 Last week we talked about training from home. A lot of us right now are stuck at home or our dozers are closed, so we are left to our own devices to continue our own training and to improve. So we talked about different tools and techniques and tactics and things you can do to keep yourself in shape and going. One of the things we mentioned were videos. You've learned from videos. However, there were some challenges mentioned to that. So today I wanna talk about the benefits of training from a video and some of the challenges that come with that and maybe some ideas and tips to get around those challenges. Okay, before we get started, I just wanna reiterate that I believe you can learn a lot from videos. I mean, I think they are a great training tool. They're wonderful to supplement your training, but I also wanna reiterate what I've said before is you cannot learn a complete system or I don't believe you can get your full potential off of videos alone. There's a certain part of the martial arts you need human touch, you need resistance training, you need that stress testing and that comes from a live dojo or at least working with a live person. So while I feel that videos definitely have their place, just please understand that there are limits to learning with videos. But that being said, let's take a look at how this process can work. Now, this is a big one here. I think your experience level is gonna play a huge role into how effectively you can learn from videos or not. You have to understand what a front kick is, the mechanics of punches, the mechanics of kicks and blocks. So if you are a beginning student and you just started out, my personal recommendation is work on those basics. Get those basics solid now. I promise you you're not gonna regret that. You're gonna think yourself later before you work back through the material. Give yourself a solid platform to build on before you start adding force to your building. Now, if you're an intermediate or an advanced student, you're gonna have a much better understanding of the material. Therefore, I think you're gonna have an easier time learning from videos or even manuals. Manuals are tougher. Videos at least are a visual reference. You can follow along, you can see someone, you can hear someone. It's like having an instructor. You don't get the tactile response or the feedback, but you do get at least somewhat of a live teaching. Manuals are a lot harder because you have to interpret it and visualize it in your head. We're gonna get back to that though. Obviously, I think you should do a constant review. Videos are wonderful for review, but there's some certain things to keep into consideration when trying to learn new material that advance forward in your curriculum. One of those tips and one of my suggestions is don't spend all day watching a video. If you got a stack of DVDs or if you're on YouTube and you're starting to watch a video, say you wanna learn a new self-defense technique or a new combination. Let's just say a new combination. Don't spend your time sitting down watching. I would say put it on your phone or a laptop or put it on the big screen and step back in the room a little bit and try to follow along, walk through it, follow along. Start getting your brain triggered to get those body parts moving. So when you see something registered that you step back with your left foot, just step with your left foot, get your brain to begin making those connections. I wouldn't recommend just trying to replicate something you've seen. You wanna understand what you're doing. So I would say look for videos that give more of a breakdown and instruction, not just, oh, this is what I'm gonna do, this is what it means, and they just do it. You wanna see your step one, your step two, your step three and they explain what they're doing. The more detailed video you can get, the better off you're gonna be able to train. So don't just imitate. You want something that actually breaks it down that you can understand it. Okay, one of the biggest challenges that I've noticed with videos, you've got the mirror image issue or it can be an issue, especially if you're learning something detailed like a kata where you have to step certain ways. Most of the time instructors, when they're facing the camera, when they say, oh, you gotta step back with your right foot, they step back with their right foot. Your brain has to reverse it because you're seeing a mirror image. When we taught kids, my instructors thankfully actually taught us in Kempo that all our techniques, whatever you do on one side, you should be able to do on the other. So when we were up in the front of the room working with the kids, we would be mirror image. So I would do my techniques backwards that the kids, the whitebells, we're talking the five, six, seven year olds that are just learning, they could fall along a little bit easier because I'm giving them the visual cue, I'm being the mirror image for them. Some people can just look at it and understand it. Another tactic you can do is if they are facing towards the screen and they say, step back with the left foot, but it looks like your right foot. Sometimes I turn my body sideways and I stand perpendicular to the TV and I look because sometimes I can still orient myself or my right leg is a little bit more in line with their right leg and that way it's a little bit easier for me to look over my shoulders slightly and then get my bearings. Sometimes that helps, sometimes that it's enough for your brain to be able to connect what your leg is with their right leg and orient yourself a little bit better. And of course there's a lot of video instructors out there who will do things from multiple angles. That's a huge help. If you can find that, that's bonus. But say you found a video that the instructor goes into such great detail, you wanna work with this video, it's got a lot to offer, but use your suffer from the mirror image problem and there's no multi-angles and you're having trouble looking over your shoulder. Well, there's a couple technical solutions. One is if you're working with the Chrome browser, there are several extensions you can install that will flip your screen that will mirror image your screen. So if you're having that problem with the mirror image, well, okay, flip it and there you go. Then that's gonna be more aligned with you. So that's one solution. Another option is if you're watching say a video file and then before something or even a DVD on your computer, I recommend using VOC player. There's a tool in there that allows you to flip the player around as well. So basically what you do is you go open VOC program, go up to our assist tools, select effects and filters. You'll see the tab that says