Black Belt Articles     VIDEO SENSEI CAN YOUR VCR TEACH YOU TECHNIQUES AS WELL AS LIVING, BREATHING HUMAN BEINGS? BY BOBBY NEWMAN PH.D.      In recent years there's been a boom in the sales of videotapes designed to teach certain skill sets to viewers.  As soon as video was determined to be an effective teaching tool, forward thinking martial artists entered the fray and began churning out volume after volume covering every style imaginable. It has become big business. Up to 35 percent of the ads in Black Belt offer some form of videotaped instruction. They represent an almost endless parade of styles and instructors, with individual tapes costing as much as $60 and complete sets selling for $500 or more.  Despite the popularity of martial arts instructional tapes, no study of their effectiveness has been performed. Until now. In a quest for hard evidence, three subjects with no martial arts experience were selected to participate in an experiment. These are the results. THE METHOD      The subjects were three women, all of whom were in their 20s and in good health. They were tasked with learn- 10 kenpo karate techniques. For some techniques, the mode of instruction was one-on-one training with a certified personal trainer who holds a black belt in the art. For others, it was by videotape.      All the techniques were taught on the same day. Two of the students learned in their homes, while the third learned in a commercial martial arts facility. Before each session, they were told to stretch their muscles and perform calisthenics. Then the training commenced.        Each live technique was performed three times by the instructor. Then the students practiced it with the instructor as the partner until they could execute it proficiently.       Each video-based technique was viewed three times. Then the students practiced it with the instructor, but he merely served as the attacker. He did not make corrections or offer advice.  THE OUTCOME      The study determined that all three students were able to effectively perform each technique for the instructor in fewer than 10 attempts. No systematic differences between the two methods of instruction were evident. The subjects appeared to learn the techniques equally well from either source. The tapes, however, imparted the skills at a much lower cost to the students.
	Knowledge at Your Fingertips By Eddie Ivester      Traditional martial artists frequently scoff at the idea of learning by video, arguing that you need a live instructor to guide you and critique your every move. But modern practitioners know that isn't quite true. For many parts of your training, a real instructor is not required.      In centuries past, when writing was still a luxury, a few innovative masters took advantage of it and recorded their secrets for posterity. When the public would hear mention of those books, they were often described as sacred texts that were valued as highly as human life. Warriors fought and died trying to protect them - or take possession of them. Within their pages lay information that could transform a fighter into a master.      Mind you, all this was taking place when books were nothing more than hand-written manuscripts with perhaps a few rough sketches sprinkled throughout. Now, in the 21st century, we enjoy a technology that enables us to record and play back moving images and sound. Video allows us to see and hear masters as they perform their techniques, yet some martial artists just can't grasp the worth of this. If those doubting Thomases lived 100 or 1,000 years ago, would they have harbored the same skepticism about the written word?      There's no difference between learning the martial arts from a video and learning any other course from a video. It all comes down to the quality of the information being provided on the tape and your motivation to absorb it. Although you may not be able to learn an entire art from a set of videos, as long as the information is comprehensive, you'll be able to advance by leaps and bounds.      Now that you're convinced that video-based training is a valid way to gain martial knowledge, let's look at seven reasons why training by video is a good thing: ** You can work out in the privacy of your home at your convenience. ** You can learn a style that's not offered in your area. ** You can advance in rank within your current art. ** You can check out the skills of an instructor before signing up for lessons. ** You can investigate a style before you spend time and money to find a school that teaches it. ** You can learn new ways of training and/or teaching. ** You can prepare yourself for tournaments by reviewing the styles you will face in the ring.      So whether you want to learn a new style, expand your technique base, advance in your current art, prep yourself for a tournament, or search for new training and teaching methods, you should not pass up videotapes. They represent the ultimate high-tech tool for learning the ancient arts of self-defense. Check out our excellent selection of Videos for a truly exceptional learning experience, click here.