Self teaching

[kenneth fish]

Let me give you an analogy and then you decide. Learning martial arts properly is very much like learning classical ballet. Do you think you would be able to teach yourself classical ballet from a video?

[schmuhl]

Even after what has been said against self-teaching, I'll tell you that I have been doing studying bagua for over a year and a half with some success. How much success? I don't know, but at least I am learning. I sought out bagua because I wanted to learn it, not the martial art that's taught at the local McDojo.

Now as for a sparring partner, that's a must. You need to be able to practice this stuff on a real person, so I would spend some time looking for someone to hit and keep you working hard. With this application and even stumbling around through videos and good books, you'll begin to learn those fundamentals and core principles through trial and error at least. And who knows? Maybe you'll connect with a teacher here and there that can help!

Good luck!

Ben Schmuhl
http://www.PaKuaChangJournal.com

[Darth Rock&Roll]

There are people who have reputable teachers who still have difficulty learning the subtleties of these already cryptic and strange practices. Not that everyone is the same, but any art form that is of some technical merit requires a teacher. Unless you want to waste your time making all the mistakes that have been made for you and then not being entirely sure if you have had any success whatsoever...in which case, knock yourself out!

[Chris Fleming]

It's just that self teaching never goes well. Some attempt to teach themselves seemingly external skills such as iaido kata only to find out that they missed quite a bit of what is really going on. I can't imagine what would come out of trying to teach ones self internal martial arts. These things are taught from one person to another for a reason. One example of this sort of thing was a young lad who spent too much time on page 134 of B.K. Frantzis's The Power of Internal Arts and soon believed he had this skill. Just a word of advice, don't let that delusion happen to you too.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

Just for shits and giggles, try teaching yourself trigonometry if you don't already know it. Good luck!

[Silent Screaming]

at some stage someone had to create trigonometry didnt they

[Chris Fleming]

No.

[Muad'dib]

at some stage someone had to create trigonometry didnt they

yes, but they understood the fundamentals of math first.

[wiesiek]

only if
math fundamentals are soft, relaxed and unbreakable in the same time

[SPJ]

Books and video clips give you some information.

In the beginning, it is always necessary to learn some "basics" from a teacher hand on.

Later we may video ourself and do some self analysis or send it to a teacher.

Video clips are powerful tools. but no substitute for lessons from a teacher, especially in the beginning.

[C.J.Wang]

let's not forget that any masters worth their 2 cents almost never release any genuie teaching out to the public. You'd be very hard put to find valuable teaching materials that'd allow you to go beyond basic level on your own.

[chicagoTaiJi]

you can train for 75 years and teach yourself and learn from your own mistakes,

or you can gain combined knowledge of generations of people who already did it and have the mistake fixed in 5 months.

if nobody is there to point out what you're doing is wrong, you won't realize it until it's too late.

[wiesiek]

80%of the training is done allone
as "classics" say
but
guidance is nessesery