Company: Stadion Publishing Co. Inc.
Tape Name: Power High Kicks with No Warm-Up
Tape
Cost: $49.95
Length of Tape/Time: 80 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: 60
(less than $1.00/technique!)
Return Policy: "Return anytime for refund!"
(WOW !)
Experiences in dealing with this company: Excellent!
Instructor: Mac
Mierzejewski
Company's Address: Stadion Publishing, P.O. Box 447, Island Pond,
VT., 05846
Company's Phone Number: 800-873-7117
Web Page: http://www.stadion.com
E-Mail:
stadion@together.net
Primary Grading Criteria:
1. Production/Tape Quality: 9
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 10
3.
Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding: 9
4. Degree to which this will make
someone a better Martial Artist: 8
5. Score on delivery vs. hype: 8
6. Degree
to which we'd recommend this product: 8
7. Wasted Time (The higher the number,
the less "fluff"/repetition): 8
8. Playback Score/Watching it over-and-over
again: 8
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products: 8
10. Overall
grade based on cost vs. value: 9 (over 60 techniques/drills/exercises)
Total: Revised to 86%, Fair = 1.5 stars. Original score was 85%.
Editors
note: Once again, another tape that if left at 85%, would be considered POOR and
"garbage", meaning erase over the tape and use it for something else. It
did have some exercises that could be beneficial, although there were way too many,
and I personally didn't like the format Kurz uses to teach on his videos. Therfore
we left this tape at the very bottom of our FAIR scale.
Secondary Grading Criteria:
1. Beginners benefit: Excellent
2. Intermediate benefit: Excellent
3. Advanced
benefit: Very Good
4. Time to benefit: couple of weeks
5. The need to buy additional
tapes to understand this one: Not really, although references were made to Mr. Kurz'
other product, "Secrets of Stretching". And having seen that product, it
would help to understand the "whys" involved in doing the various exercises.
However I don't think not having it would significantly impact ones ability to understand
this tape.
Written Summary: This tape was a fair attempt
to accomplish what it set out to do. Which was teach you how to do high and powerful
kicks without a warm-up. Mr. Kurz and "Mac" did show a lot of various exercises.
But I personally don't think most people have enough time in the day to do them all.
Over 60 kicking exercises were shown. My problem wasn't only the huge number of exercises,
but how in the world do I decide which ones to do daily. Give me 5, 10, 15, 20 or
30 minutes of exercises to do a day! How long each day is it going to take me to
do 60 different exercises on each leg? To me, this tape lacked a specific, detailed,
and reasonable exercise plan that could be done daily within 15-30 minutes. This
tape was too confusing, and such is the case on Mr. Kurz' tapes sometimes. He does
have excellent skill, and appears to be very smart, but the format he uses to put
tapes together, sometimes isn't to my liking. If you're going to teach me something,
let's go from A to B to C, and give me a short specific plan to follow, not exercise
overload where I have to try and decide what exercises I should do.
As for
the scoring, Stadion got a "10" on #2. I was extremely impressed with "Mac's"
ability. Not only did he impressively perform all the various exercises on this video,
but also included numerous excerpts of footage from several full contact tournaments
he fought in and won. He definitely looked to be "the real deal".
Stadion
has one of the best return policies around. Some companies accept "no returns",
others allow returns "within 30 days". But Stadion allows its customers
to return product "anytime". So if you're looking for a tape on kicking,
and you're a beginning or intermediate student, this tape might help you.
