Teach yourself Martial Arts...?

[nwohioguy]

Please list the top five reasons why this is one of the most stupid things a person can both do as well as claim to have done. Thank you.

(This question is to put the rest for all those people that think they can do it)
Some of the best musicians were self taught? Well that may be and yes I taught myself piano to a point but music is not martial arts...not even close. I heard this analogy once before from a self trained martial artist who got clobbered when he picked a fight with a green belt at a tournament. This analogy holds no water. Sorry.

Enjoying reading the answers. Keep on posting away.
DarB - every Sensei teaches every student how to train solo but only students who reach a certain proficiency in their art (usually 3rd degree and above) can actually do so adequately.

[AaronJ]

1. A false sense of security. While confidence is great, it would be unpleasant to end up in a self defense situation and get stabbed or shot because 'you' thought you knew what you were doing.

2. Shadow boxing is not the same as boxing against a real person. You don't get hit by your shadow.

3. Proper body mechanics are never learned. This can result in injury from poor body movement and linking. The injuries could be severe and immediate or they can be severe and long term. IE bad knees, hips, shoulders, etc.
3A... Board or brick breaking, might be something too. Many broken bones, extremely to loss of complete limb function.

4. You are never involved with sparring or simulating any aggravating situation with one large intimidating person, or a group of people, and when it happens in real life your brain might freeze because you aren't accustomed to those situations. It's tough enough for people who train legitimately to get used to the rush of anxiety during a self defense situation.

5.You will only be a laughing post and whipping boy for legitimately trained individuals, who at their freshest in the system would wipe the floor with you.

It is too bad that people are too ignorant or lazy to use the search feature on this site, to see the thousands of times this same and other like questions have been asked.

I wonder if yahoo might be able to make a feature that would not post questions that are so similar until after the poster looked through the previously asked questions. Probably just a pipe dream.

... I had a guy I met tell me that he was teaching himself Wing Chun. Seeing that I studied it not long before we met I went through a few drills with him. Needless to say, he was horrible.

I also had a friend who was teaching himself Martial Arts, and he was dead set on 'knowing one move to beat everything' and it was some lame jumping hand-flittering-like-a-fairy thing. I shoved him through this 'ultimate' defense... a simple shove as one would come across most often in a college.

EDIT-

The guys that came before us had guys that came before them, and so on throughout history. They met with those other people and studied the elements they knew worked, and perfected them until it was understood to be as flawless as possible before moving on. EVERYBODY LEARNS from somebody else.

While there are natural elements and concepts within, Martial Arts are not natural, and that is why one must train and train to get their body to move in the particular manner.

[mafundhelper]

Great question!
(I too wish more people would use the search feature...maybe we can just copy and paste the link to this question...)

Here are my 5 (trying to be original):

1. Dangerous. Aside from personal injuries, if the person is "practicing" with a friend, will they know how to control the techniques (certain strikes, kicks, locks, chokes, etc)?

2. Ego. Why can't they just find a good teacher, dojo? There is usually a reason. Money is only an excuse...many teachers would help a sincere (worthwhile) student.

3. The big puzzle. What most beginners and intermediate people don't realize is the arts are like a big puzzle. Even if that one piece (or small set of pieces) can somehow fit the connecting spot, it is extremely unlikely it will fit with all of the other pieces. AND, then it will almost definitely not fit the picture that the puzzle creates.

4. The gaps. Just like the puzzle analogy, it is often the stuff in the spaces, the stuff that connects the techniques, that make the artist more than a copycat. It isn't just the steps in the kata, the form, but so much more. It is a very difficult concept to explain. It isn't just the punch, but it is also the way you pull it back afterwards, and what you do with the other hand, with your body weight, and so on.

5. Time. A "self-taught" person will not possibly be able to learn as much because they need to spend that time, reinventing the wheel. How much practice is enough? How much time will they spend on the various pieces of the puzzle?

There is so much more... ah well... they probably won't listen anyways...

[Randomdude]

1. No proper technique

2. No sparing partner

3. No one to practice techniques with

4. no one to tell you what your doing wrong

5*** You will think you know martial arts and could take on the world.

[cookiesrme]

1) Stupid people think they're geniuses, and think they can actually absorb everything the read AND can apply it, because clearly, they are just that smart.
2) They don't like being told NO. "Can I learn by myself?" "No." "Well I'm gonna do it anyway." Teaching yourself not only reflects poorly on your own stupidity, it makes you look like a douche.
3) Youtube. Stupid, stupid Youtube where everyone can bash someone behind the safety of their keyboards and make themselves a "star"- usually through candid training accidents. Yeah, this is a totally reputable teacher of something as complex as martial arts.
4) Saying, "well I trained myself through books" makes you sound like a nut. "So have you done this type of brain surgery before, Doc?" "No, but I read lots of books so I'm totally prepared."
5) You don't get your ego crushed before you get your face crushed. See any ER trauma show where they bring in some dumb drunk on a gurney.

