More important than anything else, we need to always keep in mind why it is we are practicing martial arts in the first place. Is it for self defense? Is it a fun hobby that keeps us in shape? Are we learning new skills for practical reasons? Perhaps your job involves needing the ability to defend yourself? Underlying all of these reasons is the simple fact that we want to learn how to defend ourselves. Otherwise we may as well have taken up tennis or soccer. Martial arts are about learning how to handle yourself in violent situations. Period. Sure, getting into shape is part of that, but there are many other vehicles within which to get into good shape.
Now that we are clear as to why we train in the martial arts, does it not make sense that if we are going to do something, that we take the time to do things the right way? Unfortunately, not all of has enough money or access to quality martial arts instruction. That's where learning from a martial arts instructional DVD comes into play. These videos are often the next best thing to training with a live instructor who can offer advice and help us perfect our technique. Nothing beats live instruction coupled with safe, full contact sparring.
Some of us need to be careful when we get into buying martial arts instructional DVDs. There is a large group within the martial arts community who like to collect exotic techniques much like a coin collector collects obscure coins. The problem with this is that when we know a little about a lot of different techniques, we really know nothing. Remember why we got into training in the first place? That's right, there needs to be something functional about the techniques we are learning. If we only spend a couple of minutes drilling a new move until the next shiny thing distracts us, we may find ourselves running around in circles and getting no where. We will have a ton of useless techniques that we wouldn't be able to use if the situation ever arose.
The best way to utilize a martial arts instructional DVD is to take one or two techniques at a time, and learn them properly. Even the techniques that aren't flashy or don't seem so appealing may later on become some of your go-to moves. It is best to have a training partner, after all, we perform martial art with or on other people. Sure, katas and forms have their place, but if you have a solid background with this stuff, you quickly realize that there are more efficient ways of learning new techniques than doing them in the air a thousand times. Though certainly, that can be a fantastic way to program a move into your nervous system once you are certain that your form is good. Problem is, when we learn from a martial arts instructional DVD, there is no instructor there to correct our form. So we watch the video, all the way through. We then take our uke, or training dummy, and mime through the move until we have a basic understanding.
Next, we find a way to turn the movement into a drill. If you have previously received some form of martial arts instruction, this won't be difficult at all. A good martial arts instructional DVD should show more than just a bunch of moves, often they will have drills included as part of the program, but not always. After you have drilled the technique to the point where you no longer have to slow things way down in order to properly execute the movement, the next step is to turn the drill into a sparring drill. How you do this is to simply create a hypothetical situation within which you would normally use the move and prepare a safe way to execute the movement, within reason, on your partner without injuring him or her.
Finally, once you have drilled the movement to your satisfaction, apply it in a full contact sparring session. You will learn more if you do this on an opponent who is less skilled than you. If you are sparring someone who is better than you, it will be quite difficult to muster the impulse needed to try something new when you are locked into survival mode. When you finally get to the point that you feel confident applying your new move on people with less skill than you, you can begin to try and set up 'real' opponents who can offer you a run for your money.
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