Can you learn MA from a book?

[pineapple]

Nothing can beat a live instructor, however books can help to expand your knowledge and skills. A book can be a refresher for an art that you train in or had trained in. A book can also intoduce you to an art that is not available in your area. After all, book training is better than no training.

[Pacificshore]

Books and videos make great supplemental aides to your training. Is it impossible to learn from them, probably not depending the depth of your own knowledge, but I wouldn't recommend it for the beginning student.

[Shorin Ryuu]

But in some cases, there is that adage that applies: A little learning is a dangerous thing.

 

And that danger is usually to yourself. I would say no training at all whatsoever might end up being better than some book training and nothing else.

[ovine king]

.....depends on what you mean by "learn".

 

if you simply mean to imitate/copy what it looks like, then maybe yes, assuming that you can figure out all of the movements inbetween illustrated steps or fully understand what they describe in words.

 

if you mean "learn" as in find out something that you never came across before in your training, then i would say maybe, depending on how/what you've done before.

 

if you mean learning from new with no prior experience before, then no.

 

learning, knowing and having experience in are three very different things and in the case of martial arts, there is an even larger gap between them.

 

having knowledge of how something looks like and how it is done means nothing.

 

martial arts has always been about being able to do.

 

knowing x number of forms means nothing if the guy who only knows one move can defeat you in any type of matchup.

 

in that example, you can theoretically learn his martial art (of one move) very easily but what does mean if you can't use it?

 

experience is the key to learning martial arts and that is what you can't get from a book.

 

reading a book isn't going to make you a master, no matter how many years you've been reading.

[pineapple]

Books on martial arts have been of tremendous benefit to me. No it hasn't made me a master of any art but it has helped me pick up techniques here and there. If I see a technique that I like, I practice it, then take it to class and show it to my friends and ask for their opinion. If they like it, I continue practicing it and if they don't, I discard it. Books have also taught me me a lot of theories of fighting which can be applied to other arts.

 

Yes, nothing is as good as classroom training but books can be beneficial.

 

It has helped me tremendously in expanding my knowledge.

 

I have a library full of martial arts books, instructional video tapes and dvds and I'm glad that I have them.

 

...........I also have decades of classroom training.

[krzychicano]

I have to disagree with you Straight Blast. Martial arts book can be an invaluable tool to any martial artist if they are used properly and along with their instructor training. I travel quite a bit due to my job and I have one of our books that teaches me the techniques and forms that I am currently at and they are a great help when I go over my material.

[WC-Strayder]

NO, you can not learn MA just from a book! But it is not completly useless. You can learn theory and motivation from a book and I had learn some very usefull guidelines from books, but you can't learn a whole style from a book or two... thats not posible, sorry!

[pineapple]

No, you can't learn a WHOLE style through books but you CAN learn individual techniques through books.

 

To say that books are useless, well....there must be thousands of people out there who are doing useless studying of martial arts books....and I'm one of them.

[Taku-Shimazu]

Thank you for your feedback, all of you.

 

I realise that as my vote was the only 'Yes' vote you are informing me that it is not possible.

 

But considering that there are no classes for the styles that I wish to learn, are you telling me that unless I move house then I can never learn my required styles?

[ovine king]

you can learn to imitate the moves but that does not equate to having learnt it properly.

 

think about that chimp that they trained to imitate 'moves/techniques'.

 

it could perform the movments but you can't say that the chimp 'knew' karate....