Can you learn Martial Arts from internet?

[UselessDave]

Who has the MOTIVATION to do so?

Sure in theory.. but seriously? It's a problem even when you have a good teacher and training partners. One probably ends up like Daniel-san in the first karate kid -movie's beginning.

[xo-karate]

I have no motivational problems about hitting a heavy bag:-)

I think it is interesting to start learning new techniques, but it would be very difficult to keep up the interest for - say three years.

In my first message I did point out that I think that training with a teacher is better. Question is CAN you learn from internet and WHAT would it be - or even WHO can?

Don't read this as an only possibility. Some one allready answered that a textbook is a good add on for learning - so for what could internet be used?

[UselessDave]

Well it's just that the right answer doesn't exist. All of these answers that have been given are right, but not complete. And they're contradictory too..

[Dobbersky]

Question.

With regards to kicking how can you rectify techniques of kicks from standing in fighting stance to dleivering the kick to rechambering the kick WITHOUT causeing damage to the joints and tendons of the student. Many people beginning kick with the "side" of the ankle when kicking a bag, "unless" you have an Instructor watching you and sporting the technique!

Also punching where the punch comes from the position of the body, the tension of the body at specific times during the life of the technique and how to rechamber the punch

All this CAN NOT be taught online. It needs an instructor infront of you, I know that because i see it all the time from beginners

Internet training is "Monkey Says - Monkey Does" it can teach you to do the techniques but it can't teach you them correctly or why they're there

[ps1]

The simple fact is, at some point in our history, some one decided that hitting someone with their fist was worth doing. They had no teacher. They learned by experience. I believe anyone can teach themselves a martial art (providing you have training partners). Certainly, it will take longer than it would if you had a teacher. Moreover, the more partners you have, the more effective your art will become. This is because you will get to test a move on a wide variety of people and learn what their most common responses are in a situation.

The key to something like this is permutations. That is, you have to defend the same thing over and over, giving different responses each time and find which one works best for you.

For example:

Opponent throws a haymaker to my head...I try to block with my forearm, I try to duck, I try to move inside, I try to flow with it, I try to move outside ...ect...

You try all those things (and anything else you can think of) and see what works best. There you go...one technique down.

Once you have all the techniques you want, you have a fighting art. Of course, you can always work to simplify things and add ranks systems and such.

[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.

[bushido_man96]

Question.

With regards to kicking how can you rectify techniques of kicks from standing in fighting stance to dleivering the kick to rechambering the kick WITHOUT causeing damage to the joints and tendons of the student. Many people beginning kick with the "side" of the ankle when kicking a bag, "unless" you have an Instructor watching you and sporting the technique!

Also punching where the punch comes from the position of the body, the tension of the body at specific times during the life of the technique and how to rechamber the punch

All this CAN NOT be taught online. It needs an instructor infront of you, I know that because i see it all the time from beginners

Internet training is "Monkey Says - Monkey Does" it can teach you to do the techniques but it can't teach you them correctly or why they're there

I respectfully disagree with you here, Dobbersky. With diligent study and using feedback from training partners, "internet training" can become so much more than "monkey see, monkey do" training. You can get good physical feedback from using mirrors to compare what you do to what you see on the videos, and from just feeling what your body is doing.

Is it the long road to hoe? Yes, very much so. Is the presence of an instructor always going to be better in the long run? Yes, very much so. But, it doesn't mean it isn't possible.

[DWx]

In my first message I did point out that I think that training with a teacher is better. Question is CAN you learn from internet and WHAT would it be - or even WHO can?

I think the OP (correct me if I am wrong) is asking what elements of your training can you learn from the internet? Not can you learn [insert MA here] with no prior experience; that topic has been done to death numerous times. It's obvious that anything physical like actual techniques would definitely benefit from direct contact with a teacher but IMO a the internet is a great supplement to that. Like a textbook as Brian said.

Tying the belt was already mentioned, as was folding the practice suit (gi, dobok, hakama, whatever you wear). Those can most certainly be learnt via the internet. Terminology too. If you've got limited direct contact with your teacher you might as well learn to do those things via a web video as that gives you more time to ask your teacher the more complex questions and the ones that can't be answered via internet.

[sensei8]

Learning from the internet, imho, is no different than from learning from a book; fragile at the best.

[xo-karate]

Background for my question about learning from internet is:

1) I have learned to play golf with help of internet. I started few years ago and play a hcp of 11 at the moment. (And won vocational teachers national championship this year. - Not a very serious event, but still...)

2) I started to study judo from internet - still learning ukemis. (Going to BJJ dojo for a basic course at the same time.)

When I started to learn about Judo, I stumbled on "kuzushi" and started to wonder how to use it in Karate ( I have had 1 kyu over 30 years:-). So learning Judo from internet affects my Karate - or atleast gives ideas to try in sparring. --- and I have been getting better or more confident with my ukemis after 5 practise sessions. (Better but fare from good enough - some one wrote that 3 years would be needed to get good enough in ukemis. I just have to manage with what I can do before I am good enough

So looks like one might learn very different things. One thing is surtain - you do not get feedback from internet to your technique... unless you send a video on youtube and ask for it:-) This is what many golfers do, but I have not seen it with MA.