Company: Masters Elite Karate?
Tape Name: Law of the Fist Vol. 2
Tape Cost: ?
Length of Tape/Time: 45 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: Varies
Return Policy: ?
Experiences in dealing with this company: Great
The Instructor: John Geyston
Company's Address: 2937 W White Oaks Dr.
Springfield, IL 62704
Company's Phone Number: 217-546-6762
Web Page: http://www.jgpma.com/about.php
E-Mail:
Primary Grading Criteria:
1. Production/Tape Quality: 80
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 100
3. Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding: 80
4. Degree to which this will make someone a better Martial Artist: 70
5. Score on delivery vs hype: 70
6. Degree to which we would recommend this product: 70
7. Wasted Time ( The higher the number,the less " fluff" /repetition ): 80
8. Playback Score/Watching it over-and-over again: 80
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products: 80
10. Overall grade based on cost vs. value: 80
Grand Total: 79% (Good = 3.75 Stars out of 5 Stars)
Secondary Grading Criteria:
1. Beginners benefit: Very Good
2. Intermediate benefit: Good
3. Advanced benefit: Good
4. Time to benefit: Immediate, or a few weeks
5. The need to buy additional tapes to understand this one: None
Written Summary:
I think it's important to give a little background of my past opinion of Geyston and his other tapes we've reviewed. If I was to sum up Geyston's style, based on what I've seen on his other tapes, I'd say it's freestyle Kenpo combined with Jujitsu! Geyston typically teaches concepts and techniques, does so very well, and I'd say his hand speed is in the top 1-2% of video instructors I've seen up to the point of this review!
Prior to this set of tapes, we've seen 2 other series of Geyston's, both I'd classify in the 4-5 star range! This tape didn't do as much for me as his other ones did.
This whole tape is about Geyston's kata, "Techin Jin", showing it in it's entirety numerous times, then breaking it down into 10 sections, and showing the self-defense applications of those sections.
The first 23 minutes of the tape shows Mr. Geyston, by himself, repeating his kata over-and-over again. Even with the background upbeat music, those first 23 minutes were a little monatoneous for me. It's nothing against Geyston, let's just say watching a kata repeated over-and-over again at 7AM on a Saturday, having just woken up, was a little tough. I guess I didn't have enough coffee yet! Maybe it's just me, but it's a little tough to wake up at 7AM and immediately pop in a tape, and get into Kata mode, if you know what I mean.
After a couple of cups of coffee, and at around 24 minutes into the tape, Geyston changes from repeating the Kata over-and-over, to breaking it down into sections. This was where my eyes slowly started opening up a bit more. The next 21 minutes on the tape, Geyston breaks down his kata into 10 sections, showing how each section applies to an attack. Here we're able to see how his Kata was well designed with a lot of forethought. It appears to have been designed with the 10 sections in mind, to show how from either a punch, or self-defense situation (bear hug, etc), how to respond! Instead of some mindless kata that has you practicing movements you'd never use in the street, we're shown how one can be designed with real value, and gives you something to practice that you would use in the street!
The really cool part of the Kata is the "12 Hammerfist Strikes", which happens to be at the very end of the kata. That by itself is a cool little drill, allowing a person to practice hammerfists at many different angles. I'd never seen a drill anywhere else, with such a nice flow to it, that's specific to practicing different hammerfist strikes. Why is that such a big deal? I've always felt that the hammerfist was an often overlooked strike, great for beginners or those only into self-defense, and rarely practiced to the degree it should be! Nice to have a new drill for it, and that alone is worthy of buying this tape!!!
In my opinion, this video doesn't rate as high as Geyston's previous materials which I found to be "excellent", but it does hover solidly around the "good-to-very good" range!
EM
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