video effects, click on that, choose where it says geometry and in that box, you'll see a little checkbox that says transform. And when you click on that, you'll notice you now have a bunch of options from a dropdown list that allow you to flip horizontal, flip vertical, rotate your video, a lot of different options there. But once again, if you're having problems with the mirror image, just use VOC to flip it for you and it solves that right there. Now one of the challenges to learning from videos is obviously not having that feedback from a live instructor, but sometimes instructors will go through a technique or a sequence and they might not break down some of the finer details, either that that's just not what they're focusing on or they might assume that you already have a fundamental knowledge. This goes back to me saying that you have, I believe you should be more of an intermediate level to try to do this to learn new material because there's a lot of subtleties in there. They might not verbally instruct or they might not say but are very important to technique. So I would recommend watching back in slow motion and looking for things like look at their hips, look at the rotation, foot placement and pivoting on the foot, weight settlement. These are small little details that can make all the difference in effective technique. So in Kappa, we use the clock principle for our coordination, which I think is a fantastic tool. Some arts use it, some arts don't, but I think it's a great point of reference. You know, very simple. You're standing in the center of a clock, 12 o'clock straight ahead of you, six o'clock straight behind you, 93 are on your sides. And then you've got your corners, which in Kappa we have 134, 37, 30, 10, 30. These lines of references are extremely useful, especially if you're learning the technique and how to get your footwork down. So if you're a student of Kempo, then you should already know about the clock principle. And it's using various versions of Kempo. If you're not and you're in an art that doesn't use this principle, that doesn't mean you can't adapt it. I would recommend practicing that way. You know, visualize a clock on the floor. So when you take a step, try to know which directions you're going. And the act of watching and writing it down and repeating is how it's gonna get ingrained into your memory. So I personally find the clock principle to be a very useful point of reference. Now, another challenge is temptation, especially if you've got videos of your entire curriculum in front of you. It's easy to wanna, oh, I watched it, I memorized it, okay, next one, I watched it, I memorized it, next one. Don't rush, don't cram, because the faster you try to consume it, unfortunately, the faster you're gonna forget it. I recommend maybe learn one or two new things a day. If you walk into a class and you're there for an hour, is the instructor gonna teach you 20 new things? No, they're gonna teach you one or two drills for that day. Treat your workout session the same way, one or two drills that day. Once you're comfortable with that and you feel you know it well enough, then move on to the next stuff. And obviously, and don't forget to keep reviewing your previous stuff. That's another pitfall people get into is, oh, I've memorized this belt level, let me go to the next one, and then go to the next one, and sometimes they don't go back and review. So yeah, I've got my black belt material done, and I forgot the white belt stuff. It's not a race. If you're gonna spend your time and money and effort to learn the art, then learn the art. Don't just rush through it for that belt, because I'm telling you right now, you rush through a series of videos and you go get that belt, that belt means nothing. Now, some arts have written manuals. Some just have a syllabus, and you really can't just learn from a syllabus. That's one other thing I love about Kempo is our manuals, our technique manuals, are highly detailed. It goes step by step. It goes through pacing, it goes through weight shifting, it goes through power principles. You find a good Kempo manual and you're gonna have a lot to chew on there. But not every art has a manual like that, but if you are lucky enough to have that, that could still be a very valuable tool, especially with videos that go along with it. Not everybody can learn from just reading the technique, and that's why I always say, again, once again, that's why I feel you need to be more of an intermediate to advanced student, because you will know the terminology, you'll know the reference points, you'll know the basics, you'll know your power principles, all that. Once you know that, it's easier to learn something new in a sequence because you've already got the foundation for it. And to highlight that point, I wanna just use an example, we've got one delayed sword. This is the first technique you learn for a white belt level in American Kempo. And it's very well detailed. I mean, you can see a lot of notes here. This is just one version of manuals. I've got several manuals. I've kept notes my whole career. I've got binders upon binders upon binders of notes and manuals I've collected over the years in my training. So I always look for new manuals because each manual teaches me something different. Now, what I like about this one is, it teaches you step by step. It brings in important points and notes. It also tells you the history of previous manuals, what they might have said. Just to give an example of how important it is to understand and have a basic knowledge of your system and to go slow with the technique, I'm just gonna read the steps of this technique and I'm gonna point out some issues here. Basically, someone comes in for a push or a grab or even a straight punch possibly straight at you. So with your left foot, step towards six o'clock, which is stepping back and form a right neutral bow stance as you deliver a right hammering and we're blocked to the inside of the opponent's right arm. Two, immediately deliver a right snapping ball kick to the opponent's groin. Three, plant toward 12 o'clock and form a right neutral bow stance to check the opponent's right knee, simultaneously deliver a right outward downward diagonal hand sort strike to the right side of the opponent's neck. While it sounds all well and good, you have to know what a neutral bow stance is. You have to know what a right hammering inward block is, which is in Kempo is often reversed of what other traditional karate systems do. So you have to know the terminology to that. However, I know some of you out there who know Kempo are screaming at some of the errors I made, I made them on purpose because there's a lot of small details that are not written