I have avoided online gongfu training like grim pestilence. But recent history has led me to reconsider.
My aversion to online martial-arts classes is fairly straightforward. Until now I’ve seen online classes as a refuge for instructors and students who don’t want to get their hands dirty in contact work – yet I see contact work as indispensable. Also, my day job (at a university) involves teaching and has involved painful online sessions; painful because of the added shyness from students, the increased social gamble of having to un-mute and call attention when venturing to speak. So it’s not an experience I am keen to enlarge.
Checking our a friend’s online class caused me to think about online training anew. It’s not the class he wants to teach – of course, he’s been forced by the pandemic restrictions. Either he shuts down entirely, or teaches online.
There were some – not many – advantages to the online class as opposed to the real-life setting. For instance, everyone could get a clear view of the instructor’s demonstration. Usually, in a classroom setting, the people at the front (conventionally seniors, who need it least) get the best view, with those towards the rear squinting into the distance.
The instructor had tailored his lesson, and plans for the overall syllabus, to make the most of his teaching conditions. He focussed on stance work and the details of particular techniques, leaving aside leaping and bounding and routines that cover great spaces.
There were also social benefits. I could see students zooming in who were limited in opportunities for interpersonal contact, and who needed motivation to undertake any exercise at all.
And the students were keeping the instructor afloat. I’m an advocate for the professionalisation of martial arts. Expertise needs a huge investment of time; expert teachers must be supported. Students who feel loyal to their instructors should support them in these conditions, and make the most of a chance to meet other students online. On the other hand, I think it would be a hard sell getting students to try entirely new martial arts in the online medium, and would probably not be effective. I’m also unsure about what would happen in the event of injury to a student, and how insurance policies for a group setting would or wouldn’t extend to a class rearranged to happen online.
But online classes are the best many of us can do these days, and they are a lot better than nothing.
The Wandering Fist 