Home Study Courses (don't laugh!)

[Jissen]

My opinion.

1 the "panther' days are over. you can learn from a well produced and thought out video program, even the Gracie's offer one. but the key is well thought out and step by step taught by belt level.

I've talked to many of these instructors and they all say the same thing, their long distance students usually advance faster than their regular students.

2 feedback, 99% of these courses require you to video yourself in a predescribed manner and send it to the instructors for examination. most of them are also available by phone and email. some even require attending occasional seminars, and almost all of them require you to test for black belt in person so they can "feel" you out so to speak. and all of them require you to have at least one training partner...which leads to my next point.

3 you can learn from videos if that's your only alternative (notice i used the word alternative)...but it says nothing of how "good" you will be at it. mainly because you'll be practicing with the same 1 or 2 ppl all the time.

make sure the program is designed from the ground up to be instructional, not just a demonstration.

make sure you have access to the instructor for corrections.

make sure they have good credentials and aren't trying to rip you off.

Stephen Hayes' are good.

Karate Connection kenpo are good (a good intro to home learning too, only 1 "kata") .. they also have free vids on their site of their teaching process. Chuck and Vic were direct students of Ed Parker.

Kobukan has good credentials

Van Donk (he and Hayes were both students of Hatsumi Soke) has credentials.

Kenpo Legacy also legit background. (if i remember correctly this guy was a direct student of Ed Parker)

Shintai Ryu < stay away from these guys!!!

it's not the 1900's anymore and you can earn a degree online. why couldn't you learn the basics of a martial art online or through video?

that's what a black belt is supposed to represent afterall...you've got the basics down. it doesn't make you some sort of master or expert.

in some ways home study can be better for some. but it's not for everyone. the biggest problem with it is that you don't have a multitude of partners to confuse you into learning new things all the time, you'll get used to your partners and be able to read them, thus you'll possibly short change yourself...but you don't care anyway.

[JusticeZero]

You can earn an academic degree online, but they are not very good. The sticky point is the basics of how to operate the body - those are subtle framework issues that are hard to communicate. People think "Oh as long as I can move like these forms and such I know the material". This is not true. knowing forms and techniques does not make you a skilled martial artist any more than memorizing a lot of mathematics tables makes you a mathematician. the key is the body mechanics and proprioception and internalized anatomical application, and those are very hard to gauge or correct without the ability to walk around the people doing the movement, push on their elbow or shoulder, or whatever.

[bushido_man96]

that's what a black belt is supposed to represent afterall...you've got the basics down. it doesn't make you some sort of master or expert.

I see this a lot, but I don't think its necessarily a good thing. A black belt should be pretty proficient at what style they are in, and not just having the basics down. A black belt should be a good representation of the style, and although not a master, they should be getting close to having some expertise in their style. A black belt, in my opinion, should necessarily be just a really, really good colored belt.

[xo-karate]

I would like to second Jissen opinion. Maybe stating that online learning is faster I'd be careful. Faster - in some way yes, but maybe not better. I like to point out the part about having multiple partners. Online learning is just instruction. Practice is old fashion hard work.

I am also worried about not having the instructors immediate feedback.

It's always harder to unlearn wrong techniques than learn them correct the first time.

(But can we get some other kind of feedback than instructors to help us learning - thats an other question.)

My opinion.

1 the "panther' days are over. you can learn from a well produced and thought out video program, even the Gracie's offer one. but the key is well thought out and step by step taught by belt level.

I've talked to many of these instructors and they all say the same thing, their long distance students usually advance faster than their regular students.

2 feedback, 99% of these courses require you to video yourself in a predescribed manner and send it to the instructors for examination. most of them are also available by phone and email. some even require attending occasional seminars, and almost all of them require you to test for black belt in person so they can "feel" you out so to speak. and all of them require you to have at least one training partner...which leads to my next point.

3 you can learn from videos if that's your only alternative (notice i used the word alternative)...but it says nothing of how "good" you will be at it. mainly because you'll be practicing with the same 1 or 2 ppl all the time.

make sure the program is designed from the ground up to be instructional, not just a demonstration.

make sure you have access to the instructor for corrections.

make sure they have good credentials and aren't trying to rip you off.

Stephen Hayes' are good.

Karate Connection kenpo are good (a good intro to home learning too, only 1 "kata") .. they also have free vids on their site of their teaching process. Chuck and Vic were direct students of Ed Parker.

Kobukan has good credentials

Van Donk (he and Hayes were both students of Hatsumi Soke) has credentials.

Kenpo Legacy also legit background. (if i remember correctly this guy was a direct student of Ed Parker)

Shintai Ryu < stay away from these guys!!!

it's not the 1900's anymore and you can earn a degree online. why couldn't you learn the basics of a martial art online or through video?

that's what a black belt is supposed to represent afterall...you've got the basics down. it doesn't make you some sort of master or expert.

in some ways home study can be better for some. but it's not for everyone. the biggest problem with it is that you don't have a multitude of partners to confuse you into learning new things all the time, you'll get used to your partners and be able to read them, thus you'll possibly short change yourself...but you don't care anyway.