One of the most common misconceptions of our day is the assumption that the camera tells the truth. We see so much television and movies that we become conditioned to believe what we see is all there is to it. Because “seeing is believing”, right?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What you see in a video is never 100% what the instructor/demonstrator/performer/participant meant to show. Sometimes, he makes it so on purpose but in most cases, this happens because of the limitations of video as an information carrying medium. I’ll use my video, the one that started this whole series,  as an example

Camera angle/depth perception.

A good camera man makes or breaks what you put on the screen. There are a multitude of camera angles and all of them have a different effect on how you perceive the action:

• Imagine we placed the camera behind my back. How well would you have been able to see the techniques?
• Imagine we only used an overhead camera.  It’d be great to see the angle my arms move in but hard to know at what height they’re moving.

Depth perception helps you interpret the action you see:

• How far is my fist from the pad when I start each punch?
• What distance does it travel before it lands?

Here’s the thing: [Read more…]

In part one of “How to learn techniques from video“, I mentioned there are different kinds of videos. Let’s look at that a bit closer.

You can make three broad categories of videos: Live footage, demonstration, and instructional videos. These three are all vastly different from each other and that’s where the trouble starts: if you expect one and get the other, you think it sucks. If you believe  instructional videos are “The Truth”™, then you’ll think demonstrations are bullshit. If you truly believe the best way to fight is what you see in live footage (because it’s “real” and the everything else isn’t), then you’ll laugh at instructional videos .

I believe these two sayings apply whenever you want to learn from a video:

• Don’t compare apples with oranges. Know what you’re looking at and judge it as such.
• Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.Instead of focusing on what you perceive is bad, look at what is good, interesting and potentially useful for you.

Especially this last part is crucial. I’ve been reviewing books and videos for a long time and I have only one goal when I write them: Find the value in the book and who would benefit from it. Maybe the book didn’t do much for me, but that doesn’t make it useless. I always try to write something positive in a review and only rarely fail to find it. It’s a matter of picking the good between the bad and mediocre that may also be there.

It’s the same thing with watching a video: If you want to learn from it, whatever that “it” may be, start looking for the positive. If you only want to validate and reinforce your own ideas, that’s fine. But then don’t complain you can’t find any decent videos because you find them all crap.

Back on track, let’s talk about those three categories:

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I first wanted to title this post “How to learn fighting techniques form a video and avoid making a fool of yourself.” but that’s probably a bit too much. So I left out the last part but you know it’s there. :-)

I’ll get to  “learning techniques” in a bit but I want to cover something else first. Namely, this post is a case of several random things coming together:

• I first wrote something on this subject in the last couple paragraphs of this post.
• I just finished taping the introduction to the free-video lessons for those who subscribe to this blog. In there, I comment on negative reactions on Youtube.
• Two days ago, I read Bob’s post about some of the feedback he received on-line.
• But what kicked if of was a a pretty rude reaction I got last week on one of my Youtube videos.

This is a rather old video, one I shot in LA a couple years ago with the help of some dear friends.

As I said before, I’m used to getting silly, stupid and rude comments on my videos and that’s fine. Somebody saying I can’t fight my way out of a wet paper bag doesn’t change my skills for the better or the worse. So why should I get upset about it?

However, when my teachers tell me I’m doing a terrible job, that’s when I bang my head against the wall in both frustration and shame. After picking myself up from the floor, I do all I can to fix the problem they corrected me on. But some anonymous person on the Internet? Fughedaboutit! ;-)

Anyway, “80KungFu” left the following comment on that video:

What are you talking about? The man (Wim Demeere), clearly says, him self, that he is using Tai Chi techniques! Grasp the birds tail and single whip fucking whip! Now I dont agree with his knowledge (mostly I think his Tai Chi skills and knowledge are terrible), but he stills says that he is using Tai Chi techniques! So what the fuck are? you talking about?

80KungFu actually deleted his comments after I sent him a mail explaining:
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