I can't figure it out......I think you can see where I'm going with this.

If I'm standing in front of someone, I can physically show them, and move them into the right position if necessary. Even though a webcam allows the inst. to 'be there' to a point, and while its better than just trying to watch a dvd, I still feel that working in front of a teacher is the best way to go.

Mike

 

[terryl965]

Yea I remember Mr. Shaw and what I remember was a mixer of TKD, Karate and HKD and TSD. Buthe does have talent and probaly was a little ahead of his time in some regards. Thanks for the memories.

 

[shihansmurf]

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=HITShaw&view=videos

Hey,

I bumped this because these videos are on youtube and I thought it would be cool to share them here. My timing on this is odd as I just fininshed a post griping about learning from video, but......

Assuming you have that solid bastethat I was going on about so I don't feel like a hypocrit, check these out. I don't know how to embed a video so I just posted the link but the are interesting.

I don't know if this is in the right forum. If this belongs elsewhere, would a mod please move it.

Mark

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

But this got me to thinking, if an instructor using webcams(which I don't know if this is how this program works or not, I just signed up a few hours ago) and such for immediate feedback with a student, would this be a viable method of teaching advanced students? If a teacher that had good credentials like Doc, or Tatum, someone of that caliber would it be accepted. I'm not talking about awarding rank or anything, just as a coaching tool.

What advantages do y'all see to this method?

The obvious advantage is that one can train remotely and receive direct feedback based on a realtime visual. A big advantage if you live nowhere near a dojo. And of course, it saves on money.

What disadvantages do y'all see with it?

Well, for one the instructor cannot receive your technique, so he or she can provide no tactile feedback. Also, unlike a dvd, the instructor and student must coordinate, so training at three in the morning is likely not an option unless a substantial time difference puts the instructor awake and in front of the computer.

Also, if you do not have a training partner, you have no resisting opponent.

What steps, aside from just not doing this in the first place, would you take to minimize the disadvantages?

If you are already trained in something else, the disadvantages are drastically reduced. For example, if I were to take an online course of this nature in ITF or ATA taekwondo, I would likely be able to make full use of the material, as I already am a Kukkiwon yudanja.

For the beginner, the only thing that he or she can do is exhaust all other options and simply accept that a video or online course will have inherent disadvantages.

Daniel

 

[shihansmurf]

For the beginner, the only thing that he or she can do is exhaust all other options and simply accept that a video or online course will have inherent disadvantages.

Daniel

Good point.
I don't think that something like this could ever actually take the place of a live instructor entirelly, especially for the crucial beginning stages of skill development. I was intrigued by the idea. We've made great advances in the last several years in sport science in as far as blending technology into training methodology and I'm intrigued by how we can adapt tech to improve the ways in which we train martial arts.

Any suggestions?

Mark

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I think that technology is much more helpful to an experienced practitioner. I was able to go to Youtube and show some of my students a very fine practitioner performing Koryo and explain to them what they were seeing and show them the subtle nuances that would be difficult to single out when performing it for them.

On the other hand, for a beginner, nothing replaces solid basics, which would be very difficult to develop without a skilled instructor.

Daniel