Company: Paladin Press
Tape Name: Ultimate Street Fighter, Volume 1
Tape Cost: $79.95 (gets you Volume 1 & 2)
Length of Tape/Time: Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: Concept Tape with numerous techniques
Return Policy: Refund on damaged or defective tapes only
Experiences in dealing with this company: Fantastic
The Instructor: Kelly Worden
Company’s Address: PO Box 1307, Boulder, Colorado, 80306
Company’s Phone Number: 800-392-2400
Web Page: http://www.paladin-press.com
E-Mail: sales@paladin-press.com

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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: 10
5. Score on delivery vs hype: 9
6. Degree to which we would recommend this product: 10
7. Wasted Time ( The higher the number, the less “ fluff” /repetition ): 10
8. Playback Score/Watching if over-and-over again: 10
9. Would I purchase more of this company’s products:10
10. Overall grade based on cost vs. Value: 10

Grand Total: 97 %

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Secondary Grading Criteria:

1. Beginners benefit: Excellent
2. Intermediate benefit: Excellent
3. Advanced benefit: Excellent
4. Time to benefit: Some material is immediate benefit, some material requires serious
investment of training time.
5. The need to buy additional tapes to understand this one: None

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Written Summary:

Readers of these reviews know that we have previously reviewed quite a few videos featuring Kelly Worden and we have always been favorably impressed with his work. But in my opinion, this video ( and the companion volume #2 ) is the best of the videos that we have seen by Mr. Worden. The alternate title to this video series is “Renegade Jeet Kune Do “ which is probably a misnomer. Mr. Worden’s teaching on this video is probably more in line with what Bruce Lee actually intended than the myriad of systems and styles that are currently being passed along under the name of JKD. Why do I say this ? Because Mr. Worden emphasizes that all martial arts training should be customizable to the individual practitioner and he emphasizes functionality over form, the dynamic over the static, and “ feeling “ over thinking. That sounds a lot like Jeet Kune Do to me.

The material on this video is broken down into the five strategies of attack as written about by Bruce Lee in the Tao of JKD. But this breakdown is meant only to be a frame of reference for teaching the viewer. Mr. Worden emphasizes that the five strategies often overlap and to be locked into one is to lose sight of the big picture. As far as the martial arts material on this video, it would be fair to say that is a combination of filipino martial arts and wing chun but I do not want to be simplistic and say this video is a combination teaching art/video. It is much more than that. There is a lot of material “ beneath the surface “ of what Mr. Worden is demonstrating but one must pay close attention to grasp the subtleties of what is going on. Mr. Worden also talks about the responsibility of being a teacher of martial arts. Many can learn to fight but to learn to teach well is a giant conceptual step that not all martial artists can make ( at least to the point of being an excellent teacher ). We see a lot of low line kicking, flow hitting/striking with the hands, some double stick training, a lot of good ideas for training drills, and learning to connect the staff to empty hand techniques.

I would like to congratulate Mr. Worden on what I believe to be his finest video series to date. If this video series causes ripples in the politically sensitive world of JKD, then so be it. All I can say is that it is probably about time.