Distance Learning

[jibran]

I got the idea for this thread because the Hybrid Martial Arts Thread was going off-topic.
Now for my 'distance story':
I am a distance student. I'm using the Kasumi-An Long Distance Learning Course and I am testing for Bujinkan diplomas instead of To-Shin-Do ones because I asked the Dayton Quest Center the Shadows of Iga equivelents of the Distance grades and they said I could test for those instead.
I plan to go to seminars whenever I can and to attend a dojo whenever I am in a place that has one; I may train with Hatsumi Sensei next year. When I move back to the US in 2007 I will attend Jack Hoban Shihan's monthly seminars and I will attend a dojo in a bordering state.

 

[gmunoz]

I've seen some of the stuff Kasumi-An Hombu has come out with pertaining to SOI classes and I think it's really good. Good luck in your training.

 

[Don Roley]

Let me get this straight- you have no experience under an instructor or someone who can point out problems in what you do before they become habits.

If that is indeed the case, you might want consider taking another art like Tai Chi Chuan under a real instructor until you can get to a real Bujinkan dojo.

Have you considered just how many holes you are probably drilling into your taijutsu right now?

You may think you are doing things correctly, and you may even have a few mistakes pointed out when you send in video tapes to be evaluated. But it is the things you don't know that you are doing wrong that should worry you. Without any experience, you just do not know what you need to look out for. A blind spot is not just something you cannot see, it is something you are not aware that you can't see. That is what makes it so dangerous.

I hope you do not take offense when I say that begginers make a bit more mistakes than experienced people. And it is the teacher's job to watch newbies like a hawk to make sure that even the slightest flaw is not drilled into a habit. The fact that it seems you have had no experience in a real dojo at all scares the heck out of me. I have been in your shoes and know that you may think that it will be ok. But based on all that I have seen, learned and experienced, starting out without a real teacher is something that should be avoided like the Ebola virus.

 

[jibran]

I completely agree that video/dvd cannot be used solely to learn any martial art, especially one so dynamic as Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. Unfortunately, being stationed in Bangladesh has taken away training oppurtunities in any martial art. The only thing you can study here is Shotokan Karate, which I went to observe and it looks like it will hurt my taijutsu. I will train at a dojo whenever I am in a place that has one, in order to get corrections and to get real training.

 

[Don Roley]

I agree that shotokan woudl not be the best choice for another martial art to study.

But I will tell you with complete candor that when you finally get to a real instructor after training from the beggining exclusively from videos you will have bad habits that you will probably never be able to get rid of. I know from personal experience that once a bad habit is in place, it takes years of training every week under a guide to have any hope of getting rid of them.

If I could save you from an even worse fate than what I had to go through, I would. So I urge you to put off learning from videos and just try to work on other areas of your life unti lyou can get to a real instructor. If you want to do somethign great that you can get from videos, get a set of Feldenkrais tapes. The skills you learn from them will probably reduce the amount of time it takes you to learn new moves when you get to a Bujinkan dojo.

 

[pakua]

I'm not quailified to give an opinion here really, but why should that stop me....

I think learning any MA by distance ed, even TCC, would be very difficult, and I'd certainly agree with the others that you would end up with some bad habits which would take lots of work to get rid of later.

I've seen just how much effort my Sifu and his instructors put in to our TCC and my kids' Kobujutsu too.

On the other hand, you don't want to vegetate during your posting, so I guess you have to weigh up the cons of perhaps having to undo some errors later with the pro of actually progressing to some extent, not to mention getting some exercise!

It's not like you were learing chemistry where you might blow yourself up; your problems if any can be reversed later. I certainly wouldn't like to visit a dentist who had qualified through correspondence though :supcool: