Drew

I agree very much with ps1. Many people that you ask this question of will tell you no, but I wonder if they have ever earnestly tried and succeeded in devising some method of damaging or avoiding being damaged by another person. When you get down to it, that is all a martial art is, a collection of techniques used to beat someone down. As for those who would argue that a teacher is needed to keep you from kicking with the side of your foot or rolling your wrist or whatever, I would argue that anyone who has put any honest, halfway intelligent effort into becoming an intelligent striker would figure these things out very quickly on their own. Perhaps the beginners that you have observed doing these things are just that? Beginners? I have come across the same thing: people who claim to have studied fighting, wrestling or what have you but can not back up the claim in a sparring match or even against a heavy bag. By the same token, I have met people who study at a school and even several instructors that may have pretty technique but no "oomph," so to speak. Actually, the only people I have come across who kick with the side of their foot are from schools. There is a common denominator in both of those cases: the fighters didn't approach combat seriously, didn't train seriously against other would-be fighters, and most of all were not conditioned enough to roll with someone who had taken these things seriously. I knew a little girl who taught herself how to knit. She used a book and many hours of trial and error as her teacher, and she can knit the most amazing things now. As with many things, the most important thing in martial arts is to practice hard and practice often. I would encourage you to follow in that girl's footsteps whether or not you have a teacher. Take whatever information you can get, be it from a teacher, the sparring match you just had, or the fight your just saw, and plug it in to your own trial and error process. Take a proactive approach to your own education and you will go far in any endeavor.