Company: Straight Blast Gym Productions
Tape Name: Tape 8 Escape from the Bottom
(side control)
Tape Cost: $44.95 or $299.00 for the 12 tape series.
Length of Tape: 45 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: 14 techniques
Return Policy: Unknown
Experiences
in dealing with this company: Excellent
The Instructor: Bob Bass/Rick Williams
Address: 1812 Ne 43rd Ave
Portland Oregon 97213
Company's Phone Number: 503-230-79248
Web
Page: http://www.straightblastgym.com/
E-Mail: info@straightblastgym.com
Primary Grading Criteria:
1.
Production/Tape Quality: 10
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 10
3.
Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding: 10
4. Degree to which this will make
someone a better Martial Artist: 9
5. Score on delivery vs. Hype: 9
6. Degree
to which we would recommend this product: 10
7. Wasted time (The higher the number,
the less "fluff"/repetition: 9
8. Playback Score/Watching it over and
over again: 9
9. Would I purchase more of this company's product: 10
10. Overall
grade based on cost vs. Value: 10
Grand Total: 96% 4.0 stars = Excellent
Secondary Grading Criteria Series:
1. Beginners benefit: Excellent
2. Intermediate benefit: Very Good
3.
Advanced benefit: Fair
4. Time to benefit: Some Immediate, greatest benefit with
practice
5. The need to buy additional tapes to understand this one: None, although
the entire series would benefit one the most.
Written Summary:
For
an overview of the entire 12 tape series please see Passing the Guard Tape #1 (Review
#279). Tape 8 deals with escaping from the bottom while in the side control position
and the north and south position. This tape had some very good techniques, some of
which will be new, I suspect, to most viewers. Overall this was another very good
video however there were a few techniques presented in this video that I felt would
be hard to pull off against a resisting semi skilled opponent. This video, although
at the lowest end of an excellent rating, did fall a little short of my expectations
compared to the other video’s in the series. The techniques I am referring to were
on the last half of the video, specifically a few (not all) of the techniques used
to reverse from the north and south position. The escapes involve moving your body
away from your opponent (creating space) and holding your opponent away from you
while you do a 180 degree turn spinning on your back. In my opinion these techniques
would be very hard to pull off against a resisting opponent. I believe they may work
on an unskilled opponent and if your timing was just perfect, but this would be a
very low percentage technique.
Now that I have that out of the way lets move
on to what I liked about the video. It contains some very good escapes from the side
control position. It has excellent detail on various escapes depending on how your
opponent holds you and thoroughly covers where to position your hands to best escape
and avoid a submission. I personally have not seen this area covered in such detail
on any other video tape. Also shows you how to set up the various escapes. As mentioned
some of the escapes shown for the north and south position were effective and had
good detail. This video also contains footage demonstrating the training the Machado’s
give to Police Officers. I personally enjoyed this section. The first clip shown
is of two officers attempting to takedown a "suspect" while he resists.
The untrained officers do not have much success with controlling the suspect. The
second clip has the same scenario except this time the two officers use the Machado
2 person takedown. The results are quite different as the "suspect" is
easily taken down to the handcuff position. Maybe this could be the basis of a future
training video for Police Officers (hint hint). There is the usual interviews in
this video as well as some class footage.
Overall another very good video.
M.O.
