My Martial Arts School (MyMaSchool.com) is an online community instructional martial arts school website.
We are currently in beta mode, and hope to have this site officially launch November 1, 2009
Thanks,
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Is it really possible to learn martial arts online?
The answer is simple: NO.
Surprise you? It’s the truth. If you really want to become an effective martial artist, you’re going to have to get out from behind your computer. These are combat arts, after all, designed to train warriors (both of mind, body and spirit) how to overcome an opponent. So, if you’re going to perfect them, you’re going to need the key ingredient: an opponent. And unless you have a handful of friends training with you, you’re not going to get that from an at-home dojo.
Well, then what am I doing here, you might ask? If you can’t learn it online, why the heck did you create this site?
We never built this site with the…
We never built this site with the intention of it becoming someone’s sole avenue of training. That’s why you won’t find an“online belt test” or other slipshod practice. We aim for legitimacy and respect in the martial arts world. Most of us, as owners of our own schools, would laugh at someone who said they learned martial arts online. Yet, every one of us has used either videotapes or the Internet to supplement our training. I know I’ve learned numerous techniques that way. In fact, I point my students to this site to review the very techniques I teach in class.
You see, while you can’t learn martial arts online, you can learn all the techniques online. Any viable martial arts system is based off of hundreds, perhaps thousands of techniques and strategies (call them fundamentals if you would like), which are woven together to form a complete combat system. To learn the martial art, you must first learn the technique and then discover how it is applied in battle. It’s the first part that you can do from this site.
For example, in a video, you might learn how to throw a spinning back kick. Practicing the drills at home, you can develop a tremendous amount of power in this extraordinary kick. You can also learn theories about how to set your opponent up for this kick and when and where it should be aimed. Until you have been in the ring with live, breathing opponents, however, you’ll never develop the intuition and timing necessary to pull it off.
That’s because every person reacts differently when faced with a particular circumstance. Some move, some block and some counter. After perhaps a hundred battles or so, you begin to recognize patterns associated with different types of fighters. You begin to gain a kind of sixth sense about when and how to move. Often, you’ll even recognize what someone is going to do before they realize they’ll do it themselves.
That kind of skill only comes with battle experience, which is something no video can offer you.
Nevertheless, if you can couple what we teach you with occasional (if not regular) visits to a reputable dojo, you will learn martial arts. In fact, since your training won’t be LIMITED to an in-class environment, you’ll probably advance faster than most the regular students at your dojo.
That way, whether you live in rural Kansas or downtown New York, you can get the kind of training you need to maximize your potential.
Z
