Online training?

[Kung Fu Wang]

Can one train online without sparring and having a teacher to correct them?

Under 2 conditions.

- Need a training partner,
- Need to send training/sparring video to the online instructor.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Under 2 conditions.

- Need a training partner,
- Need to send training/sparring video to the online instructor.

I think you just specified two conditions excluded in the post you quoted: sparring, and a teacher to correct.

 

[Instructor]

Some of the better online programs have Skype or Zoom style practice sessions with the instructor to provide feedback in real time.

 

[dvcochran]

In a world of Covid it may be the next best thing. Especially since scientist think the next worst than Delta variant is already here. So far we are 12 known variants of this pandemic. It may be a while before martial arts classes are the same as they were.

Very good read. Variants do not automatically mean bad.

Home - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center

Johns Hopkins experts in global public health, infectious disease, and emergency preparedness have been at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19.

coronavirus.jhu.edu

 

[WaterGal]

I was kind of wondering about mychowgar as well. I started seeing FB ads for it. GU is having a sale right now. Like $60 off. Is it possible to learn their curriculum by yourself? Hmm

The GU videos are some of the best martial arts educational videos I've seen. If you have someone to practice with, working along with their videos would certainly be better than nothing. Now, of course, even the best videos can't give you feedback about whether you're doing the technique correctly. And if you're only ever practicing with the same one person all the time, that's going to be limiting as well. But if your dojo is shut down and not offering Zoom classes, I'd say go for it.

 

[WaterGal]

Some of the better online programs have Skype or Zoom style practice sessions with the instructor to provide feedback in real time.

Yeah, Zoom can help solve the issue of having an instructor correct you - at least to the extent that the instructor can actually see what you're doing, haha. We still have a few people training on Zoom, and that can sometimes be an issue. Like, we have one family that turns off the light so they can see the screen better, which means they just look like blurry dark shapes to us.

 

[oneoftheherd80]

The GU videos are some of the best martial arts educational videos I've seen. If you have someone to practice with, working along with their videos would certainly be better than nothing. Now, of course, even the best videos can't give you feedback about whether you're doing the technique correctly. And if you're only ever practicing with the same one person all the time, that's going to be limiting as well. But if your dojo is shut down and not offering Zoom classes, I'd say go for it.

I seem to recall you are belted in Hapkido. How do you think virtual training would work with that? I'm not trying to be argumentative, just curious and want to learn.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Some of the better online programs have Skype or Zoom style practice sessions with the instructor to provide feedback in real time.

I like the real time feedback. The only downside with that is that not every student may not be able to take advantage of that, but it's good to still have it if possible. That way those who couldn't attend may have some of the same mistakes or difficulty as those who attended. I think the more interaction the better.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Very good read. Variants do not automatically mean bad.

Home - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center

Johns Hopkins experts in global public health, infectious disease, and emergency preparedness have been at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19.

coronavirus.jhu.edu

Yep I understand that. For me I don't worry about the existence of variants. That's only natural. The same way animals can go extinct because of genetic variations, viruses and bacteria can do the same thing. So for the things that won't hurt us, I'm not concern about. I'm more concern about how organism change and become better adapted to their environment. Similar to invasive species of plants and animals have variations that make them more successful in one environment and less successful in another.. It's just the way life is.

Population thinning has always been the same. When population is to great, Natural disasters, disease, war, or starvation will bring a balance. Not exactly a happy story. It's just the way that life as so far proven to be.

 

[_Simon_]

Some of the better online programs have Skype or Zoom style practice sessions with the instructor to provide feedback in real time.

Agreed. In my weekly online session this morning even though feedback is given throughout, the instructor said at the end if there's a specific technique we want him to look at us doing and give feedback on to put our hand up. I did, and it was certainly very helpful. I even upgraded my webcam just to get a clearer picture and better frame rate hehe.

But yes, of course online has its limitations, but it can still be excellent for technical development, especially when having a decent foundation, I think that's pretty important.

 

[_Simon_]

Yeah, Zoom can help solve the issue of having an instructor correct you - at least to the extent that the instructor can actually see what you're doing, haha. We still have a few people training on Zoom, and that can sometimes be an issue. Like, we have one family that turns off the light so they can see the screen better, which means they just look like blurry dark shapes to us.

I loooove all the little issues that crop up with Zoom and peoples' cameras etc... all the different setups people come up with in their homes.. hilarious, even if their camera freezes on a very unflattering pic of their face

 

[JowGaWolf]

Agreed. In my weekly online session this morning even though feedback is given throughout, the instructor said at the end if there's a specific technique we want him to look at us doing and give feedback on to put our hand up. I did, and it was certainly very helpful. I even upgraded my webcam just to get a clearer picture and better frame rate hehe.

But yes, of course online has its limitations, but it can still be excellent for technical development, especially when having a decent foundation, I think that's pretty important.

