NaamKyun.com Discussion Forum

Well, as someone who has learned from DVD's and also posted my own meager stuff, I have some thoughts on this. Never mind the idealistic and naive fluff I put in the 'Self-Learning' thread.

First of all, learning a form from DVD is rather easy. Two punches and a kick, turn this way, block high, low, hook, uppercut, blah blah. Film yourself or have a friend look and compare to the DVD in question. "He/She did it this way, not that way, remember the stance, blah blah."
With diligence and practice you can make the form look nice. Except you really don't know what you are doing or why. Well, some parts are pretty self-explanatory, and if there are applications on the DVD you have a starting point. Posting it and getting comments and advice is also VERY helpful. But you need someone to tell you the little nuances that turn a weak technique into a solid move. Someone who knows what it's about and can correct you.
Here is what I feel today as opposed to when I started the Self-learning thread: DVD's and learning forms is very helpful to get a framework going, so that when you have the opportunity to visit with a teacher or someone experienced you have something to work with, instead of starting from scratch. For those of us who don't have regular access to a school, they are a great help. Just DVD's alone aren't much use.

Someone mentioned that you can find video of forms on You tube. Yes you can but they are often of public demonstrations / competitions which may have be changed to suit the space, time available, or the audience. Also you can’t always tell where they come from. And they are not always posted with the permission of the club.

Since this is a hungkyun forum. It would make sense to have a strand showing versions of the different forms in full with accurate details of where they come from and the permission of the club that practices them.

PM would it be possible for your to ask permission to post the forms in your archive so that we could all see them?

Bob, just search on YouTube for Hung Gar, Hung Kuen, etc. There's plenty to find. If PM, or anyone else, would ask around it wouldn't make any difference. Just watch, observe and learn. And whenever you like a video on YouTube or elsewhere, save it to your computer for your own study

Ultimately, the version that should matter to you is the version that is being taught to you by your sifu. The differences are only important at later stages. Then you can study why they are different, and benefit from that knowledge. If you followed the first advice on YouTube vids (or wherever you got them from), by that time you will have a reliable collection of video's from several known to you lineages to study.

Also, there are quite a few tutorial video's available. Wing Lam, Frank Yee, etc. If you want video's of people who demonstrate their form for the purposes you suggest, then those tutorials are the best way to go. You wont find any of that on YouTube (other then small previews without much explanation). But again, it will only be useful after you got a solid base under the guidance of a sifu.

Hope this helped!

ditto

Thanks for the advice. I kind of do this already. I just thought that as a hungkyun site it makes sense to have a strand here on the forum where people can share video of forms. This would be a resource available to everyone and would attract more people to the site.

If people have archives of video I am sure it took time and effort to build them. I can understand if people are reluctant to share material. It is kind of giving away something for nothing. But after all this site was set up for sharing and to spread knowledge and understanding.

I think asking the clubs permission before posting material is polite and builds trust. There is still a lot of distrust and secrecy in kungfu. People may have shared stuff expecting it to stay private. If it gets posted without their ok it will only reinforce the idea that it’s not safe to share information. If it’s put on with their ok it will reinforce the idea that it is ok to share information and will encourage more sharing in the future.