For a long time I've been looking for good martial arts instruction. Unfortunately, ever since Karakido went bankrupt, there are no good dojos in town. I've tried working out of books, but even the best martial arts books seem to have been edited by drunken orangutangs. So, searching around on the internet, I came upon this:

www.chinahand.com

Okay...this definately sounds too good to be true. Though reading through the site, it seems that their actual classes are pretty genuine. It doesn't have contracts, testing is not required, and advancement at all is based upon instructor's discretion. The quality of online instruction is a bit more tricky a matter, and while the free videos were decent, I'm still wary.

I'd appreciate it if some of the people here could investigate this and see if it's genuine. Do you think I would be better off sticking to my books, or could signing up for this actually help me out?

Oh you poor poor bastard. You're about to get flamed to bahjesus and back.

Anyway.

I can't find the videos, and if it charges anything I wouldn't pay for it. You can find all the things they offer for free. In which of those styles are you interested? Your profile says you do Xing Yi, but does that mean you want to learn it, or you have already been doing it?

The site itself looks and has that genuine feel, but something smells fishy about it to me. They never mention that they don't teach you the warmups required for a good workout, and one of the videos I saw ("The Buddhist Fist") was from an old movie. And note that it says "Below are links to video of our forms being performed by other schools." Why would they have other schools perform their styles if it's their website? Granted, some forms are widely used, but I honestly doubt that this school invented the "Shaolin Broadsword" form.

EDIT: The "forms" videos are at http://www.chinahand.com/Fun%20Stuff/our_forms.htm

Haha, looks like some of those videos were jacked straight off of wushuonefamily. How lame. I wouldn't trust em.

I call BS on this site. Why would they need other schools to do their forms for them?

I wouldn't be suprised if after you signed up and payed your money, their pages show links to sites that give out that same info for free.

In keeping with the general feel of the website, that sounds about right.

Okay, finding the videos is a bit awkward. You have to sign up for a free trial account first. Go to http://www.chinahand.com/sign-up.asp and type in "Free Trial" under "how did you hear."

Then go to http://www.chinahand.com/Members/Free%20Trial.htm and choose which videos you want to look at.

As for my style, I'm currently trying to learn Xing Yi, but there are no instructors in the area. I'm working out of a book by Yang and Liang, which is half history and poetry, a bit of qigong, and a basic explanation of the five movements. Unfortunately there are some glaring editing errors when it comes to the pictures for the Five Phases Linking Sequence that makes it a gruesome chore to wade through.

I've done a bit of TKD before I decided that was crap. Before that I took a style you've probably never heard of called Karakido that was invented by an American named Roger Jones. Unfortunately, though he was a very gifted fighter, he stopped teaching almost ten years ago due to financial and personal difficulties.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand, I'd appreciate if you could take a look at those videos and tell me what you think.

O.k., I'm a noob that lurks but could not resist.

You can't learn from videos. Period. If there are no teachers or anyone to learn from then too bad. Either move if you want it bad enough or wait.

All you learn as a beginner from videos is bad habits.

-bamboo

Even if you really think your local dojos are crappy, even the worst dojo is better than a video.

Just go to the schools in town. Even if they are Mcdojos, at least there's a real person there to teach you and make comments, and maybe even make you do pushups (I am under the suspicion that not all MA schools make you do pushups. What!?)

If that doesn't work, commute or move.

Videos just don't cut it.

Unless they've invented a way to punch you through the internet then this is a total waste of your time.

Unless they've invented a way to punch you through the internet then this is a total waste of your time.

"We have no response. That was perfect."- Old School

If you have no one to spar with, how will you know if you're doing it right?

Why yes, I am, thank you for noticing.

Thanks for the advice. I'll take a second look at the nearby mcdojos and find one that doesn't completely blow. Until then, me and a friend have been doing light-contact sparring with xing yi and will probably be getting gloves soon so we can do full-contact.

Well, consequently, check out this site for an additional point of reference to your book/video learning:

http://www.emptyflower.com/xingyiquan/index.html

O.k., I'm a noob that lurks but could not resist.

You can't learn from videos. Period. If there are no teachers or anyone to learn from then too bad. Either move if you want it bad enough or wait.

All you learn as a beginner from videos is bad habits.

-bamboo

I disagree, you can learn lots of things from tapes. It's very possible to learn BJJ techniques, focus mitt drills for boxing, different combinations, and technique refinements. Of course you still have to train in addition.

IF you have some background and perspective you can learn something just from seeing a technique. You'd have to be a mental and physical exception to the rule to learn effective martial arts for the first time from a tape.

And FAN: You've been doing a little light sparring. Don't represent your technique as being from this school or that school until you've studied them - it's the first step down the path of BS.