newbie question

[OKenpo942]

In a nutshell, no, learning from a book, dvd, tape, etc. will never be as productive as live instruction. I'd say the 1 exception to that, would be if you already had experience in an art, and used the dvd as a reference tool only. Ex: You have a purple belt in Parker Kenpo. Getting the purple belt dvd from Larry Tatum to use as a reference, if you have a question about a tech, etc., would be fine. But again, to learn from, no, not so good.

Sure, its possible to mimic the moves that you see, but I've yet to see a instructional dvd that showed all of the fine points. So to answer your question about having a basic understanding...well, we can't tell you what to do/not to do, as you're going to have to make those decisions yourself. But as long as you're willing to accept that, and if its something you want to do, then go ahead.

Personally, if you were capable of making the drive to the school, I'd go that route. See if you could fit in a private lesson before or after class, to help with the learning process. Once a week that way, IMHO, is better than trying to figure something out, via a dvd, especially if you dont have any training background in the art.

I totally agree with this assessment. I agree that you MUST have personal instruction to learn the finer points. The "whys and what-ifs" cannot be adequately answered by a book or video.

Another suggestion would be to find someone else out there in the boonies that you can carpool with to lessen the pain on the pocketbook, gas prices being what they are. This will also give you someone else to practice with when you aren't at the school/dojo.

Thanks,

James

 

[shima]

I totally agree with this assessment. I agree that you MUST have personal instruction to learn the finer points. The "whys and what-ifs" cannot be adequately answered by a book or video.

Another suggestion would be to find someone else out there in the boonies that you can carpool with to lessen the pain on the pocketbook, gas prices being what they are. This will also give you someone else to practice with when you aren't at the school/dojo.

Watching a video or reading explanations in a book is only going to teach you a framework but it isn't going to get you to have perfect position, posture, placement of the hands and feet. Mimicking what you can see on video and read on paper isn't going to show you how to do it properly is the big problem. I agree if you can find some other interested people you should carpool to the nearest school.