Company: Dog Brothers Inc.
Tape Name: Blocks, Thrusts, Punyos, Disarms & Seguidas
Tape Cost: $30 (the whole set of 6 tapes goes for $100)
Length of Tape/Time: 77 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: 14/15
Return Policy: ?
Experiences in dealing with this company: Excellent
The Instructor: Eric Knaus
Company’s Address: 703 Pier Ave, Suite 664, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Company’s Phone Number: 1-310-543-7521
Web Page: http://www.dogbrothers.com
E-Mail: info@dogbrothers.com

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Primary Grading Criteria:

1. Production/Tape Quality: 10
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 10
3. Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding: 9
4. Degree to which this will make someone a better Martial Artist: 10
5. Score on delivery vs. hype: 10
6. Degree to which we'd 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: 10
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products: 9
10. Overall grade based on cost vs. value: 10

Grand Total: 97 %

1. 80%-100% = 97%
2. Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent = Excellent
3. 0-5 stars = 4.25 stars

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Secondary Grading Criteria:

1. Beginners benefit: Excellent
2. Intermediate benefit Excellent:
3. Advanced benefit: Excellent
4. Time to benefit: Practice, experiment, suffer , accumulate experience , the usual stuff
5. The need to buy additional tapes to understand this one: Tape can stand on it's own , but really makes sense as part of the whole system , buy the whole set or else the spirit of Lapu- Lapu will come to get you !!

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Written Summary:

For general comments on the Dog Brothers, see the previous review. Very often, the first generation or founder of a style has a great deal of hands --on experience. The generations that follow , traditionalists all , repeat the " encoded " techniques , often in dead patterns and it is thus not too surprising that such people cannot fight their way out of the proverbial wet paper bag . What is missing is personal experimentation and hands-on experience. Such a process can however be costly in terms of pain, suffering and injury. That is what makes the Dog Brothers, Gracies and similar pioneers so valuable. They have been there, done that, got the stitches and crunchy knuckles and have thereby saved the rest of us from a lot of wasted time and effort. Everything on these tapes has been repeatedly pressure - tested . This means that the rest of us can just learn the technical arsenal as taught by them and then, well then we still need to make it our own by going out there and doing it, BUT we do not have to reinvent the wheel. For high pressure testing, fight against others who have either studied up on the Dog Brothers or against other systems that do a lot of contact sparring. The reviewer's first African Stick-fighting teacher did about half an hour's worth of teaching and then we fought. The next lesson we fought again, with him making a few suggestions occasionaly. For a slightly less high pressure experience, convince somebody from one of the many schools that do hundreds of disarms, pre-programmed drills, Siniwali and suchlike. Two things though : You may loose a friend and don't necessarily expect him to agree to a rematch.

Anyway, time to get off the pulpit and just list what's on this video :

1. Blocking : The Four Walls
2. Blocking : The Umbrella
3. Blocking : The Roof Block ( followed by ten minutes of fights illustrating the techniques)
4. Blocks and Punyos
5. Disarms : As Mr. Knaus says , so much time spent , so little application realised
6. Disarm
7. Disarm
8. To 14. Seven Seguidas

Mr.Knaus calls the seguidas the " door to the snakey stick ". The seguidas seem to be a way of keeping busy sensibly , the stick keeps moving at all times. Anything that's stationary for any length of time becomes a target. Blocking to transition to closing, striking etc. , the seguidas are full of little movements that tie together the bigger, more obvious techniques. Sort of like the strings around a parcel , these seguidas keep it all tied together neatly. Lastly, Mr . Knaus shows the " Exploded Star Carrenza ", a type of shadow-fighting using the techniques taught on this video. Get this tape! Get the series ! Get a life!

E.P.