Dog Brothers Public Forum

Guro Crafty,

After spending a short time studying the first DBMA series I have a few questions
that i haven't been too successful in finding answers for, and was
wondering if you would mind giving some advice?

 For a short while I have studied the tapes on my own, but have been
 somewhat leery of ingraining bad habits due to not having corrections and
 was considering private lessons. I live in Little Rock, Arkansas and there
 is little in the way of full time Kali Schools though there is a teacher
 that gives private lessons at a fairly good rate. Would it be a good idea
 to train on my own in the DBMA material and take private lessons for
 correctional purposes? The teacher does not train in any sort of real
 contact type training at all but i felt that he could still see mistakes
 in technique if i stuck to the curriculum from the DVDs and eventually
 tried to find training partners for the second series, etc.

 As far as training the DBMA material, namely the first series of DVDs, is
 there a certain way that you recommend training the different volumes? Do
 you recommend training only one volume until you become proficient in it
 or training the whole series in a sort of schedule/rotation? If you
 recommend training thoroughly in one volume before moving to the next, is
 there an amount of time that you would suggest one study each volume?

 I have also followed the postings on the Dog Brothers Public Forum in
 order to get an idea of training empty-hand that is compatible with
 DBMA,  in one of the threads you mentioned that it was a bad idea to train in
 boxing before learning Panantukan. I'm assuming this has to do with
 training the body unilaterally and other habits relating to heavily
 conditioning the body to use mainly clenched-fist striking? If so,would
 that also make it a bad idea to train in Muay Thai before learning the
 empty-handed FMA, or does more than enough of the same apply?

 Your time and input is very much appreciated.

 Thanks,

 Justin