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Originally posted by Ben Grimm
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But I strongly disagree with you in your statement. Instructional books or videos are not just for refference. Thats ridiculous. many Kung Fu masters and all through history have made instruction books. Alot of styles have such books and videos. And I am sure that you have sought to learn from books and videos as well in the past. I have even made booklets for some of my students to help them remember forms and techniques and they have learned from them as well.
There may be some people out there that have been secluded in a remote district and who only had such videos and books to learn by and they may even be better at their martial arts than some who have the teacher.
But, I am reffering to my own personal study. Besides my training under different masters inat different martial arts clubs and my private instruction by masters, I have learned from every other source imaginable. And I keep learning. When a person practices martial arts for a long time and have gone through different instructors and styles, they learn the foundations and how to execute techiques poperly and they can easily adapt slight stance changes and movement. So, If I go and read another master and he is showing a technique in a book or better yet he is personnaly showing all the details of the techniques in a video etc. I can easily learn from that as well. This may not be the same for a novice, or a person that has no foundation and who has not taught Kung Fu for many years. By the way some teachers who give instruction on videos are even more informative and descriptive than some actual masters out there.
But I am not saying that learning from other methods is as good as personal instruction. With personal instruction you can ask questions and find out many secrets and have the instructor correct your mistakes and practice two man techniques etc. etc.
But I still believe that video, and books are very helpful, especially if you are a teacher of martial arts with over 20 years.
If for example lets say there was a man in China that never taught anyone his family style of Kung Fu except a few close relatives and then he made a video instruction of it and defined all the techniques and applications and he did this with intense detail. Then he and all his relatives died in a explosion at a family get together, there would be no way of learning his Kung Fu other than his videos and books. A martial arts teacher who has the proper foundations can easily learn this. Easily. So, I have no problem with learning anyway you can. I have even learned some things from watching the actual Praying mantis, and at the time I already had martial arts experience so i was able to incorporate those techniques into actual fighting and they worked very well. So my perspective on learning is very open to whatever will work for you. But I would still always direct people to a real live teacher first.
But don't think for a second because I find this way helpful that I have only learned this way. I have told you about my many different Kung Fu clubs and training and learning the traditional way and traditional forms from masters of different styles.
And by the way I still have private instruction by other masters.
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