This will probably get me some disagreements or negative ratings but since he asked.
I have a question relevant to this
(for my background, see my intro thread).
I am remembering basic techniques learned from when I was a teenager. Just some kicks, punches, blocks and the one set/form that I remember (30+ years later...it was well ground into me!). I am not yet a member of any class, though it is my intention to find something to join and learn properly (i'm currently unemployed, and wish to use martial arts and general fitness training to pick myself up out of the doldrums I have let myself sink into, but currently no money available for lessons - it's a long story
).
LastGasp
You sound like you are very serious in your determination to study the martial arts, that it is more than just a passing whim or flight of fancy. So for the sake of discussion and to answer your questions (from my point of view) I'm going to assume that is what's going on.
First off studying under a qualified instructor should be your primary goal, but you aren't able to now due to your circumstances, I would try and do what Michele did and see if you can work off your tuition. But that's not the real questions you are asking.
I could not do anything in MA until I can sort a job, find a suitable class - this may not happen for a while yet...possibly a long while.
Or I can carry on limbering up and practicing what I remember, though my technique may not be perfect, and I have no one to put me right.
So my question is this:
1) Is it harder to start from scratch, nothing, no limbering, no balance work, no practicing what I remember, nada.
2) Or is it harder to iron out bad habits once ingrained?
Fair questions
1) The hardest part is really getting the courage up to go to the class and get out on the floor and be the new guy. Your the latest awkward newbie that everyone looks at and things was I that dumb, awkward, unbalanced etc.etc.? If you can get past those mental handicaps and still show up the next day and the day after etc. etc. then really what's going to be so hard about correcting basic stances, and learning to shift balance etc. etc.? Chances are it is going to be completely different than what you remember anyway. Unless you are going back to the same style. So no matter what you do you are going to have to relearn or learn new things. So to me it is the same.
As far as limbering (stretching)and balance work, I think you doing both is great and it would be useful to any art you study.
2) Yes it is but..... if you are doing a different style the difficulty will be ironing out your old style and not having it's influence in your new style. However you did you old style several years back so that shouldn't really be an issue. Unless you make it one by trying to interpret your new style in the mold or form of your old one.
I see people study for years in a particular style. Then they decide to train in something else. Surely it happens that to become proficient in the new style, they must sometimes 'unlearn' what they have been practicing for years? Or relearn a different way to do something?
Absolutely. I've cross trained in several systems, some with different ideas on what you should do. For instance in Modern Arnis we grab the stick (we treat the stick as a stick), I was told by some Pekit Tirsa practitioners (when I was training with them) that the stick is a blade and you don't grab it. That's MUCH harder than it sounds to adapt to, when teaching one style (Modern Arnis) and leaving class and then going straight to another and being a student in that class, and not doing something you've trained to do (let alone after just teaching a class to do). It' not unlearning as much as compartmentalizing techniques. When in Rome do what the Romans do.
So why, really, must one not learn alone, when nothing is available to one for whatever reasons?
Basically, I'm just itching to get going and can't afford to
lol.
OK here's where people might really disagree with me. I don't think there is a problem with learning alone WHEN nothing else is available. There is no substitute for a qualified instructor, but with today's technology can a person learn from watching and practicing on their own? I believe so.
For instance in Gichin Funakoshi's book Karate Do My way of life, I believe he tells a story about how his wife use to watch him teach karate while sitting on the roof of their house. One day he's late to teach and when he gets there his wife is teaching the class. To my knowledge he made the point that she had never taken part in class. She learned through observation.
Likewise I've run into this when teaching my classes. I had one boy at 8 yrs old who came to me and as a purple belt told me he knew three kata a head (he knew his purple belt, brown belt , and his 2nd brown kata ) of his current rank blue. I told him to show me (because I didn't believe him and I really was just going to humor him). He proceeds to show me his brown and 2nd brown kata; the brown belt form he had about 60-70% correct and the 2nd brown 80-85% correct and the kicker was the 2nd brown form was backwards. Even though I don't believe in showing kata ahead in rank I did teach him those two forms afterwards.
Last night I had another boy who just promoted to blue belt and when I went to teach him his next kata he told me he knew except that last few moves. He had observed me teaching his classmates the class (Tuesday night) before and he then proceeds to show me the whole kata except for the last couple of moves I didn't show the students in the prior class.
Where they perfect no, however it was very different teaching those two boys than some of my other students who struggle with forms. Everyone is different; some people can learn from observation or visual means, some have to have their hands held, some need to get in there and get their hands dirty going at it with a partner.
Some arts are very different than others where you have to a partner to do the system with; Modern Arnis is one style like that, so is any Filipino Martial Art for that matter. But others like Karate, TKD, Chinese martial arts (?), and for that matter even Modern Arnis all have forms which can be learned without a partner. There is enough information on Google, You Tube, even books to help you to under stand the kata or forms.
Will you be perfect no, but can a person who is serious about it do it? I think they can.
Secondly, because it may be hard to unlearn or relearn, does that mean it should never be attempted? Does not attention, dedication and determination go some way to addressing this? Even give an added sense of satisfaction when achieved?
Even students get things wrong, and can take time, even with regular instruction, to put them right, yes?
I think this is a valid question. I believe so. One of the things that GM Remy use to tell us was to find someone to teach. We could be at our first seminar and only a beginner, but by teaching we took an interest in the art. Teaching lead us to explore more and examine what we are doing, over time we got better at it and better at the art but we had to start somewhere. Now I was always taught you should be a brown belt before you were to teach, but getting out and teaching helped me to cement the ideas, techniques, and concepts in my mind. So if I didn't have an instructor and I wasn't able to take lessons for whatever reason, why could I not use other means to educate my self on the martial arts. I believe it is better than giving up.
