earn your black belt via mail order??

http://www.ushapki.com/
from the above home page:

Test via videotape to earn your belt promotions, all the way up to black belt. Corresponding via e-mail, using the video tape, books and watching a live class from anywhere in the world will enable us to help you achieve your goal of becoming a Hapkido black belt.

Go to that website and tell me what you think about the home study course. I'm a bit disturbed by it, but maybe I'm missing something.

I've always been skeptical of "belt programs" in any MA, but at least the student has to come in to the dojo where the instructor can weed out those low in character.

I know there are other instructional videos for all the other MA, Aikido included, but I don't think they're as comprehensive as this is supposed to be. They're more of a suppliment to your training than a substitute. If there is, let me know. I'd like to learn Karate for only a few hundred bucks in the comfort of my own home .

from the Hapkido discription link:

We teach students to defend against any type of abductions, attempts to hit, kick, choke, grab, stab or shoot you..

The "shoot you" part has me curious. If I were to shoot someone, I'd do it from a distance so they couldn't kick/punch/disarm me.

P.S. If anyone out there is part of this school, I don't mean to offend or suggest that your school/teacher are bad, I'm just afraid that someone who has no business learning ANY martial art will get a hold of this.

[Edited by SeiWhat?!? on December 10, 2000 at 03:16am]

I think things such as Hapkido and Aikido are particularly difficult to learn just from video as the important bits are not the techniques, but the attitude, the feeling of the opponent and the responsiveness. I can't get that without training with someone.

On that note, I remember someone asking my sensei (at the time) to give him an intensive aikido course to get him up to 'black belt' - he was going to be a stunt man (and they all have to get 1st dan in a martial art). However the sensei refused because, no matter how much time and how much money he was willing to spend doing this, if his goal was still to reach 1st dan he wouldn't understand aikido.

Ian

As George Simcox sensei used to say when asked, "How long will it take me to get a black belt?":

"It'll take you ten minutes to get a black belt; just pick one up at a martial arts store. Now, if you want to learn aikido, that's another question..."

-- Jun

I don't see a problem with videos, it is what people do with them. I feel that a video is a great learning tool when you are enrolled in a regular class and you use the video as a reference guide, OR for some styles of karate that you are familiar with you can learn a technique from video because you already understand the concepts behind it.

But, I don't think you can own a technique until you practice it with another person. This especially goes for any art that relies on the energy of the attacker as part of the equation. Such as, hapkido, aikido, push hands, sticking hands, etc.

I also don't agree with earning rank on video. I can find a dancer and teach them the moves of a kata and they can probably perform it better than most black belts. Performance doesn't make a black belt, understanding and application of that understanding is what leads to mastery of movement. I have seen a common thread more and more in martial arts of getting your black belt that way (one style even gave you your 3rd degree black belt if you ordered the whole series!)

Kevin

Did you all know that Anthony Robbins is a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do? Took him 8 whole months. I'd bet that with his schedule he never spent more than 2 days/week practicing.

I was just perusing various martial arts sites and was looking at schools and found a karate school with a 7th dan. He'd been training since 1984 but it was ruthlessly. Their 5th dan, senior instructor, had been training since 1987, he was dedicated.

Sigh, I feel so inadequate. Where's that video camera?