I do not do Chinese Martial arts, but I have background of self training and teacher training. My theory is... Self training itself is not bad. It's the fact that it's not for everybody. Some people can self teach themselves better than others. I grew up self teaching myself about computers. When I finally got into classes for computers. I was lightyears ahead of all the other students, and not far from advanced levels.
Now back to martial arts. I self taught myself martial arts for awhile, before I actually got under a legit teacher. By the time I came into an actual dojo, once again I was lightyears ahead of the other beginners. And during sparring I easily put them away, and displayed beyond white belt level of technique.(I was a very dangerous white belt :ultracool). Here is the kicker though. There was holes that were missing that needed to be filled. These holes were pretty much basics, but here is another kicker. It did not take me long to plug these holes. I imagine it only took weeks upon my teacher teaching me and reminding me during sparring. Now here is what I learned. I saw that in a very short amount of time my skills and technique increased EXTREMELY fast(Training in the Dojo compared to self training). To the point that I surprise myself and cannot believe what I've done. It turns out my ability to self teach myself to such a good extent was due to my ability to LEARN extremely well and fast. So I have concluded that by self teaching you're not going to improve as fast as you would if you were actually being taught, but self teaching did not really make bad habits that were hard to break(Unless you're stubborn and not open minded).
The bad thing of self teaching is(depending on the person), you can end up training yourself for a very long long time. And still find yourself at a white belt level, when you find legit training.
Now to relate to the argument of this thread. Do not be infuriated with Coffeerox. He is free to self train as this is a free world. He seems to realize that he needs a teacher(which is true), and that it's better to have a teacher(which is true). So he is obviously not promoting self teaching, or encouraging others to self teach themselves. But to say or act as if self training is completely useless(is not true). But to be proficient, you definitely need to get a teacher as soon as possible. Or do not expect to be taken serious(until proving yourself). Because it's not fair to say you're representing an art, when you have no official teaching from someone in that art.
Give me a bloody break , massive volumes could be written on the subject of Chi Sau alone .
Wing Chun is not just a kicking / punching , striking art we actually learn through the process of Chi Sau how to manipulate a human beings balance.
This is something that cannot be learned from books or videos , you need to experience it and be on the recieving end of it from an experienced qualified Master to understand it or at least those instructors taught by one.
Wing Chun is a system in which precision counts , a fraction of an inch out of position means the difference between being hit and not being hit.
Things like " Forward Force " can't be seen on a video , things like the
internal contraction Tei Gong can't be seen on a video.
There is a **** load more to it than just copying the external movements , just like an iceberg most of it is underneath the surface.
In 1989 I first started learning Wing Chun and began the process of learning Chi Sau , I say learning , because to this day I am still learning it.
My best student will still get the odd hit in occasionally , anybody who's truthful about training knows **** happens.
Each time I teach or train I hope to make some minor improvement both in physical technique and my level of understanding.
In Wing Chun you learn a bit from your classmates , your seniors , from trial and error and of course from your Sifu.
I can only imagine that trying to teach yourself would be like trying to search for a needle in a hay stack or find an answer to a question when you don't even know what the question is .
Unfortunately there are about 10 ways to do a technique wrong and only one way to do it right in Wing Chun.
It is insulting in the extreme to believe that people think they can learn a system such as Wing Chun off Youtube or from books , videos etc.
Sure you can ape the movements or pull off a reasonable facsimile of a technique , but it will never be the same as that of someone taught by a qualified Master , someone who has put in the hard yards in terms of sweat and black eyes , bloody noses , busted lips , concussions etc over periods of years.
I meet these YouTube practitioners all the time at the Rugby oval where I teach one of my private students , it seems to be a modern phenomenon like Facebook and Myspace.
I get sick of them interrupting the lesson and wasting my time so I use them as " Fresh Meat " for my student , he doesn't hurt them , but only controls them .
I actually tell the You Tube trained individual to try and hit my student , they struggle away trying to fire off shots at him , he just redirects the attempted hits and keeps rolling.
Then after a brief time the You Tube person is completely fatigued and breathing heavily , bent at the waist and holding themselves up hands on knees , because my student has learned to correctly transfer his body weight through his arms and worn the poor sucker out.
You can't learn this from videos , it has to be felt.
I offer to teach these people and believe me I only charge a small amount , less than half the amount charged by a personal trainer in these parts.
Some say yes and you never see them again , or they come up with excuses as to why they can't train at the moment.
I believe what happens is that they are confronted by their own short comings and the shot to the ego is too much.
Their delusions of grandeur are shattered , when they realise just how much how much bloody hard work it takes just to become adequate in this system.
Of course those of us who have been trained in genuine Wing Chun / Wing Tsun academies are immune to these blows to the ego , as we came up through the ranks we were regularly used as " Fresh Meat " and " Human Punching Bags " by senior instructors and higher grades.
Any superiority complex you might have had was quickly beaten out of you , this might seem old school and brutal and probably wouldn't fly in todays world of " I think I will sue because my coffee was too hot " society .
But the thing was it worked , it really sorted out the wankers from the people who were really serious about learning , because usually the wankers left as they realised they weren't the supreme demi gods they thought they were.
Their delusions of grandeur are shattered , when they realise just how much how much bloody hard work it takes just to become adequate in this system.
I really fear for the future of Wing Chun and martial arts in general , are future generations destined to be taught by Internet Sifu's and Senseis.
People who's only connection to the martial art they purport to be teaching is through You Tube videos , books etc.