Can someone become a Martial Artist without a School?

[Toudiyama[NL]]

Originally posted by Tom Yum
Karate & TKD can be learned by books, but I think you can't learn past yellow belt level. White belt techniques can be learned - lunge punch, reverse punch, knife hand, basic palm strikes and blocks - same with the basic front snap, round house and side kick.

Without any experience it would be difficult to perform more advanced techniques. Get an instructor.

If you're attempting to learn chin na and shuai jiao, you definintely need an instructor as the moves are complicated and difficult to visualize without any previous grappling experience.

Stick with your conditioning and practice your basic karate and tkd techniques. Then find instructors in karate, tang soo do, tkd and Chinese Martial Arts.

Actually it is best to have a teacher in the begining that prevents you from making mistakes, lateron it is hard to get rid of bad habits like telegraphing your punch

As for the advance techniques, once you undestand the priciples of the art and how body mechanics work, you can learn out of a book, most arts do not work against bodymechanics in excecuting the techniques ( you work against the bodymechanics of the opponent but use it)

If you are critical and have mirror or videotape yourself, videos might be a replacement for a teacher in the early stages

As a teacher I had the hardest time correcting the mistakes other teachers had allowed to creep in

[SunDash]

Lizard,
I heard that information I posted above on a martial art documentary for Chinese Martial Arts on Discovery channel. The monks even had translators!

Maybe the translators mistranslated the words!
I'm still trying to find out as much as I can about different styles! I don't know much about chi so I can only go by what I hear. (At least I'm not saying anything about it being spritual energy or chi can make you shoot "fireballs" or "beams" or something. I see more of THAT on television!)

And about the bad habits, a friend of mine who was a martial artist corrected my telegraphing habit. He took Pa Kua Chan. This same person learned some chi-na locks on his own by applying some of them to himself. He couldn't practice any Shuai Chiao throws though!

I'll stick to my basic condition though I'm still trying as hard as I can to get an intructor of somekind. Thanks for the replies!

[Lizard]

Trouble with monks of any kind is that they tend to be religeous.

Just because it was featured in a documentary doesn't mean it's true. They probably just gave it as an example of what people who beleive in chi think.

Although there is no scientific basis for chi the documentary had to show both sides of the argument so they talked to some monks. Documentaries prefer to stay neutral and unbiased (good documentaries that is).

[Toudiyama[NL]]

The docu told that chi could be shown with the help of modern equipment as energy areas in the body

[Lizard]

What kind of energy was the equipment measuring?

[Toudiyama[NL]]

donno, I think thermo, they meassured hotspots as far as I could see from the quick picture they showed

Looked like a infrared picture

[Lizard]

Documentary sounds biased, if they were trying to persaude people that chi was real then they can't really be trusted.

[SunDash]

donno, I think thermo, they meassured hotspots as far as I could see from the quick picture they showed

Looked like a infrared picture

Wasn't those "points of concentration"? It wasn't that document I was reffering to but I saw a piece of that documentary. Didn't they try to say that "chi" is the same kind of power that "Karate" artists use to break boards or the same state of mind marksmen used to shoot targets? I remembered at the end of the program they were saying that the Chinese word "chi" is the same as the Japanese word "ki" and the definition for them was "the amount of concentration put into something". The whole concept of "chi" or "ki"(the word they used later on throughout the whole program) was supposedly able to be detected by brainwaves indicating amounts of concentration.

I've also heard that chi is stored in acuputure points! Only proper breathing and fluent motions (like those of Tai chi) harness the power of chi and helps the person release energy! It is not only made up of concentration!

But as I said before, I don't know much about this "chi", "ki" or "kiai" concept!

[cakegirl]

Originally posted by SunDash

I remembered at the end of the program they were saying that the Chinese word "chi" is the same as the Japanese word "ki" ...
But as I said before, I don't know much about this "chi", "ki" or "kiai" concept!

I was always taught (in the different karate styles I've done) that chi and ki are the same! And that the ki-ai translates as energy-harmony, and when reversed become ai-ki, as in Aikido: the way of harmony and energy.

~Cakegirl

[Ryu (JKD?)]

As someon who hangs out with native Chinese 90% of his time, I have to always laugh when people outside that culture start talking about "Chi" as some mystical force that explodes from your fingers, or makes you inpenetrable to bullets, etc.

I equally laugh at the people outside the culture who claim "chi" is a myth, and is not scientific, and doesn't exist at all. Because basically they are thinking of "chi" in the exact terms the people they're arguing with do.

Chi is "air." For the Chinese, it is cultivation of healthy breathing, that leads to longevity, balance, and focus.

Keep things in the realm of reality, and you've got nothing to really argue about. I've ONLY heard the tales of "chi from your fingers, fireballs," etc. from Americans.

Ryu

[Tom Yum]

The character for chi means air. That's exactly what I've been talking about. Chi is the development of breath control, which you can use meditatively (internal) or for athletic effort (external).

Breathing excercises can be done with various postures to stimulate circulation, relax the body/mind and improve balance as done in taijichuan, yoga or meditation.

They can also be done to prepare the body for great effort as powerlifters increase their volume and intensity of breathing before heavy lifts or as boxers/kickboxers release bursts of air while punching/kicking. Some boxers make those hissing noises to give their technique a little more power from their abs and to release air to prevent getting the wind knocked out of them as they get punched while punching.

Chi is not a magical force. Its the cultivation of breath control which can make slight improvements in your power, drastically increase your stamina and improve your general health.

Chi cannot cause you to knock down your opponent without touching him - that's for Hollywood.

[Thai Bri]

It can if you don't brush your teeth.

[sun fist]

Originally posted by Toudiyama[NL]


Maybe not formal but e did receive instruction from his father Munisai

Having the right guidance in the beginning makes it possible to invent things yourself lateron
Most if not all founders of MA's had prior knowledge to some form of fighting

Exactly, Bruce Lee completely ruins martial tradition but wouldn't be anywhere without his instruction in wing chun.

[SunDash]

But seriously, the definition that was given to me on that show on the Discovery channel reduced the meaning of "chi" to only concentration! I'm aware that the wind has something to do with it but I'm still not clear on the scientific application to "chi". I've read a book by Ninja Master Masaaki Hatsumi and he used the term "kiai" as energy/harmony as well. I've also heard that styles like Karate, Tae-Kwon-Do and Muay-Thai cannot harness "chi" due to excessive force while styles like Akido, Ninjutsu, and almost any Gung-fu style can harness "chi" because the styles are liquid-like and fluent!

But at least that's what I've heard

*Runs off to make new "chi" thread"