notes

Picture above is of a friend's notes for the bagua 64 hands (not palms) routine - we were both attending a review session from Liu Laoshi's visit, much needed and appreciated by everyone involved, close to 30 people. Seeing his notes got me thinking about notes and recording and all that. I take notes after almost every practice I attend, but I very seldom see the written notes of others. Friends and I trade videos frequently, but not written notes.
There is prejudice against the use of video among some martial artists - we are supposed to learn it with our bodies, looking at videos later will only distract us, etc. There is also a sense - which I share - that the very shooting of video in a training situation can lessen the pressure, the absolute determination to get it now, to learn it in one encounter and burn it deeply into ourselves. That is, it is too easy to think, "oh, I can always watch the video again later". That is true, we can watch it later, but it is never the same as in person. And as long as we remember that, I think that the use of video can be an important part of one's training regime.
I make a ten-day trip to China. I practice for hours a day, review on my own, and believe me, I am out to make these new motions mine, to engrave them deeply in my body. But a year later, even a half-year later, I pull out the video I shot during that visit, and I realize some of the mistakes that have crept in. By its very nature, this is a special trip, something above and beyond normal training, and I don't have access to this teacher on a daily or even monthly basis. So I want everything I can get, and I am grateful for teachers willing to be photographed or to let someone shoot video.
At the same review session this weekend, Mr. T was sharing some photographs he had taken of Liu Laoshi over the years. I took a look at them and thought again of the importance of photos. One point is simply keeping a record of correct postures and positions. Another is keeping memories of a special visit, a special person. You remember a specific corner in the park where you learned a certain routine, and suddenly something the teacher said comes back. But I was also struck by seeing the changes over the years - the white hair on the temples on Mr. T's first set of photos, the fully white set of hair in the last.
Tonight I was reviewing some sets from the Sha family, learned on visits to their place in Kunming, China. I paused several times to review video I had taken while there. Seeing the motions performed again with such grace and power was amazing in itself, and the physical record is important to me, as it is basically all self-practice between visits, with very occasional scrutiny from Mr. T. But other things remain in that recording - the everpresent sound of the birds in Kunming, the piles of boxes of mineral water stocked inside the training hall, the curtain dangling from a wire in the corner where people change in a tiny triangle, glimpses of visitors passing through - all of that caught on video.
There is much reason for teachers to be leery of video. You never know who is shooting what or where it might end up, especially with Youtube and other such services proliferating. And the teacher does have the right to control over their own material. There is also the problem of people "learning" solely from video, going on to "teach" others what they have gleaned.
But the bottom line is that, in my opinion, the pluses far outweigh the minuses. When taken with permission, used as a supplement to regular training, and released only with permission of the teachers involved, I think that videos are a wonderful tool for the martial artist. Ever watched old grainy black and white videos full of people demonstrating amazing martial arts, all dead and many of the techniques lost to the world? You know then that something special was caught and you can share in its beauty and power, and then you know what a treasure video can be.
Really it is just an extension of photos and good old written notes. They are all tools to help us learn and improve - and can also preserve valuable moments and memories to share with others. I still run into someone once in a while who says all martial arts books are crap and they only distract us from real learning. There is not really much of a reply one can make. But as for me, I will be shooting video, taking pictures, scribbling post-practice notes, the works. There is no substitute for those key moments of intense learning from an instructor. But to blindly refuse to preserve the works and motions of experienced martial artists is a loss to everyone.
One more thing - sound recordings. I have done several interviews for magazines like Kendo World and I always keep the sound recordings. Even those can be valuable - just the sound of a teacher's voice can stir old memories, bring back things fading into memory.
Our job is to correctly and faithfully pass on what we have learned, and I will use every tool I can to supplement the learning that gets etched into my body.