Can you learn karate by watching videos?
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Let’s be honest. You will never, ever become a great martial artist just from watching videos! To become a great martial artist, you need a real-life teacher and real-life training partners.
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Videos are a goldmine of information and inspiration. They are a learning tool that no other generation of martial artists has ever had access to.
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The only reason a teacher makes a video in the first place is to help you improve. Presumably, the only reason you watch a martial arts video is to improve.
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Video is an excellent tool for recall, trying to remember something new taught by a sensei in a dojo. But without that vital information contained within provided by a teacher, which you can really understand and put into practice, it may as well be a dance you are learning…… Nothing will replace time at the dojo with a knowledgeable teacher.
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Learning is a life long process and the knowledge that you have is never enough. There is always more to know, to understand. The desire to learn is among the best characteristics a person can possess. But to learn deeply, you have to have the enthusiasm to really want too, and be open and willing to learn.
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Like anything else in life, it’s just a process of experience. And you get experience super fast when you start doing things by yourself. YOU have to figure it out. One day of doing, is better than a years worth of reading, better than a years worth of watching videos. You’re not learning as much as you believe you might be learning, by watching those videos and reading books. Seeing how it works in real-time with your own mind engaged in your own physical research, that’s where you are really going to make progress quickly.
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Mistakes? Of course you will make mistakes. The truth is, the mistakes you make are a real goldmine. You’re going to gain a deeper understanding about what you’re doing from your mistakes that you ever will from a book or a video.
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“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971)
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The problem is, some people hate learning. Do you know why? Because to learn something new means admitting that you didn’t know something before…. The Ego.
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‘Renshū’ (練習), practice (repeating something over and over again, to learn it). 
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