Learning Martial Arts from Youtube- My #1 guideline


Hi!

I was planning on writing a post on aerial throws when something caught my attention during the week.

By now I think we all know Jesse Enkamp, right? He is an active Karate competitor, teacher and also an online celebrity who has made a lot of information on Karate available in videos as well as articles that he publishes online.

The video below actually, and ironically, came to my attention only today when I was searching for material for my post. It is important to note that it got published on the 18th of March 2018.





What got my attention during the week was this...


Frankly- I know we should have expected it. The martial arts world is known to have its fair amount of trash talking and self-promotion and this has been so long before the internet came about.

In the town where I have learnt Shukokai there was a Sankukai dojo as well. It did not take me very long after joining the Shukokai dojo to learn at school (high school) that the students of these two schools have on either side been fed defamatory stories about the other school's teacher.

On Youtube we saw Master Wong making his appearance and demonstrating street self defense techniques in a way that made it quick to grasp and learn. After a long while somebody decided to post a video criticising his choice of techniques for certain self defense scenarios.

Honestly- I wish I had the people with which to make Youtube videos to promote Wenhsiuquan. Video is just a much more effective medium to raise interest in a martial art than the written word.

Nonetheless- I have been able to learn a lot from other people's videos and I have established one simple, but very effective guideline in watching videos on Youtube. That is:

A video in which any style gets put down has nothing to teach you.

Like everything else I write here every weekend these words can be tested. I have, myself, come to this conclusion long ago however.

I have seen videos from really enthusiastic martial artists like Jesse Enkamp, Chintya Candranaya, Master Wong, Iain Sinclair and Iain Abernethy to mention a few and have learnt a lot from the demonstrations, talks and even the choreographed sequences presented in their videos.

Those videos in which someone just sits and tells you how this or that style sucks or what is wrong with this or that style does nothing to make you a better fighter or to improve your knowledge of the martial arts at all. You really just get a person telling you why that style is ineffective- in many cases without even bothering to offer a better alternative.

One absolute truth about martial arts in general that you can take from me and test as well is-

Any martial art system that you know can be used to win a fight if you train to fight. Kicks, punches, throws, joint locks and strikes will always work if you use them in the right way at the right time. To which style they belong has nothing to do with the matter. 

What I say here may not put an end to these annoying videos that come up on Youtube from time to time, but it is true.


Well... That's it for today. That post on aerial throws will come next week on what I believe to be Google+'s last weekend. Nonetheless- the blog will continue to be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Qzone.

Train well!







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