What should I do in these circumstances?

Hello everyone! This is my first post on MAP. Please forgive me if I post something wrong. In my country there is no good martial arts school. there are a few, but they are not so good enough, I think. So, I can't learn martial arts from a school. So, the only way for me to learn martial arts is to try to learn from instructional DVDs. I know it would not be same to learning from a master. But, I have no other way. But I have a great wish to learn martial arts from childhood. Now I am almost 16 years old. I want to learn Martial Arts truly. That's why I am posting here. I want to learn such martial art or arts by which, I can use both hand and leg techniques. I have a wish to become an ultimate fighter, at least in our area. I won't use it aggressively for hurting someone. Rather I will use it for saving me and others in danger, from bad people. But I also wanna be a good fighter with much expertness. I want to learn one or more from these.
Shotokan karate
Taekwondo
Wing chun kung fu
Jiu jitsu (BJJ or Traditional Japanese)
Shaolin kung fu
Muay thai/ MMA
Now, please tell me which of these will good for me. Please remember I have to learn from dvds and practise them with partners. and I don't have any physical problems. Please help me to decide. Remember, I want to be a very very good martial artist. Please tell me with reasons which will be best for me. Thanks a lot.

 

Thank you very much for your reply to this post. If I practice the basics and techniques a lot, then what will be the result?

 

Pretty simple solution really.

 

Welcome to MAP,

How do you know the local schools aren't good having no prior knowledge of MA's?

Baza

 

Even if the schools in your area are not of the highest caliber training under a poor instructor is better than training under no instructor. Besides what is to stop you from attending classes a few times a week and if you still want to training with DVDs at home as well, best of both options : )

 

what is your area? and have you searched the available schools?

 

Unless your local schools appear unsafe or appear to be charging excessive amounts of money, I think you're better off with a mediocre school than a DVD.

It's much more fun to learn with other people and it will really help your abilities to have other people to train with.

 

Then you need a master.

Try the schools; most places if they're good will offer a free session or two to see if you like it. Be wary of schools offering a range of subscription levels.

 

Thank You all very much for your replies to my post. You all are right. After a lot of searching, I found a Karate school. But it is very far from my locality. So, I have to start after 1.5-2 years when I will be able to go there. Thank you very much.

 

Hopefully you will be able to find somewhere closer in the mean time What you can do untill then though is try to improve your fitness, flexibility and strength. The better the shape your in the quicker and easier you should be able to apply what you learn.

Might you be able to train there occasionally? Take a day trip for a class and maybe if they offer it private sessions until you can train regularly? Might not be possible but with trying if you can : )

 

Thanks for your suggestion. I will contact them soon. till then I will continue improving my fitness, flexibility and strength as you said. Thanks a lot.

 

In my opinion then is nothing wrong with taking responsibily for our own training and getting as much info as possible from all sources available. As long as things are being tested and you get to work with live people.
Lots of people who are among the best in there fields have had phases where they were self teaching. They wanted to learn and were not going to be stopped. I wonder if people realise that or realise who.

Nathen Leverton, who I know is highly regared , admits to being self taught at first by DVDS and seminars and working things with friends.

There are others in martial arts, cooking, music, art,...its endless. They are only human too.
I say go for it. Better to be doing something in a garage that your testing than going to an official place but the trainings not realistic or the intsructor is on the moon in relation to what works and what doesnt.

Idealy its best to be training in a good gym and using all sources available, but for some lengths of time we have to do the best we can.

 

