Watching myself on video for the first time...

[satans.barber]

Well, that didn't do my self-confidence any good! What an odd way to spend 45 minutes...

I so obviously don't have an instructor at the moment! I look positively sloppy, that's me doing too much teaching and not enough practice, and having no-one to really pick up on my own faults.

Gonna have to get a LOT of hard and heavy proactice in ready for this grading.

Ian.

p.s. might make some clips for people to laugh at...

 

[jeffkyle]

Originally posted by satans.barber
Well, that didn't do my self-confidence any good! What an odd way to spend 45 minutes...

I so obviously don't have an instructor at the moment! I look positively sloppy, that's me doing too much teaching and not enough practice, and having no-one to really pick up on my own faults.

Gonna have to get a LOT of hard and heavy proactice in ready for this grading.

Ian.

p.s. might make some clips for people to laugh at...

I watch videos of myself from about 10 years ago. Man it is definitely an embarrasing/humbling experience. :asian:

 

[theletch1]

Video is a great training tool. My sensei will record class or portions of class now and then and let us watch the play back for input on technique. I tell ya, it's one thing to hear him say, "No, do it this way. No, that's still not right" and be thinking to yourself "But that's exactly what you said to do." until you see the video and he points out something that is completly different than what you thought you were doing.

 

[jeffkyle]

One thing I used to hear all the time was that I lacked power in my movements...in my Forms for example. I would think to myself that I showed plenty of power. NOW looking back I see how right they were. The movements were fine, but there was nothing behind them. It is kind of boring to watch as there is no emphasis on the movements that need them. :shrug:

 

[jfarnsworth]

I took a video of myself doing forms a couple of weeks ago. I thought that I looked like crap. When I know while doing the form it was done improper then you know there's problems. Anyhow I'm waiting to redo them in 2 weeks. This time I'll have a studio to tape them in.

 

[Les]

Originally posted by satans.barber
Well, that's me doing too much teaching and not enough practice, Ian.

Ian,

This sounds extremely familiar. Have you been peeping through my window?

Seriously, I video myself a lot and then play it back several times, each time looking at something different, stances posture, angles etc.

I also set the camera up directly linked to the tv so as to monitor myself in a 'real time' environment.

It's definitely a useful training tool.

Les

 

[MJS]

Video taping yourself is a great thing to do! It gives you the chance to go back at a later time, and see the mistakes that you might have made. I've done this a few times during sparring sessions. Its really amazing as to what you'll see when watching the tape.

Mike

 

[Shodan]

Video taping all your stuff is also a very good tool for those of us who have lost instructors from time to time and gone without training for long enough to have to re-learn some stuff. Then you can just review the tapes and re-learn more quickly. Notebooks are good for this too. :asian: :karate:

 

[satans.barber]

Well, I said I was going to make clips...!

http://www.satans.barber.dsl.pipex.com/video/daveReel.divx.avi

That's not me, that's my friend Dave (I'm the one in the grey vest trying not to turn into a puddle on the floor!), still making my video...

That's not black and white for artistic reasons BTW, the camcorder we used is NTSC, and I've had to run the (obviously NTSC) VHS tape though a PAL composite capture device, fun huh?

We really don't move as well as we usually do in this damn heat we're having (was well into the 90s in that room on Friday ).

Ian.

p.s. clip is compressed using DivX (www.divx.com)

 

[stickarts]

i remember the first time i watched myself sparring on video, while some areas were a bit better than i expected, other areas were absolutely horrible!!!
If you can filter through the initial horror, it is a very valuable learning tool!!

 

[satans.barber]

http://www.satans.barber.dsl.pipex.com/video/ianReel.divx.avi

There we go, that's me. I realised I've not really done any serious training, only teaching, since Christmas - which is nearly 7 whole months now, so it's little wonder I feels so rubbish and rusty!

Anyway, time to double or treble my efforts for the next 7 weeks or so!

Ian.

(I am going to partially blame the heat again, I really aren't used to training in the sorts of temperatures we've been having!)

 

[jfarnsworth]

Originally posted by Shodan
Video taping all your stuff is also a very good tool for those of us who have lost instructors from time to time and gone without training for long enough to have to re-learn some stuff. Then you can just review the tapes and re-learn more quickly. Notebooks are good for this too.

We are always harder on ourselves vs. other people telling us what was wrong. The notebook thing is cool. I just purchased a new one to condense my notes into 1 bigger, thicker notebook. Looking back 2 yrs. or so and say oh yeah, that's right this is how we did that tech.

