If you were to look up "Bujinkan" on YouTube, you would find almost 82,000 results. Most of them are marketing videos and various videos of people who aren't even qualified instructors. Amongst all the videos are those videos which are either shots from seminars and "published" videos (like Soke's videos, etc). These tend to be on the 'better' end of the spectrum and can be worth a viewing.
But, herein lies a problem that I, myself, have fallen victim to at different points. We see a video that 'looks' good. We get inspired by it and decide to incorporate things from in into our training. The dilemma is that learning and applying things from so many different video sources can often lead us into disarray in our taijutsu. This is due to several possible and likely factors:
1. The person in the video is not your teacher. You do not train regularly with him/her, don't have any sort of feedback or kuden (oral instruction) that is geared towards developing you as their student.
2. You don't have the overall context of the teaching or demonstration. You see a cool little version of a technique and immediately start replicating. Problem is that you are doing something that likely could just be an exploration or extension of a greater lesson or teaching that was no in the video. Missing that 'starting point' is a vital thing. Too many times, what is demonstrated is interpreted as the lesson, when in actuality it may just be an application of a lesson - the very lesson that wasn't included in the video.
3. The things shown in the video lead to a different conclusion. If you are training under a real teacher, you are being trained and developed along a particular path. There is a logic and process that will eventually take you to a certain level of ability. When you pick up things from another teacher's video, you are picking up things that may be contradictory or leading to a different result. Although learning new approaches and perspectives is a good thing, you have to be careful you aren't blinding yourself to the one your teacher is investing the time and energy to provide for you.
4. Videos are easier. This is something that causes an uncomfortable stir among budoka, I am sure. We can literally spend countless hours watching YouTube videos of guys teaching and training. We may think we are learning something new, but none of it matters until we step foot on the tatami and actually train our bodies. The problem is that the latter is uncomfortable and difficult, or at least your training should be. Watching videos is easy. Dreaming and being inspired is fun and exciting. Spending an hour doing a zenpo keri forward kick over and over to develop power, structure and accuracy is not fun or exciting. But, which one will make you a better budoka? You have to ask yourself what you desire more, to be entertained or to be skilled?
At the recent Duncan Stewart Shihan seminar, Duncan made the comment about how people's taijutsu seemed 'weird'. He attributed it to people spending too much time training on variables, which includes different teachers. He was careful to point out the value in getting out to train with different teachers, but that doing it too much or with the wrong focus will cause chaos and confusion. There are always going to be those things that seem better than what you are doing. The grass will always 'look' greener over the fence. However, instead of hopping fences to always chase the greener grass, why not put your head and back down, get your hands dirty, and work the patch of dirt under your own feet - and grow your own beautiful grass?
Do that and you'll discover your own lawn is better that what's "over there".
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