Camera and internet connection is going to be everything. While it doesn't have to be the most expensive service. It can't be the cheapest Internet service provider or the cheapest cam. That's a reality that I know I will come across soon. Webcams are a lot better than what they used to be. Internet speed too.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Camera and internet connection is going to be everything. While it doesn't have to be the most expensive service. It can't be the cheapest Internet service provider or the cheapest cam. That's a reality that I know I will come across soon. Webcams are a lot better than what they used to be. Internet speed too.

Most smartphone cameras can do the job - even cheap smartphones have decent cameras. For folks who want to use their PC without buying a new camera, there are apps to use a smartphone as a webcam for the PC, as well.

Folks in rural areas will struggle with connection. In a lot of rural areas, the choice is between cellular data and satellite service. Cellular data (if they have a plan that lets them use that much) can be fine - satellite is a toss-up. And some places, cellular data isn't even an option.

 

[dvcochran]

Most smartphone cameras can do the job - even cheap smartphones have decent cameras. For folks who want to use their PC without buying a new camera, there are apps to use a smartphone as a webcam for the PC, as well.

Folks in rural areas will struggle with connection. In a lot of rural areas, the choice is between cellular data and satellite service. Cellular data (if they have a plan that lets them use that much) can be fine - satellite is a toss-up. And some places, cellular data isn't even an option.

If you have not already, research IIoT. We are doing some really, really cool stuff with cellular data and smart phone message threading for facility/employee reporting. It is amazing what you can bounce from phone to phone.
For most, cellular data is more stable and reliable than satellite data. It is all about frequency and shared bandwidth.

 

[WaterGal]

I seem to recall you are belted in Hapkido. How do you think virtual training would work with that? I'm not trying to be argumentative, just curious and want to learn.

I think it could work, if you took the same kind of approach as the GU videos - if the instructor taught one technique to everybody, demonstrated and explained it multiple times, then had the students drill it for a while with a partner at home.

When I was a hapkido student, they had each belt level working on different techniques all in the same class, and the instructor would go between belt groups to teach new techniques. I don't think that would work for virtual training. It barely worked in-person lol.

 

[JowGaWolf]

If you have not already, research IIoT. We are doing some really, really cool stuff with cellular data and smart phone message threading for facility/employee reporting. It is amazing what you can bounce from phone to phone.
For most, cellular data is more stable and reliable than satellite data. It is all about frequency and shared bandwidth.

I'm not sure how much mileage it will get, but a thread on such things as it relates to doing online classes.

I think it could work, if you took the same kind of approach as the GU videos - if the instructor taught one technique to everybody, demonstrated and explained it multiple times, then had the students drill it for a while with a partner at home.

When I was a hapkido student, they had each belt level working on different techniques all in the same class, and the instructor would go between belt groups to teach new techniques. I don't think that would work for virtual training. It barely worked in-person lol.

Lol. I almost asked if this worked in an online environment. That's something to keep in mind when doing online classes and having to deal with different skill levels.

 

[oneoftheherd80]

I think it could work, if you took the same kind of approach as the GU videos - if the instructor taught one technique to everybody, demonstrated and explained it multiple times, then had the students drill it for a while with a partner at home.

When I was a hapkido student, they had each belt level working on different techniques all in the same class, and the instructor would go between belt groups to teach new techniques. I don't think that would work for virtual training. It barely worked in-person lol.

In the Hapkido I studied, we usually did similar things. The person acting as the attacker needed to be someone the GM knew to understand and therefore be able to correctly teach and recognize problems with the person learning the technique. The GM was amazing. He could be talking to me suddenly stop and ask me if I saw something. Sometimes I did, sometimes I was distracted looking at something else. But he saw everything and would go and correct an error in execution himself, showing how a technique was supposed to be done or sometimes have me go and correct and incorrect application.

What I guess what I was really looking for was little nuances that might be difficult to see and then demonstrate, and how they were or could be handled. An example would be a "simple" wrist grab defense, where the defender reaches across and grabs the attacker's palm, twists the attacker's palm/wrist up and over, then into any of several was to break or dislocate some body part belonging to the attacker. We learned that as one of several wrist breaks at the very basic level. That is, we learned seven strikes as defense, seven breaks, and seven throws.

If you learned the technique I mentioned, you will know that just by looking at it being performed, you may not see all the nuances, such as the movement of the foot opposite to the grabbed wrist, the expansion of the whole hand of the grabbed wrist, grabbing the palm from underneath the fingers, pulling up and breaking the attacker's grip by rotating your own wrist up and over. Then for example, grabbing his wrist with both of your hands into your chest, pulling him back extending his arm and putting it under your opposite arm with the inside of the crook of his arm inside, and ram your shoulder into the back of his elbow.

So my question was did the online learning you were exposed to have trouble with the nuances I mentioned in that technique? If you didn't learn that technique, I am sure you must have learned things like that with subtle nuances that had to be applied to make it work?

If you have ever over extended your elbow you know how it can hurt. Imagine how it will feel if over extended to the breaking point. Your opponent probably will not care to extend the fight. Even if he does, he will be shy one arm to use against you.

I realize the above technique may sound complicated. In a way it is. But properly learned and executed, with several things being done together, it is just a muscle memory learning question, done in a split second, and doing damage to an attacker.