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.