isshinryu vs uechi ryu

[isshinryu5toforever]

I'm not a big fan of the virtual dojo thing, or using videos to learn kata. Maybe they'd be fine as a guide for people who already know the kata. Who knows. I've seen very few Isshinryu video series made that I would recommend to people. I would recommend AJ Advincula's set. They're expensive, but the audience is pretty focused. That's about it.

[Crazybones]

I agree with Isshinryu5 on this one. Youtube is a double edge sword, in that it can show you new ideas both good and bad. That so much isn't the problem it's when people try to encapsulate an entire style by saying "I saw Joe Blow 100th-dan do a mawashi geri and omg it was balls" does that mean everyone practicing that style performs that poorly? no. Does it mean there are people out there who aren't worse than him? no. I started training in Isshinryu at an early age and with it I've gone to places all over the US. I've seen very good Isshinryu and I've seen some that was well, awful...but I can say that about any style I came across. I love Isshinryu, but I have trained with it for several years and I know where it excels and where it lacks. In my opinion being effective with any style begins with knowing those two things and planning accordingly. I have done judo as well and I can see the same trend with it.

[Capt Jakk]

Drawing conclusions from watching Youtube videos is a bad idea. Why? The videos are not a reflection of he larger picture and can lead to inaccurate conclusions.

First, it only represents the small portion of activities that happen to be caught on camera and then uploaded to youtube. Think of all the sparring you do at your dojo. How often do you video tape it? How often does this tape end up online? Probably very very rarely.

The second reason I don't think Youtube should be used to judge martial arts is that videos tend to show the extremes of the quality spectrum and I would say it is generally easier to show a crappy martial artist than a really good one. A person has to have the time and motivation to post the video online. This is generally only done when someone is trying to make a point or show something they think is interesting to other people. The choice of video therefore reflects the poster's bias. You are therefore not going to see the views of the majority of people because they are not passionate enough about the topic. The same thing happens with online reviews. You will generally only read reviews by people who either love the product or absolutely hated it. How often have you seen a review say "it works fine" and give it three stars.? Instead you read reviews from people that loved the product and could not live without it or from people who had a horrible experience with it. Ratings will generally be either 5 stars or 1 star with nothing in between.