I can practice razing against my BoB and achieve at least moderate competency in footwork from shadow boxing. These are methods of training I already figured on before I approached all of you with my question on how to be self-taught martial arts. Now, that I have gleamed sooooo much wisdom from the likes of yourselves, I still think that practicing razing, doing a little shadow boxing, and wrestling with friends will suffice for what I want to get out of my training. They say that when the only tool you have is a hammer - all challenges that lay ahead will look as if being a nail. All of you have expressed just such a soundness in addressing my inquiry. You have suggested that I have a teacher. But none of you were able to express anything beyond just that; unfortunately, you are all seemingly ill equipped to offer advice on martial arts.
I think I can give what they're saying a little context. I have experienced the pitfalls of self training myself.
The essential problem is that you have very little feedback for what you're doing. Especially if you're just starting, it's difficult to know what you might be doing wrong or how you could improve. It's almost impossible to know what is going to be effective at that point. You have no measurement of how fast or powerful or effective you are at anything because you don't have much to compare it to besides videos. Without sparring, even if you are indeed very strong and fast at what you do, it's still all just theory.
THAT SAID, you can still learn to strike. You can still learn to kick and punch harder, faster, better, etc. You will still get in better shape, and you will definitely be better than you were before. It will take a lot longer to learn everything, but purely from a technically standpoint, if you invest enough time in training and research, it can be done....for striking.
To put it black and white, you CAN learn how to punch and kick in all different ways, learn to slip, move quickly, and grasp the technical understanding of how to defend. I don't see it being possible to learn effective grappling, or get good at defense. You can strengthen the muscles that do these jobs, but get no better at applying them.
Now....can you hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing? YES. Even experienced people hurt themselves sometimes. But when you're starting, it's really easy. Striking with the wrong part of your body is particularly easy, even if you know better. Elbowing with your funny bone instead of your elbow, hitting your pinky knuckle, etc. Problems with fist alignment and limb overextension are common too. Punching full force with bad alignment can seriously injure you.
I'm not saying this to deter you from doing it though. I would just recommend taking it slowly with anything you're new to. Learning to do a particular punch? Do some shadowboxing first. Watch some people do it on youtube. Practice on something soft first.
I must say though, injury is a part of martial arts. It's going to happen sooner or later. Knowledge and understanding will help avoid most of them, but accidents will still happen. Most of them you will recover from, but some of them will really suck and could be debilitating. This is why I would strongly suggest researching moves and drills before implementing them.
I would also recommend putting a higher value on drills than free form training. Free form training of any sort (heavybag, shadowboxing, etc.) can help you learn the skill and smooth you out, but getting good at a particular thing requires drilling. Free form just doesn't have a high enough resistance to improve your strength. I learned this the hard way. By drilling... I just mean make your training specialized. Work on something specific. It can even be as broad as "just kicking".
If you don't have anything else, I would certainly recommend self training. It's definitely better than nothing. But I must stress to TAKE IT SLOWLY with new material and to understand that their are holes in your education. Take any opportunity you can to ask questions from people who have experience. With self training, it can take a really long time to realize something you're doing wrong. Feel free to experiment. Being a stickler to form in this scenario can actually get you stuck doing something wrong. Let good form be a result of good training. If you beat on a heavybag for long enough, you WILL know the difference between a punch with good form and punch with bad form. It could definitely be learned faster in a school though. Kicking is.....harder. It's more complicated. There's just a lot more than can go wrong. But the only way around this is training.
What's you're email address? I can talk to you about whatever you might want help with.
