video training vs real instructor

[monkeygirl]

They sell instructional videos in that magazine.

 

Coincidence?

 

I was thinking the same thing...definitely a conflict of interests going on there. Other than having some interesting drills from time-to-time, I have never been very impressed with Black Belt mag.

 

And what was the context of their investigation? The people using the tapes...had they studied a different MA before? The people studying at a dojo...were they new to the martial arts? I don't want to accuse BB mag of anything, but people very often manipulate statistics to suit their purposes.

 

I believe that some videotapes and books can be helpful in addition to training at the dojo, but I don't think you can really start from scratch with them. A videotape can't tell you if you're doing it right. You can't spar a videotape, either.

[Sasori_Te]

I saw that article. It concerned 3 women in their 20's in good health. They had to learn 10 kenpo techniques. Some used a personal trainer with a black belt in that art to teach them the techniques and the others used video tape. The ones who had the instructor performed the technique on the instructor and were able to ask questions. The others followed the video tape and performed the techniques on an instructor but weren't able to ask questions. All the women were able to perform all the techniques equally well. The article goes on to warn that the techniques were from yellow to purple belt and that had the techniques been black belt level the outcome may have been different. They did believe that these techniques could also be mastered with more practice. However the third point made was that they were graded on form and mechanics only. They were not graded on understanding of the technique. It should also be noted that this study was not done for BB magazine it was done for The International Association For Behavior Analysis (whatever that is). Personally I would like to say that without understanding they conceivably would not be able to modify these techniques to fit a given situation and therefore were useless. Also, tapes may be of use to someone who has a deeper understanding of the martial arts already. You would need a training partner with as much understanding as you to make use of tapes though. All in all the dojo is a MUCH better alternative.

[CPU]

I didn't read the artical but from what i've experenced a actual instructor is much better than a vidio, u just cant replace that personalized instruction with a vidio, i could however see using the vidio to help practise at home, while also going to a dojo for the instructor based instruction.