Can you learn from video?

[Instructor]

Great thread! We've seen it here before time and again. Usually though by now several naysayers have played devils advocate. I teach with video's and also with skype various remote students. In my humble opinion it simply isn't as good as real, live, local instruction, but for some it can work very well. For others, not so much. I can say my program has worked very well for some people and others have found it just isn't viable for them.

 

[jezr74]

@Instructor , when you teach via Skype, say a cross hand technique, do you have someone with you to demonstrate with? And does your online student have someone with them to show you how they apply?

 

[Instructor]

Yes. It's impossible to learn hapkido without an uke. I go to great lengths to ensure the students get real time feedback on their techniques. I usually utilize one of my local students as uke for demontration purposes but occasionally I have to review from home and I am not above recruiting family members to help out. We've even been exploring devices that keep the web camera pointed at a small remote hanging around my neck so that my hands are in view.

 

[jezr74]

Yes. It's impossible to learn hapkido without an uke. I go to great lengths to ensure the students get real time feedback on their techniques. I usually utilize one of my local students as uke for demontration purposes but occasionally I have to review from home and I am not above recruiting family members to help out. We've even been exploring devices that keep the web camera pointed at a small remote hanging around my neck so that my hands are in view.

Nice, I like hearing about how people are using technology with training. I can't wait to see what rises to the top over the next 5-10 years that can be used. eg. Oculus Rift, Kinect, Hololens etc.

 

[senseiblackbelt]

In my opinion....yes!

First, why would so many instructors put out nice instructional DVDs for the general public if they didn't think people could learn from them? Why would people put out youtube videos with detailed explanations if they didn't think people would learn from them?

Second, someone with a good foundation in any martial art should be able to learn something new from video. An absolute newbie that has done nothing martial arts related in the past is likely to have more trouble, but as long as he or she has any physical talent at all they should be able to benefit.

Third, plenty of people have learned that have had limited exposure to the instructor. Maybe they travel or the instructor travels and they received one on one instruction sporadically. Now imagine you had video of those lessons that you could refer back to at will! That is essentially what DVD instruction amounts to.

Granted, nothing beats hands on instruction! At some point the person learning from DVD will have to seek out an instructor for some quality training. But his or her feet should already be firmly on the path compared to someone with no previous exposure at all.

You are not going to learn advanced material very well from a DVD. But most DVDs don't contain the system's advanced material anyway!

If you are already studying a specific martial art, then having instructional DVDs is great to help you remember things and review things multiple times, maybe pick up on things you missed in class, maybe see how a different instructor from your same system explains and does things a little differently, etc.

If you are interested in a specific martial art but don't have an instructor in your area, then DVD can help you decide if this is really what you want to learn prior to traveling some distance to the school you are interested in. But you have to have a partner. Martial arts do not work well when only practiced solo! So grab a friend that is also interested and start working through the instruction on the DVD a little at a time. And have fun! That's the important part!

no u cant learn from video imho.

ur better off just going to a qualified tchr and learnin from there...

 

[Dirty Dog]

Generally speaking, you cannot make any real progress towards learning a martial art strictly by watching videos.
Now, if you're experienced in a related art, you might be able to learn some things. My training is primarily ITF/KKW/MDK, and I'm pretty sure I could learn the formsets from other styles of TKD relatively easily. Of course, the system is more than just the forms, but I could learn some portion of the system.
On the other hand, I don't suppose I'd make any real progress toward learning something like Wing Chun or any other art with which I've had no experience.
Can videos, texts, etc be helpful as an aid to the student? Absolutely. But that's a totally different issue.

 

[Tames D]

no u cant learn from video imho.

ur better off just going to a qualified tchr and learnin from there...

Of course you're better off with a qualified teacher. But the thread is 'Can You Learn From Video?'. So maybe you can't, but I sure can.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

A: How did you defeat him in that challenge match?
B: I used my knee to strike on his leg. When he steps back, I hooked his other leg, pushed on his neck, and took him down.

If you can you learn from this simple Q&A, you should have no problem to learn from video.

 

[KPM]

In my opinion....yes!

First, why would so many instructors put out nice instructional DVDs for the general public if they didn't think people could learn from them? Why would people put out youtube videos with detailed explanations if they didn't think people would learn from them?

Second, someone with a good foundation in any martial art should be able to learn something new from video. An absolute newbie that has done nothing martial arts related in the past is likely to have more trouble, but as long as he or she has any physical talent at all they should be able to benefit.

Third, plenty of people have learned that have had limited exposure to the instructor. Maybe they travel or the instructor travels and they received one on one instruction sporadically. Now imagine you had video of those lessons that you could refer back to at will! That is essentially what DVD instruction amounts to.

Granted, nothing beats hands on instruction! At some point the person learning from DVD will have to seek out an instructor for some quality training. But his or her feet should already be firmly on the path compared to someone with no previous exposure at all.

You are not going to learn advanced material very well from a DVD. But most DVDs don't contain the system's advanced material anyway!

If you are already studying a specific martial art, then having instructional DVDs is great to help you remember things and review things multiple times, maybe pick up on things you missed in class, maybe see how a different instructor from your same system explains and does things a little differently, etc.

If you are interested in a specific martial art but don't have an instructor in your area, then DVD can help you decide if this is really what you want to learn prior to traveling some distance to the school you are interested in. But you have to have a partner. Martial arts do not work well when only practiced solo! So grab a friend that is also interested and start working through the instruction on the DVD a little at a time. And have fun! That's the important part!