[Mako]

I will list you 3 reasons to why people have to sadly resort to self-teaching in martial arts:

1. Not everyone can afford to take lessons
2. Not all instructors claim to be what they are, McDojo senseis...
3. Not everyone has poor logic in martial arts movements, in other words, fighting comes natural to some people.

Of course, learning from a legit person is always the best idea, but if you have no way of affording it, this is the best you can do for yourself.

Remember, there is always a reason for someone to be self-taught. Do not hate them for it, if you want, you could send us money to pay for our lessons, or you could personally teach us.

Oh and I have beaten my share of "trained" martial artist, it's not all about getting the lessons, it's also about the skill of the fighter, their physical fitness, how fast they are, how strong they are, how smart they are, how good their reflexes are etc. Lessons can only do so much for a person without natural talent/athleticism.

Another thing, how do you think martial arts began? Obviously it wasn't taught to the person/people that began it. It's all pretty much instinctive to us (fighting), so it sort of comes natural, and it's easy to learn the basics which is all you will mostly need anyways. (mostly, I didn't say it's all you'll need)

edit: To the guy that says Martial arts is not natural. My friend, most martial arts are based on animal movements. Why do you think the shaolin have animal styles such as Crane, monkey, snake, praying mantis, tiger etc? (remember again, I said most, not all)

edit: To the guy who compared algebra to martial arts. You never compare math with martial arts! Think from day 1. No one will know about the concept of numbers, but, due to animal instinct, we know how to fight when the situation calls for it. These two cannot be compared to each other.

edit: To cookie person that said self-teaching was stupid. You are so oblivious to the fact that not everyone has the freaking MONEY to afford lessons. Laugh at me and every other broke aspiring martial artist who self-taught themselves, but I don't care, it's better than sitting around and waiting for money to come out of our asses. What if money never came out? Do we like never teach ourselves at all? Think before you speak, and that goes to all of you.

[Ramon]

you need a instructor to correct your mistakes and partners to spar you and if you by yourslef then your reflexes wont be effective enough for you to even use it in a real fight. EVEN BRUCE LEE HAD INSTRUCTORS none of the greatest ever even thought of teaching themselves. i tried to teach myself some things but when i joined a gym i saw that the techniques i were using werent being done the correct way the only thing you can do alone is strength train to increase punching power... even then you cant punch properly unless you got a coach... FLLOYD MAYWEATHER HAS A TRAINER!! IF A SURGEON LEARNED HEART SURGERY FROM A BOOK OR YOUTUBE WOULD YOU LET HIM OPERATE ON YOU?? DIDNT THINK SO

[Lex]

1. Because it doesn't work that way. It just doesn't okay?

2. They're cheap and don't know the ultimate law of the universe. The ultimate law of the universe is that sacrifice equals results. No sacrifice equals no results. People claim to "teach themselves" only indicates an unwillingness to put anything into it. We've all tried something for nothing deals, but they don't exist in real life.

[Dantheman]

ok, well imma try to be moderate in this subject. I have been doing mma for a little under 2 years. I don't train at a dojo, i train after school with other guys whoa re around my age. We all teach each other, when I was younger there were indeed older guys who helped me. HOWVERin those two years, 2.5 months i was on the wreslting team, 2 months was taught by the best guy in our club 1 on 1, and 2 months i was acutlaly at a real mma shcool. Other than that i make myself drill, i make myself workout, i make myself spar, and i look on tapes of me sparring to correct mistakes, i look online(not paying attention to obvious bs) and find videos to help learn new things. So i do consider myself self trained, and i have beaten many of my friends who have been training longer than me at official places. STILL i recognize that my technique would be alot better if i had real triaing, so thats 1 reason. I also know that theres no real way to train yourself, i had some direct teaching, and my friends who spar with me may not be directly teaching me moves and strategies, but getting hit in the face, or tapped out, is a pretty good sign that i have a hole to work on, so thats pretty good leanring, so the fact that your cna't do it alone is reason 2. Personally i don't havea problem self motivating myself, i don't miss workouts, i love to train, but a lot of people won't push themselves, and i know i cna't push myself quite as hard as someone else can cause someone else doens't feel your pain, they can always tell u to keep going, more than u can tell yourself, so if u lsiten, u'll go further thats reson 3.
In conclusion though, i gotta say that training yourself isn't a bad or stupid thing, its just that it takes a really driven person to be in charge of their own training, cause u have to do all the work that somone else would normally do for u in order to learn. Also your never fully alone, so how could you really train yourself, you can be in charge of your own training, but u'll never fully train yourself

[clowns]

1. You are not learning a martial art. Martial Arts are handed down from someone who already knows it. Martial arts have a creator and people who pass them on, If you aren't learning from them you aren't learning a martial art.

2. There are little things in Martial Arts that people with out advanced training will never know about. There are so many little things like where to put your foot or hand or how you grip that the littlest of things that make a huge difference.

3. A self taught person will never really know what it is like to work with a person who has actually spent years making a technique perfect to get their basics techniques better.

4. It doesn't hold water to have no lineage backing self training.

5. Self training looks stupid.