 

[Seig]

Another good idea if you are going to be video taping is use a tripod. I taped my guys before the IKC without a tripod and it looked like an old episode of Batman. The tripod makes a world of difference. It's also good if you can have a VCR and TV immediately on hand at the studio. It's interesting to watch people when they are taped for the first time. My next project is to get those little tapes together, edit them and put them on DVD as a reference library (or a roast for some point in the future)

 

[tunetigress]

I really enjoyed those clips! Thanks for posting them. Would like to see some more in the future. However, I did have to download the divx player in order to view, for some reason.

 

[Robbo]

Ian and Dave

Takes a certain person to put themselves on display for the world to comment on.

Good job guys, it looks like you've been working hard (lots of sweat). Can see some beginnings of flow to your technique.

Rob

P.S. One suggestion...don't pose to admire your work at the end of the technique....cover out, survey, &/or re-enter but don't stop at the end and hold the last strike out.

 

[satans.barber]

That's not 'posing' as you put it, it's just the way we finish our techniques; we were never really taught to do all the crossing out that I see in American Kenpo clips usually, so we just sort of finish at whatever end move is in the technique we're practicing, then walk off. We normally pause slightly as practice for gradings, so whoever's grading us can see that we've ended in the right stance or whatever.

I don't think crossing out and creating distance is necesarily always a good idea anyway, it only creates another gap that has to be closed. If I'm still in close, I can react right away, but it's also more dangerous of course because I'm obviously in range for more strikes. There's not always a correct way of doing these things, and anyway, in a proper self-defence situation it'd be dynamic, so how you finish it off in training is fairly irrelevant, in my opinion.

Tuningrass - as long as you installed the codec from the DivX site, you should be able to use any player you like (media player or whatever).

Ian.

 

[Robbo]

Hi Ian,

I didn't mean to imply that you were doing anything wrong, it's just from your previous posts I got the impression that your art was VERY closly tied to EPAK. Since as you yourself said just about every EPAK technique ends with a cover-out (possibly more than one) I was surprized when I saw it wasn't part of your techiniques.

I know personally when the class starts to get grueling that sometime things get left out because you're trying to conserve energy.

Since you did not forget the cover-out and that is the way you were taught then by all means continue, I realize the situation that you're in and know it's tough having to step up and you have to rely on what your were taught in order to pass it down.

That being said I'd like to give you a few reasons for the cover out so that you can judge for yourself whether it is applicable or not.

Please keep in mind these are just reasons as explained to me in our school, again they don't imply you are doing anything wrong.

It is part of the 8 ranges of combat:
1) out of range
2) in range
3) contact range
4) contact penetration range
5) contact manipulation range
6) COVER OUT
7) survey
8) re-enter

If I'm still in close, I can react right away

Yes you can, but if in practise your technique ends then what is the point, if you want to practise this method then have your partner do something after you're done the technique and see how you react.

If the person does go down after you're finished or at any point in the technique then there are other factors to consider. Does he have friends? how close are they?, if you re-establish close to the person you put down you have to consider not tripping over them as you move on the new threat.

If you do engage the 'friends' what happens if the person you put down re-covers and helps from the ground.

By covering out you are choosing the 'high ground', and in SD every advantage should be employed.

By covering out you are taking your targets away from your attacker and isn't that the point of SD, to get away? If I finish my technique and my attacker is still standing and swinging then I have no choice but to continue, but if he's down and out, I'm outta there.

And.......after reviewing the clip you actually do cover out in some of your techniques.

Be talking to ya,
Rob

 

[KenpoTess]

I'm very humbled and usually falling on the ground laughing when I see myself on video

 

[satans.barber]

Rob,

Thanks for your post, it was thought provoking.

Please don't think that I aren't capable of crossing in/out if I want to, and sometimes I do (as you noticed)! As I said we just don't tend to explicitly do it. That room is also pretty small, which may have sub-conciously affected what I did.

Maybe we should, who knows - but it's not my place to go changing the curriculum currently! I have a hard enough time trying to teach techniques as the person grading expects them to be taught, without introducing any differences of my own!

I can just see what this grading is going to be like in September:

Senei Cawood 'OK, let's move on to technique X......right, STOP! Who taught you to do it like that?'

<everyone points at Ian>
<Sensei Cawood looks at Ian>

Ian 'Um, isn't that how we do it?'
Sensei Cawood 'No, we changed that months ago'

...and then repeat many many times over until it becomes ridiculously embarrasing...so you see, if I start altering the footwork as well, I'd just be digging an even bigger hole for myself, regardless of how it I think it should be done in my own opinion - do you see?

Having said that, I do think if I did a proper cross out in a street encounter I'd probably just fall backwards over a kerb! Murphy's Law!

Ian.

 

[Robbo]

if I did a proper cross out in a street encounter I'd probably just fall backwards over a kerb

Well, that's environmental considerations and.......well we won't go there

See-Ya and Good Luck,
Rob