Company: Dog Brothers Inc.
Tape Name: Real Contact Stick Fighting Vol 5: Fang, Choke & Machado Jiu JItsu
Tape Cost: $49.95 (the whole set of 6 tapes goes for $100)
Length of Tape/Time: 80 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: 10
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

---

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): 10
8. Playback Score/Watching it over-and-over again: 9
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products: 10
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

---

Secondary Grading Criteria:

1. Beginners benefit: Excellent
2. Intermediate benefit: Excellent
3. Advanced benefit: Excellent
4. Time to benefit: As always, the more you practice, the better you get. As Mr.Denny states, practising this way creates ability in a short period of time . True. Also true , that the process is a painful one.
5. The need to buy additional tapes to understand this one: Enough already, buy the whole series or else they'll send "Monster Dog" after you !! Remember, if you ordered one tape, they have your adress.

---

Written Summary:

What do you get when you cross a Doberman with a Pit-bull ? No idea, I just know that I would never want to mess with the result of such a union ! What do you get when you cross the Dog Brothers with the Machados ? Exactly. Help , mommy ! As Mr.Knaus explains, it was not, as some people might say , a matter of latching onto the latest fashion, it was simply that given the parameters of Dog Brothers matches, they found that grappling simply happened. In which case, off course, one could just roll around looking for an opening ,or one could seek out a good grappling instructor to see what could be learnt and adapted. If you' re looking , you may as well find yourself one of the best and that is why the instructor teaching the grappling techniques on this tape is Carlos Machado.

The first few minutes are devoted to the rather nasty and instantly effective fang choke. This one hurts like a…, well , you know what. Next Mr. Machado takes over and shows some basic grappling techniques that are applicable to stick-fighting. Viewers with a grappling background will be familiar with all or nearly all of these techniques as they are done in an unarmed context. To viewers who have no such background, most of this will be new. Irrespective of one's background it is worthwile watching, since there are obviously some details that change a little when a stick enters the equation. Techniques shown are : bent-armlock from the guard , guillotine choke from the guard , basic sit - up reversal from the guard , basic mechanics of the mount position , bent arm -lock from the mount , straight arm -bar from the mount , redirecting the attacking stick and taking the back from out of the guard and two escapes and counters to the dreaded fang - choke. All of the above in the first twenty minutes. No redundant repetition, just step - by - step , solid instruction. Watch it, study it and use it !

Then, as per usual in a Dog Brothers video , "let the fun begin" ! Fights and more fights and it hurts just watching some of this stuff . None of it is just filler material, used to pad an otherwise too short tape. Every fight illustrates one or several important points or lessons with regards to the use of grappling techniques and strategies in stick-fighting. The commentary by Mr. Knaus and Mr. Denny is also very useful , especially for those not familiar with grappling. After about half an hour of fights, the emphasis moves on to countering grappling in a stickfighting context. A few encounters are shown to illustrate that , as good as grappling is , you cannot assume that you will always be able to close the gap into grappling range. The actual striking techniques can be found on earlier tapes (buy the set, for the last time) and the strategy and it's implementation becomes painfully obvious in these fights.

A doctor then explains some of the anatomical background to what happens when certain targets get hit. The tape finishes off with some interview footage of Mr. Denny and Mr. Knaus. Fascinating stuff , in certain societies they would have made Mr. Knaus "head Viking " or "War Chief' in others they would have put him in a tight - fitting white jacket and stuck him in a nicely padded cell , luckily for us he's free and out there and teaching this stuff.

Just one or two minor observations here: Without the fencing masks the anti - grappling strategy would be even more effective , in the reviewers opinion. Also, whilst grappling and stick -fighting seem to fit together quite nicely , if a knife is brought into play, this becomes a totally different ballgame. It's worth experimenting with this , try it some time, one person " plays" the grappler, the other one takes a wooden practice knife ( don't forget some strong protective goggles ) or a marker pen and off you go . Which just goes to show that , if one is interested in true self - defence ability, one needs to practice such things. As I have said before. You do not have to buy these tapes. You can just polish up that nice black belt certificate from your three week trip to the Phillipines, use all of the exotic terminology and practice your 234 disarms. Or you can learn to fight with a stick.

E.P.