Your next best option is learn from the DVDs and train that with a friend as often as you can...you will need a training partner to work everything you learn from the DVDs...and you will have to work it over and over and experiment with what you learn...try to work variations off of every technique you see on the DVD...you can accomplish a lot off of the DVDs if you have a training partner and you spend a lot of time working it...then when you get to train with a school later, you will have a foundation at least...
Here are some ideas when looking for DVDs...
Here are a few suggestions after 40+ years in 36 different martial art & combative systems...I have been teaching for 26 or so years, and I am still searching and learning...always a student...
First of all, I think you want to decide if you want to learn a hard style, like Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Hung Gar Kung Fu, or soft style like some Chinese kung fu arts? Do you want to learn a throwing art like Judo or Aikido?? Do you want to learn a wrestling/ ground art of which there are many MMA gyms popping up to select from??
Some arts combine some of these aspects such as Korean Hapkido which combines strikes of kicking and punching with wrist locks and throws...Judo goes from standing grappling to throws and then ground work...but Judo and Aikido have virtually no strikes, by design...Judo was taken from Jujitsu and Aikido from Aikijutsu...all are good arts, but with different goals and focus on their training...
There are others such as Western boxing, Kickboxing, and Thai boxing which is very brutal and heavy on conditioning...
Wing Chun is designed to fight someone at very close range and is a blend of hard and soft techniques, with emphasis on quickness & reflex training & does not rely on brute strength, but instead uses leverage and superior angles to defeat and adversary...all kicks are low and are more street effective as such...
Jeet Kune Do is Bruce Lee's creation, taken from his Jun Fan system, which was based off of his initial training in Wing Chun in Hong Kong, to which he added elements from 25 other systems as well...
Filipino arts consist of stick and knife fighting, as well as empty hand drills and does not rely on strength...
Indonesian Silat systems do not rely on strength either, are great for takedowns, and use a lot of drills similar to the Filipino hand drills...
Krav Maga is an Israeli system which was designed by extrapolating from many different systems...very practical system designed to be street effective...
Tim Larkin's TFT system is direct and brutally effective, but very expensive also...
There are others, but that gives you a wide range...
If someone were to ask me what to train I would tell them to try to find a trainer who teaches some kind of blend of some of these systems... (the legendary Dan Inosanto in LA used to teach it in phase training some years ago...don't know if he still does it that way)...
I would say get some Boxing/Thai boxing, some standing grappling & ground fighting, some Wing Chun or Jeet Kune Do, some Filipino knife & stick work, maybe some Krav Maga/Haganah...those will get you started and round you out ...then pursue more of whatever you find out there that you like...
That is the approach I take teaching here down in south Louisiana...I draw from most all the arts listed above, some much more than others...
Like Larry Hartsell and Dan Inosanto would say, "Don't Box with a boxer, don't kick with a kicker, don't grapple with a grappler, they will beat you"...to be able to do that, you need to have at least a basic knowledge of each one...
Hope this helps...if nothing else maybe gave you some more information...

 

No it's not. Martial arts cannot be learnt from imitating DVDs and trying it out with a buddy who is equally clueless. It results in very poorly executed technique with a miriad of mistakes that become habits. And bad habits can be very hard to break.

So when the OP finally gets to the club he's intent on training at in a a year or so. His progress will be slower than if he knew nothing at all. And it will be mind-bendingly frustrating.

The OP would be better off getting fit. Some running, swimming, lifting some weights etc.

 

That is your opinion, although a somewhat limited one......Some martial arts and some drills can be learned from DVDs...others that require energy work with a partner need to be taught by a trained instructor...
For someone who has no access to any instructors and lives far away from any schools, a lot can be learned from DVDs...everyone has to start somewhere...and everyone starts from the beginning...as you go through the martial art journey, you learn that bad habits can be corrected...they are not carved in stone never to be retrained...
Even with an instructor in a school, you do not learn a technique/drill and perfect it the first day...an instructor helps you so that you fine tune it as time goes on...so training in the martial arts is an ongoing process of making corrections...
And I would add that there are some very good instructors with videos out there who are much better teaching on video than a lot of instructors I have seen in person, who I would never send anyone to pay any money to learn from...that's where you can find a lot of bad habits being taught...especially from the ones who think they know it all and whose cup is full...when you see it you will cringe and then you will understand what I am saying

 

Retraining a bad habit is 10 times harder than learning the technique in the first place and you will learn nothing but bad habits if your only source of instruction is a dvd or a book.

 

If it was as easy as just copying a DVD then everyone would a black belt and or Bruce lee. If it takes time with an experienced instructor to perfect a technique then how will you manage it without an instructor?

Yes you can 'learn something' from DVDs but how will you manage to test what you learn even if you do by some miracle learn the technique correctly? On your own you cannot learn timing and distancing, you cannot learn tactics, you can't learn how to take a hit, you cannot ask a DVD a question. All of those things are massively important if you want to be able to fight be it in self defence or in the ring.

You also have no one to enjoy training with, no one to help motivate you and no one to help. That is a big part of why people start and stick at martial arts, the social aspects of it are important to a lot of people.

 

"Retraining a bad habit is 10 times harder than learning the technique in the first place"...

That is your opinion...and maybe you're speaking from your experience...but is certainly not a fact ...unless you are learning from a bad instructional DVD...depends on the individual and the instructor...you are just repeating what people have said for years because it sounds right...a good instructor/trainer can show you how to make corrections quickly...if not then they are not a good instructor, or you have no athletic ability/coordination... there are many fine instructional DVD products on the market that teach a ton of useful knowledge...and I might add that just one concept, idea or skill may save someone's life in an attack...