There"s a Martial Arts DVD Out There for You!
If you're just becoming interested in the martial arts, and you haven't made a decision about which instructor to study under, allow me to complicate the equation by introducing the idea of a martial arts DVD. Not just for dedicated practitioners, martial arts DVDs can be used to study and learn an art, or simply to view an art's moves, style, and abilities to decide if you'd like to learn it or not.
All martial artists believe that their discipline is the best one out there - but everyone is different, and what's best for your friend might not be best for you. You need to understand the temperamental, philosophical, and physical sides of an art before you can match it up with your own life and make the decision to become a student of it. Optimally, you'll choose a style that emphasizes your strengths while pushing you to discover new skills. Some arts might teach you to be extremely flexible, while others teach you meditation and inner harmony.
Acquiring a martial arts DVD for a given art means you get instant access to that art's basic moveset, and often includes other important elements such as workouts designed to amplify that art's movements. In some cases, you might learn that a given martial art has health benefits such as those that Tai Chi Chu'an has in fighting Parkinson's Disease, or those that Qi Gong has in fighting melanoma.
If you've already decided on an art and are studying it, getting a martial arts DVD can provide you with valuable information that your instructor might not have covered. Often such DVDs offer insights into specific commonly-misunderstood aspects of foundational maneuvers that can radically alter the effectiveness of a simple move.
Similarly, a DVD might tell you more about a maneuver's foundation than your instructor realizes. Many martial arts have actions built into their forms that look pretty, but don't seem to do anything. In one form, the practitioner claps her hands together high over her head, brings them down to her chest palm-to-palm in what looks like an Indian spiritual gesture, and then thrusts her hands outward, still palm-to-palm, before proceeding with her form. Without seeing the associated DVD and hearing the voiceover explain that the seemingly out-of-place gesture is in fact a chokehold breaker, you'd never realize that it had importance.
Martial arts DVDs also have a profound place in the library of the multischool student. Once you've taken a few martial arts classes seriously and you have a black belt or two under your...belt...you don't need to start every art over from the beginning. For students in this situation, it's not necessary to relearn the philosophy and discipline, so obtaining a DVD of a new art just to study the moves and improve their general understanding of body mechanics and human capacity is an excellent investment.
Whether you're a complete novice or your dans count in the dozens, you have something you could be learning. Anyone, no matter how incompetent or well-versed in the martial arts, can find something of value in a martial arts DVD.
All martial artists believe that their discipline is the best one out there - but everyone is different, and what's best for your friend might not be best for you. You need to understand the temperamental, philosophical, and physical sides of an art before you can match it up with your own life and make the decision to become a student of it. Optimally, you'll choose a style that emphasizes your strengths while pushing you to discover new skills. Some arts might teach you to be extremely flexible, while others teach you meditation and inner harmony.
Acquiring a martial arts DVD for a given art means you get instant access to that art's basic moveset, and often includes other important elements such as workouts designed to amplify that art's movements. In some cases, you might learn that a given martial art has health benefits such as those that Tai Chi Chu'an has in fighting Parkinson's Disease, or those that Qi Gong has in fighting melanoma.
If you've already decided on an art and are studying it, getting a martial arts DVD can provide you with valuable information that your instructor might not have covered. Often such DVDs offer insights into specific commonly-misunderstood aspects of foundational maneuvers that can radically alter the effectiveness of a simple move.
Similarly, a DVD might tell you more about a maneuver's foundation than your instructor realizes. Many martial arts have actions built into their forms that look pretty, but don't seem to do anything. In one form, the practitioner claps her hands together high over her head, brings them down to her chest palm-to-palm in what looks like an Indian spiritual gesture, and then thrusts her hands outward, still palm-to-palm, before proceeding with her form. Without seeing the associated DVD and hearing the voiceover explain that the seemingly out-of-place gesture is in fact a chokehold breaker, you'd never realize that it had importance.
Martial arts DVDs also have a profound place in the library of the multischool student. Once you've taken a few martial arts classes seriously and you have a black belt or two under your...belt...you don't need to start every art over from the beginning. For students in this situation, it's not necessary to relearn the philosophy and discipline, so obtaining a DVD of a new art just to study the moves and improve their general understanding of body mechanics and human capacity is an excellent investment.
Whether you're a complete novice or your dans count in the dozens, you have something you could be learning. Anyone, no matter how incompetent or well-versed in the martial arts, can find something of value in a martial arts DVD.
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