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View Full Version : Can you really learn from videos?



Shaolindynasty
06-06-2001, 06:37 PM
I was inspired to start this new topic because of an interesting conversation I started to have with Gene(I didn't want to keep it in that same old boring Shaolin Do thread I am so tired of that stuff :rolleyes: ). Anyway, I am asking if you guys think you can learn from video? I think you can pick up somethings such as philosophys of movement etc. I personally have tremendous trouble learning from video(I have about ten wing lam vids). What do you guys think?

Witness the Dynasty!!!
www.shaolindynasty.itgo.com (http://www.shaolindynasty.itgo.com)

GeneChing
06-06-2001, 07:24 PM
You can learn from anything. Ancient masters learned from cranes and snakes. They read and worte books to pass on the knowledge. Tamo learned from a stone. It all depends on how good a listener you are.

To quote an article I wrote in our Animal Kungfu special Mar/Apr 2001
"...nature is the most profound teacher of all. You can go to the highest school and speak with the wisest master there and find out all there is to know about kungfu. Or you can go into the swamp, into the sea, down into the earth, and learn all there is to know from the creatures you see there, from the sun and the stars. Nature is a stronger force."

Gene Ching
Asst. Publisher
Kungfu Qigong Magazine & www.KUNGFUmagazine.com (http://www.KUNGFUmagazine.com)

MonkeySlap Too
06-06-2001, 08:26 PM
Just make sure what you 'figure out' works before you teach it to the unsuspecting.

We always maintained a basement training center for 'rigorous testing' of what we learned.

This helps a lot.

Video has always been a part of my training. Backl in the days of helical scan reel to reel video we would tape the Judo matches at my high school and analyze the other fighters.

It is a great tool, it is just misused by people who buy a few videos and proclaim expertise in something they saw (but perhaps did not understand) on tape.

Otherwise, I'm with Gene.

I am a big beleiver in luck. The more I work, the more luck I have.

hasayfu
06-06-2001, 08:41 PM
I learn a lot from videos. The most common thing for me is to notice differences in why someone does a movement different from me. Then I try it out and find where the energies are and applications. But that's forms that I already know or systems I am very familiar with.

Learning a new form, end to end, I have tried it a few times and have been fairly successful but with corrections from Sifu (Wing Lam is my Sifu) I see the gems that make the sets worth learning missing.

AS the SD thread was implying, can you learn a form soley from a video when it is not part of yur core system to the point you should teach it as that original form? I would say no. Videos by design only show small piece of the puzzle.

Shaolindynasty
06-06-2001, 11:17 PM
Excellent, I believe observation is the most powerful learning tool you can have. When I watch a video I try to capture the essence of the movement as told by the performance. I am pretty much on the same page as hasafu, but lets not take sides(we all seem to agree anyway) rather lets discuss how videos have inriched our practice. Also some pointers that we may have learned that we can share.

Witness the Dynasty!!!
www.shaolindynasty.itgo.com (http://www.shaolindynasty.itgo.com)