I train and teach traditional martial arts. But some of my methods of teaching and training are untraditional. So why do I train a traditional martial art in an untraditional way? Simple: sometimes an untraditional method can offer a better and/or quicker way to get where you want to go.
Of the untraditional methods that I use, one of the most powerful—and easiest—is watching video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I think a video can be worth a thousand repetitions when it comes to training. But the catch is that I’m not talking about watching a video of your teacher or some other master (although that has benefits, too)—I’m talking about watching video of yourself.
By watching video (or sometimes even seeing a photo) of yourself, you will notice things that you never knew you were doing and that, even if someone told you, you might not understand how to correct for a long time. For example, one of my students often overextends his stance, leaning too far forward, while performing one of the postures in Zhu Ji. It’s actually a very common mistake and one that I also made when I started training. Despite my correcting him during several classes, including explaining the purpose of the posture as well as demonstrating the posture and even manually manipulating his stance, he didn’t quite get it. Eventually, I asked him if he was okay with my taking a photo of him with my smartphone. As soon as I showed him the photo on my smartphone, he was able to immediately correct his stance.
Taking video of yourself is also a great way to chart your progress. Words can’t really describe how far I’ve come in the last several years—but the videos I have over that period sure can. It’s fun, enlightening, and sometimes frustrating to watch past videos of myself because I wonder how and why I didn’t catch on to stuff sooner.
I must point out that watching video of yourself is different than practicing in front of a mirror (which is, however, another good and somewhat untraditional method). One of the big differences is that because you’re physically engaged when you’re watching yourself in a mirror, it can be very hard to just observe and look for things. Also, when practicing in front of a mirror, I think the tendency is to become self-conscious, which can work to your disadvantage.
Regardless of your style, I highly suggest you take video of yourself and then analyze it. With the video capabilities of today’s smartphones and digital cameras, there’s no good reason why you can’t take video of yourself performing your forms, as well as while working out on equipment like a punching bag or a wooden dummy and while pushing hands or sparring with training partners (and even with your own teacher if they allow it). Just don’t get too carried away with doing this. I sometimes see fellow martial artists who take (and in some cases post on social media) videos of themselves practically every day. If you get to that point, you should probably put the smartphone or camera down and go back to more traditional methods of training.