Would Gohan have been better off training with Kami instead of Piccolo?

[nickzambuto]

Piccolo really wasn't a very great teacher now that I think about it. People often tend to apply later character development to characters at earlier points in the series, but just because Piccolo eventually BECAME a good mentor to Goten and Trunks on the fusion dance, doesn't mean that his style of relentlessly beating Gohan was the most efficient training.

At this point in the series, Kami and Popo had already shown a way of training that is on another level from everything that came before - ki training. And Toriyama has said that muscles have limits, and training your ki is the only way to surpass those limits. But wouldn't relentless sparring be much more muscle training than ki training? It makes sense, because Piccolo was still very young, and not nearly as mature as his father. He'd never taken care of a kid before nor trained one. Hell, he hasn't interacted with that many human beings, period. His nature is to be very isolated and introverted, so he probably wasn't thinking about the best for Gohan. He was just... doing whatever first came to mind. "I need to prove to you that you have hidden power... so I'll just... throw you into that mountain at mach speeds... I guess."

You can argue that Piccolo must be a good teacher because of how quickly Gohan progressed, but I would chalk that up to Gohan's talent. He is one of the biggest prodigies in the series.

Meanwhile if Gohan went to Kami, he would be interacting with two trainers, both MUCH more wise and skilled and experienced at training people, than Piccolo is. They would have better resources, (Kami's place is full of magic and rooms stuff and so is Karin's place right underneath) better training methods, and Gohan would be spending a year with his comrades, getting to know them.

Remember when Yamcha fought the Saibaman and Gohan couldn't see? Piccolo had to teach him to sense their ki? If Gohan trained with Kami, that minor setback probably never would have happened.
Remember when Gohan panicked and didn't attack Nappa? Kami and Popo would have been wise enough to motivate Gohan the right way, making him believe in himself and his responsibility and that only he could save the Earth. They would have helped him mature, like they helped Goku mature immensely. While Piccolo... didn't motivate Gohan at all. He was just an asshole.
And if Gohan has all this, training partners, better teachers, and stronger ki and ki control rather than just muscle power, his battle power at the end of the day might have been higher too. Maybe he would have had a base of that 2,800 rage boost he got. Hell, maybe he would have had a base of that power he used to fight Vegeta.

Or do you disagree and believe Piccolo was the best mentor for Gohan?

[KBABZ]

There are advantages and trade-offs. I think Kami's age is a big disadvantage as that means he has to pass off a lot of the physical teachings to Mr. Popo. As well, Piccolo is a warrior while Kami is more like a sage, which he points out as for why Piccolo should be the base form when they merge back together. I also don't think Kami would have been able to get Gohan out of his Raditz-era mindset; while Piccolo was brutish in his approach, the six months in the wilderness taught Gohan independence and assertiveness.

[Lionel]

Agree with KBABZ. Gohan's trials under Piccolo's tutelage was just as important from a mental perspective as it was for harnessing the little boy's innate power. He needed to have the mollycoddled little baby radically transformed and hardened into a stalwart, merciless warrior with no compunction for bloodying himself or others and he needed to complete this character moulding quickly. We can't say exactly how Gohan would have turned out being trained by Kami but suffice to say that he wouldn't have nearly been as pressured as he was with Piccolo. Plus, there didn't seem to be anything from Kami that Gohan couldn't learn from Piccolo like Bukujutsu or ki sensing. In fact, Gohan probably wouldn't have acquired as much since abilities like the Masenko were exclusive only to Piccolo. Between the two of them Piccolo was the much more effective teacher.

Now if Gohan was training alongside the earthlings then he might stand to gain more, provided they were willing to teach him some of their techniques like the Kamehameha and Taiyoken.

[KBABZ]

Agree with KBABZ.

Thanks!

I was tired when I wrote this so I can expound some more here. Going off of what Lionel said, Gohan more than anything needed a trial by fire to whip him into shape, and I don't think the comfortable setting of the Lookout and Mr. Popo would have been conductive to that. Gohan didn't know how to fight, and while Piccolo would be overly harsh a lot of the time, being forced to step up to the plate meant that Gohan had to focus on fighting. I dunno, I get the feeling that Gohan would have felt like he could just walk off and go study were he to train at the Lookout with the others.

[PerhapsTheOtherOne]

Well, based on some retroactive information given by Toriyama, it may or may not have been better with regards to his S-Cells.

Obviously, being so young and still not quite that powerful, he wouldn't have ended up turning SS, but Gohan may have possibly seeded more latent potential under Kami's tutelage than Piccolo's.

Of course, Gohan was also only 5 when he was abducted. Piccolo was a harsh trainer, but it may have been needed to instill some discipline into Gohan.

[Michsi]

As harsh as this may sound, it's quite possible Piccolo was still the best choice for the job precisely because of his callousness. Kami and the rest may not have been able to bring themselves to push Gohan as far as Piccolo did due to his young age and inherent mildness.
As for Piccolo's effectiveness as a teacher: I don't remember anyone ever claiming that Gohan was a prodigy, just that he had a lot of raw, latent power that he couldn't control. I assume there was only so much you could do with a completely untrained, jittery four year old in less than six months, but the fact that the kid then later goes toe to toe with the universes strongest warriors on Namek shows that he did something right as far as coaching goes.

[theherodjl]

If you believe in a theory of a Ki synergy effect enabling various fighters to increase their power through continuous contact with the strongest fighter then Piccolo was the best candidate, being already stronger than Kami but also having greater potential due to being a warrior type. Its the best way to draw out the power of another fighter with high potential themselves, Gohan & Piccolo training together was a perfect example of this. Kami & Popo were not warriors or actively training to be the strongest fighters they could be, Popo being the weaker of the two who actually did hands on training while Kami merely supervised training with little physical interaction. There was really nothing better for Gohan's development.
If we want to include the movies then Kami would have been a lesser teacher to lose rather idly to Garlic Jr while Piccolo could actually battle Garlic Jr, Kami lacks intensity which would hurt Gohan's progress.