here. For example, and this comes back to rudimentary knowledge that you should have in your basics. Even though this is a wipeout technique, this is a reference point in Kempo. You know, if you're gonna throw a snapping kick with your front leg, you don't lean back. You know, you don't wanna pull yourself off balance, lean back and stand up and then throw the kick. That goes against some of our principles. You kick it in place and then you use that weight landing forward, you can add momentum to that hand sort strike, you add power. That's not written here, but that's common knowledge that you learn in a classroom, you work with people. So that's just a pitfall I caution on when trying to go too far with it because you can get an idea, but there's a lot of little details that if you're not hands on with someone, if you don't have that feedback on instructor or if you don't have the experience, you know, you're in Kempo for 20 years, you know that already. So when you go step by step, okay, you know your weight placements, you know those rules, but if you're a beginner and it's not written there, you're gonna miss that out. So you might know the three steps, but you're not gonna be able to apply it and properly or make them effective. Now I'm doing an experiment myself as well. I've been studying Kempo for 27 years at this point. Those of you who've seen our online martial arts episode know, I'm actually doing an experiment of trying the martial arts online program just to see what the experience is like. And I'm also trying to learn Shodakon on my own. I will be going through school for this later, but I'm kind of curious as an experiment what I can pick up on my own. So I've got a bunch of video curriculum, I've got manuals, I've got this book. This is the Shodakon Karate Bible. I like it as far as the introduction goes, I think it's pretty good as a starting point. And what I'd like to bring up about it is this is another tool. It's not just written manuals, but you have things like written texts with pictures. And the photos can be a great reference point to help you understand of obviously the step-by-step instructions as well. And this brings me to the next thing is one challenge when you're reading and trying to learn a technique from written material is timing. It's one thing to go step-by-step. You know, step one, do this block. Step two, do this kick. Step three, do this chop. But you have to understand the difference between a simultaneous motion, like when you do this with this versus an and then motion. So for example, here, they've got, this is the Kihonkata. And you know, step one is, you know, you're from your ready stance. Your step one is you step to the left and you execute a downward block. And step two is you step through with your right hand. Now it's a stepping punch, but if you look at the picture and if you know your basics, you see that he has stepped through completely towards nine o'clock and he's stepping through into his new stance. It doesn't say that, but you've got to have that knowledge. But that's clearly a first step than a second step. But if you look at this next one, three A and three B, you notice three A is not a complete step. It sets up the next motion. Three B is you're settling. So as you can see, you know, steps one and two, you're doing this with the action. You know, you're stepping with the block. You're stepping with the punch. You know, you're doing the actions together versus three A and three B. It's and then set up and deliver. Even with the campomanials, if you notice when I read off the late sword technique, there are parts that said, do this while simultaneously doing that, that tells you they're done together. So timing is easy to learn from a video because you can see it. But when you're reading it, you've got to pay very close attention to the terminology used, very close attention to the verbiage and assume it's written well. As much as I like this book, I still have to be careful because I actually have caught a few mistakes. There's a few pictures that are reversed what they should be. They say step with your left foot and the right foot's forward. So you have to watch out for small details. The small details will bite you if you're trying to learn only from that. Once again, when my instructor went to the military in the school close for two years, back in 2005 and six, I had my time to train on my own. I collected all sorts of manuals and I spent hours a day in the garage just practicing. I reviewed old material and I went ahead and learned new material because our system changed so many times. But I learned new material. When he came back, I was confident. I felt great. I went back to school. He wanted to review. So I showed him where I learned and I did technique and I had all the motions down. I was quick and I felt great. And he goes, that's awesome. He goes, you move like a jackrabbit but you didn't do to me. And I was like, wait, what? So basically, you know, he explained to me, yeah, I moved fast, but my application wasn't quite there. He goes, why hit the guy 10 times when you can hit him too and get the same effect? So he slowed it down. He took what I learned. I learned it right. But I was missing small details. My timing was slightly off. My weight settlement was slightly off. So he had to correct that but that made me a better fighter in the end. I was so much more efficient material then. I didn't, that's stuff I missed on my own. And that was with 12 years of prior experience. So just understand that there is a severe limitation to what you can learn on your own just from reading it or just from watching it. You still need that live environment. But you know, a lot of us don't have an option right now to go to the studios and our doges are closed. So we have to use what we have. So take what's at your disposal. If you've got your manuals and your books and your DVDs, awesome. Use them to their full advantage. If you don't, YouTube is still a viable resource. There's a ton of content out there. So go watch a bunch. Go see if you can pick up some new ideas. But just don't forget to get out of your chair and actually move. Thank you so much for watching. Please be sure to subscribe to us and please be sure to check us out on Patreon. We definitely appreciate your support right now. I know everything is in the struggle these days and we're struggling to keep along as well. So we wanna keep producing this material. And also if you guys are still facing any challenges with working with video or written material put those questions below. If you have a specific hurdle you're trying to get over, list it below and we'll work on it together to achieve it for you. Thanks again so much and we'll see you next time.