This has been talked about many times before. A quick search should find many threads. However, I'll say what I have said in those threads....IMHO, no, you can't effectively learn from a DVD, book, tape or anything other than a live, breathing, standing in front of you teacher.
People will say, "What if there is no TKD school near me?" What if this, what if that?? Then I guess training TKD is out of the question. Either that, or invest the time and cash to either move or to set aside a long weekend to get some intensive, 1 on 1 training, then go back home and train your butt off on what you worked on, and do it again when time and $$ allow.
DVDs are good as a reference tool. Interestinly enough, as I type this, I'm watching a dvd set that was given to me to view. Within the first few minutes of watching this, the first thing that came to mine was....this isn't something a beginner to the martial arts would get anything out of. So if a newbie with zero training were to sit and watch this, they wouldn't have a clue. Why? Because the person who is on the tape isn't gearing it towards a newbie, and he's not teaching techniques, like you'd see on other dvd sets. Instead, he's expanding on principles and ideas, that one should already have from their training. Again, he's not giving set techs., but instead, ideas and possible solutions to a situation. But if you don't have a background, the dvd will be useless to you, because you dont even have a foundation to build from.
Bottom line....they're a great ref. tool. I own a few Kenpo, Arnis and BJJ sets, but I have teachers that I train with in those arts, so if I were to find something that caught my eye, I could simply take that back to the training hall, and work it with my teacher. That is the best thing to do.
