Opinions on Self Taught Martial Arts

[neoravencroft]

I wanted to get some opinions on this subject. I know that there are people that do live in the middle of nowhere with no school/dojo/kwoon within a reasonable driving distance or if a person was introverted enough to not interact with anyone. My question is: is self taught martial arts a good idea (and practical) to practice?

I know that some martial arts such as Muay Thai or Western Boxing could be self taught well enough, but I'm pretty sure Karate, Taekwondo, Kung Fu, BJJ or a multitude of other arts might be out of the question due to forms.

Oh, and "self taught" could mean being taught from a book or a video.

[Luther unleashed]

Hey there neo, well I think this has come up plenty and I would say the biggest thing is feedback that matters most. In my opinion personally, some can learn better then others from video, or even a book. I mean, sure you can learn martial arts just as how to repair an engine from a book, it's not as easy of course, as a 16 year mechanic I can guide you easily and give you many quick pointers from experience and make learning tremendously easier then a book. It's no different then martial arts. I have learned things from books and videos, but it's tremendously easier to learn from a living, breathing human being.

It's the feedback and interaction that makes learning best. The answer to "what makes a good teacher" is a similar answer to your question I think.

On the topic of being in the middle of nowhere, or learning a martial art that just isn't in your area or even much in your state or country I can relate. There are some martial arts that lack in my area. On this note I see nothing wrong with learning from a book or video, one would need to work very hard to perfect without correction, and this may take researching multiple books or videos, but it can be done. The human interaction is important not only for the simple feedback but also to practice the techniques. Some martial arts like Karate for example offer more to learn on your own and not quite as much human interaction is necessary, much was meant to practice on your own with forms/kata,poomse,hyung. At some point it is hard to make it useful if you don't apply it with a partner. Hard to always punch in the air and then use it in battle of you never hit a moving target.

I would say if one could do research and put in the time it's certainly an alternative to learn from a video/book but it's important to video yourself in my opinion, and dicey yourself. It's also, at some point important to find a partner to practice some things on a life person.

[MasterPain]

Without a teacher and or at least a training partner, all you would really get is an aerobic workout.

[Luther unleashed]

Without a teacher and or at least a training partner, all you would really get is an aerobic workout.

I humbly disagree, I feel that for a person with no experience an who has never been on a fight, and possibly has no ability to visualize this may be more true, but for a person who has experience, has been on a fight, and can visualize quite well, they would get more out of it then an aerobic workout.

[Alan Armstrong]

Being a self taught martial artist must ultimately depend on the person practicing it.

I have learned some techniques just by watching others doing them. Practiced them and used them in live confrontations.

Today there is no end to the amount of virtual help for self taught martial artists.

With practice and determination a person could become good at martial arts practicing alone. This is not the way however to reach one's own potential.

[JR 137]

It depends on how much you truly want to understand the art. And the art itself. You can "learn" strikes and combinations from a video or book, then practice them on a bag/pad/etc. You can get pretty good at them, relatively speaking. You could learn basic stances and movements and combine them with hand techniques to learn kata/forms from a video or book. You can get pretty good at how they look, relatively speaking.

Without a teacher, it's going to be quite hard to see your flaws (even if you video yourself), pick up on them, then learn how to correct them.

So you can potentially make it look pretty, hit hard, hit fast, etc. But where's the resistance? There's plenty of people who can work a punching bag yet can't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. You can visualize a punch or kick coming and counter against a bag, but that's not going to do anything for you in a real fight.

To truly understand an art (or be on your way) and know how it works, you need a teacher and partners. The more partners, the better.

[JR 137]

Being a self taught martial artist must ultimately depend on the person practicing it.

I have learned some techniques just by watching others doing them. Practiced them and used them in live confrontations.

Today there is no end to the amount of virtual help for self taught martial artists.

With practice and determination a person could become good at martial arts practicing alone. This is not the way however to reach one's own potential.

The person practicing it is the biggest determining factor. When my previous Sensei broke away from the organization we were under, one of the first things he changed was the weapons curriculum. He bought the Nishiuchi video series and taught us what he learned from that. He was a 4th dan and quite good with weapons already, so it wasn't as if he was learning from scratch. He taught us the stuff he learned from the videos until he could train with someone under that organization. About 3 months into it, he traveled to an associated dojo and spent about a week with them. He came back and made the necessary corrections. They were minor, in that he emphasized some things that weren't of the utmost importance, and came back emphasizing other aspects. Basically, the instructors just had to polish up his technique and explain a few things that video just couldn't.

[TJ-Jitsu]

Without a teacher and or at least a training partner, all you would really get is an aerobic workout.

This...

[Nidan Melbourne]

Personally I dislike the idea of being Self-Taught BECAUSE they may watch all the videos or read all the books in the world to learn the technique and forms. but at the end of the day they aren't being corrected on correct form and how to apply the technique correctly.

Boxing in my eyes one of the few Martial Arts that you can do on your own because there is almost a standard way of training that is across the board for all boxers. I might be completely off and if I am please tell me because I wouldn't want to give people the wrong information.

Although at the end of the day my thoughts on this will change as things do. But may involve further research to help me on it

[Luther unleashed]

Personally I dislike the idea of being Self-Taught BECAUSE they may watch all the videos or read all the books in the world to learn the technique and forms. but at the end of the day they aren't being corrected on correct form and how to apply the technique correctly.

Boxing in my eyes one of the few Martial Arts that you can do on your own because there is almost a standard way of training that is across the board for all boxers. I might be completely off and if I am please tell me because I wouldn't want to give people the wrong information.

Although at the end of the day my thoughts on this will change as things do. But may involve further research to help me on it

So my issue is I honestly feel I can learn something in a video more efficient then some teachers can teach some people. That being said to assume that the correction is so important it makes the video learning useless is a bit hard to swallow. I agree Feedback is important and said that in this thread, BUT although I don't want to sound harsh, correction from some people may be less valuable then none at all lol.

My point is that I think this is all subjective and depends on the person, as well as where it's coming from.