As I pointed out in the OP, there are lots of different ways to approach instructional DVDs that can be valuable. If you are a Black Belt in a given martial art and see a video of someone from the same martial art but different teacher that does something a little differently from you but still gives you a new perspective on a certain technique....have you not "learned" from that video???

 

[marques]

One thing more.
Different instructors, even within the same style and same level, may value different things or teach same thing in different ways, or... and the beginner will just get more confused than before starting.
For the ones who says it works, I hope you have chosen one instructor, have the opportunity to train with people (anyway) and the opportunity to measure results.
Personally, I like videos to add something new to my practice (or to remember when not training), rather than replacing personal instruction.

 

[KPM]

No one has argued that video instruction can completely replace personal instruction.

 

[Charlemagne]

As a supplement to live training, video can be an excellent tool, particularly if one has trained for a while and has a solid understanding of the principles of the system. I have used video instructional in the past to get an idea of what types of questions to ask my instructor, or perhaps to round out some things which were not focused on as much as I was hoping in my live class. Also, as someone else noted, it could be used to see what a particular martial art looks like, which might help with a decision making process about what you do or do not want to learn. Finally, for the purpose of film study, this is an absolute yes. Watching someone you are going to fight on film can be a great benefit, just like it can for all sport.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

No.

 

[geezer]

No.

I'd agree as far as trying to learn from video alone. On the other hand, as KPM, Buka, and others have said, video can be a great supplement to live, in-person instruction. And, for advanced practitioners, ideas gleaned from videos can really be helpful. At least that's my experience.

The real problem for me is that watching videos (as well as reading books, and discussing technique verbally) and trying to apply the material with some reasonable semblance of functionality is way more work, and way more boring, than training in class under your instructor. And then you still need to run it by your instructor to get it right.

One thing I've noted as a student whose instructor lives 1,000 miles away, is that if you have to figure things out yourself, even though you may need to get the details polished later, you will really understand the material more deeply than students who simply mimic an instructor without knowing why they are doing what they do. ...Of course having some decades of experience in the art is helpful too.

 

[geezer]

no u cant learn from video imho. ur better off just going to a qualified tchr and learnin from there...

What?!?

Clearly we can extend this debate beyond martial arts training. As I high school teacher I feel that direct "seat-time" in a class, face to face with a good teacher is far better than learning online, even with relatively simple topics like spelling and grammar!

 

[geezer]

Of course, there are autodidacts who have achieved greatness. It is however, rare.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

As I high school teacher I feel that direct "seat-time" in a class, face to face with a good teacher is far better than learning online, even with relatively simple topics like spelling and grammar!

The EE course "Logic Design of Digital Systems" that

- you learn one chapter in the book,
- you go to school and take exam for that chapter,
- you then study next chapter in the book,
- ....

There are some lab involved but the book study is done all by yourself. I don't think MA learning is any more difficulty than electric engineer "circle design" self-study.

Many self-study classes that you read a book, write a report at the end of semester. You then get credit for it.

 

[Andrew Green]

Of course you can learn from video, it's a question of how far and how fast you can progress. There are some things that can be taught by video, and other things that can't. You can't "feel" pressure through a video, you can't see how a inch difference makes something work vs not. Having someone that has experience make those tiny corrections and be able to feel how it should work by training with someone experienced is not something you can get from video. So a principle that might be shown to you and understood conceptually in a few minutes in live training may take months or years of trying to reinvent the wheel when training with inexperienced people only from video.

Once you have a solid grasp of those principles video becomes far more useful for learning knew things. Until then it's best used as a reference to remind you of things you learnt in class.

 

[geezer]

- ....There are some lab involved but the book study is done all by yourself. I don't think MA learning is any more difficulty than electric engineer "circle design" self-study. Many self-study classes that you read a book, write a report at the end of semester. You then get credit for it.

Nearly 25 years ago, I did a self-designed self-study to learn Spanish without taking more classes. I began using using old high school textbooks, reading Spanish comic books, then novels (eventually almost everything by Garcia-Marques, Isabel Allende, even Paco Ignacio Taibo, etc.) listening to cassette tapes, and to a lot of Spanish language radio, watching novelas, old movies on VHS, ...of course shows like Chespirito (see my signature), spent as much time as possible time engaging native speakers in conversation, and taking several vacations in Mexico ...always skipping costly plane tickets and riding Mexican buses instead. I eventually got good enough to take "DANTES" tests and earn 12 additional college credit hours in Spanish and ace the official state bi-lingual exam to be certified bi-lingual on my Arizona State secondary teaching certificate. Something I ended up never using, though. Widespread anti-immigrant sentiment has changed the way "ELLs" (English Language Learners) are taught, so I became a full time Visual Arts teacher instead.

Anyway, I agree that granted ability, or in my case, desire and dogged determination, you can learn a lot on your own. Unfortunately, with lack of practice and reinforcement, I've found you can also forget it.

...Now regarding my remarks which you quoted above on spelling and grammar. Those were a direct response to the quote at the top of my previous post, #35.

 

[Phobius]

The EE course "Logic Design of Digital Systems" that

- you learn one chapter in the book,
- you go to school and take exam for that chapter,
- you then study next chapter in the book,
- ....

There are some lab involved but the book study is done all by yourself. I don't think MA learning is any more difficulty than electric engineer "circle design" self-study.

Many self-study classes that you read a book, write a report at the end of semester. You then get credit for it.

Big difference in saying it is possible to learn theoretical knowledge from a book, and learning muscle and body movement from a video. Problem is, you can not learn Wing Chun by someone talking about it to you. You can however learn about circle design through listening alone...

So there is a difference between theory and practical application.