Why You Shouldn’t Learn Martial Arts At Home

With the internet education boom, almost everything you can think of can be taught online. People create, develop and sell instructional videos on a wide range of topics – including martial arts. Whilst it may be entirely possible to learn something like calculus at home by yourself, it is not possible to reach a high proficiency of skill in martial arts this way. Put simply, instructional videos and books should be used as supplementary materials for learning a combat skill, rather than the base of your knowledge.

Pretty much any physical skill which involves other people is something that needs to be learned in a group setting. Whilst you can learn physical disciplines such as the long jump or how to serve in table tennis by yourself at home – for team games and sports that have opposition, you cannot. There are simply too many variables that create different situations that a home setting will not be able to replicate.

So with that being said – you must train martial arts in a gym unless you have no other choice due to personal circumstances.

You Need Other People To Train With

One key part of almost every martial art is having someone to train with. Practicing techniques on a dummy is certainly not the best way to learn. They are unresponsive, give you no feedback, and are complete dead weight – in other words, nothing like a human being.

Even when drilling a technique such as a basic judo hip throw, your uke will react in a variety of different ways. Without having this experience of even a semi-resisting opponent, it is difficult to fully grasp a simple technique. Weight distribution, parrying, and simple body movements are not something you can learn at home by yourself and require some form of training partner.

Not only this, but training at a club or in a gym provides a social aspect that humans need, you’re not going to get this at home. Furthermore, your teammates will encourage you and help you become better. Any elite-level martial artist would not have been able to reach the level they did without a good coach and training partners that pushed them beyond their limits.

Lack Of Sparring

By far one of the biggest drawbacks of learning martial arts at home is a lack of sparring partners. Even in a small-sized gym or club, you will have at least 10 regular people to spar with. Each one of these opponents will have a different body type and use different styles of technique. By training with different people, you will develop a well-rounded game as you will have to adapt to individual differences.

Not only this, but training against a resisting opponent gives you a sense of realism. This is true for both grappling and striking martial arts. Judo for example, would be extremely difficult to train consistently at home. Opponents will resist throws and over-adjust in order to not hit the mat. This opens up opportunities for counter throws and teaches you to adjust on the fly.

The same can be said for boxing. You may well improve your own hand-eye coordination by hitting a speed bag, but this does not teach you how to move properly and evade punches from an opponent. As much as you shadow box, nothing will prepare you for the real thing like live sparring rounds. Watching videos and knowing what to do is one thing, but putting it into practice in real life is another thing entirely.

Lack Of Instruction

Many people seem to think that practice makes perfect. This is actually untrue, and instead practice makes permanence. Whilst this is fine whilst under correct supervision. If you are training a martial art such as kickboxing at home with no outside instruction, you will pick up some very bad habits. These habits will solidify over time if nobody is there to correct them. As a result, you will be putting time and energy into movements and techniques, which are far from perfect and that will leave you open to easy counters.

Being ignorant of your own mistakes is very dangerous in martial arts – especially if you wish to compete in future competitions. This is a less extreme example of how we see kung-fu masters with no sparring experience decide to pick a fight with a professional MMA athlete. Obviously, this does not end well for the person who has been practicing technique without any instruction or correction to their mistakes.

Secondly, if you don’t have a coach to push you to the next level, you will never reach your full potential. It is very difficult to progress past a certain point if you are training martial arts at home by yourself. People who are able to train under an instructor with other students in classes are the ones who progress quickly.

Put simply, if you have a choice, there are no real benefits from learning at home, only negatives.

What You Can Learn At Home

There are some parts of martial arts that can be learned at home. These are generally solo drills that improve functional movement, as well as strength and conditioning work.

One example of this would be karate kata – which can be practiced in front of a mirror or videotaped. You will be able to see your own mistakes and improve upon them. Over time your movement will become better. This can also be performed for basic jiu-jitsu movements such as shrimping, rolling, and general movement and flexibility. Whilst these skills will not necessarily make you more technical. They will certainly help you prevent injuries since you will have greater give in parts of your body, as well as more strength.

In terms of strength and conditioning, both boxing and kickboxing are good examples of something you can actually train for at home – provided you have the right equipment. Hitting a heavy bag will condition your bones and allow you to develop stronger wrists and knuckles, over time, you will no longer need heavy protective gloves and will be able to hit a bag with only hand wraps.

A speed bag can also help with hand-eye coordination and improve your punch accuracy. Trying to hit a moving target will allow your brain to adapt better against moving opponents. This kind of home training has genuine crossover and benefits to your overall fitness level.

Whether this kind of exercise could be considered true martial arts is debatable. However, there is no doubt that training like this will improve your ability when it comes to training with others.

Exceptions To The Rule

One clear exception to learning martial arts at home is if you have a large space available with a training partner. Training with a friend or relative at home is not too different from training in a gym. This is especially true if one or both of you already has considerable experience training martial arts. For example, if you have a cousin who had 3 years boxing experience, they would easily be able to teach you technique and basic skills through drills and light sparring.

This is essentially recreating a gym environment within your own home. The fact that you are able to learn alongside another willing participant who can resist and recreate real-life scenarios is completely different from solitary training.

Summary

To generalize, learning from videos can only take you so far. If you are looking to learn martial arts purely at home, this is a very bad idea in terms of technique and progression. You are essentially stunting your own growth as a martial artist for the sake of convenience – a tradeoff that may seem worthwhile at the start, but as soon as you train with others you will realize this was not a good plan.