Company: Paladin Press
Tape Name: Torite Applications
Tape Cost:
Length of Tape/Time: Approximately 90 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: 50 techniques
Return Policy: Refund on damaged or defective tapes only
Experiences in dealing with this company: Excellent
The Instructor: Rick Moneymaker
Company's Address: PO Box 1307, Boulder, Colorado 80306
Company's Phone Number: 303-443-7250
Web Page: http://www.paladin-press.com
E-Mail: sales@paladin-press.com

Primary Grading Criteria:

1. Production/Tape Quality: 8
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 9
3. Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding: 8
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 would recommend this product: 8
7. Wasted Time ( The higher the number, the less " fluff" /repetition ): 10
8. Playback Score/Watching if over-and-over again: 8
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products: 10
10. Overall grade based on cost vs. Value: 9

Grand Total: 87 % ( Fair = 1.75 Stars )

Secondary Grading Criteria:

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

Written Summary:

It took my three times of watching this video before I could make it through it all. Twice I literally feel asleep, no joke! Out of 300 videos, I've never had such a problem getting through a tape. I found the narration very monotone and unexciting. It reminded me of the elementary classroom teacher in various "Peanuts" cartoons, who when she talks to the children in class, sounds as if she's saying "Wah, wah, wah...wah, wah". Let's call that strike one. Next was all this accupressure mumbo jumbo about "metal cuts wood" and "fire scorches the earth". None of it made sense, and if it can't be FULLY EXPLAINED on video, why talk about it and make it the heart of what you're trying to teach. Strike two for these guys. Next was all the various cute little "completely stunning or disabling" accupressure strikes. I'm not convinced they'd be quite as effective in the street, or command such an overly dramatic response as was shown on this video. That's strike three for this one.

Now for the good stuff. Moneymaker and Muncy do take the viewer through 50 different techniques. They attempt to be fairly thorough, just not thorough enough in my opinion. So the quantity of techniques was definitely there. Also, these guys are very accomplished martial artists. There were a couple of ungodly lightning fast techniques, that I really liked. These techniques included strikes to the face and taking away a gun or knife from an opponent. But still this wasn't enough to salvage the 45 other crappy techniques one has to go through. My recommendation on this tape? If you're an accupressure fan you might enjoy this stuff. I'll have to admit that even I have been somewhat curious about this kind of stuff, but even after checking it out with other so called experts, I'm still not convinced about its true effectiveness. So what's my verdict on this one? Let's just say if I'd spent money on it I would've been very disappointed, and leave it at that. I love the folks at Paladin, and they've consistently turned out some good videos, but I guess no one can guarantee every single tape they market will be great!

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