Company: Straight Blast Gym Productions
Tape Name: Aliveness
Tape Cost:
$ 49.95 for 1 or 2 tapes,$39.95 for 3 to five tapes
Length of Tape/Time: 1 hour
56 minutes
Number of Moves/Techniques: Concept tape,but many techniques and drills
shown to illustrate concepts
Return Policy:
Experiences in dealing with this
company: Excellent
The Instructor: Matt Thornton
Address: 1812 Ne 43rd Ave
Portland Oregon 97213
Company's Phone Number: 503-230-79248
Web
Page: http://www.straightblastgym.com/
E-Mail: info@straightblastgym.com
Primary Grading Criteria:
1. Production/Tape
Quality: 10
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 10
3. Comprehension Score/Immediate
Understanding 10:
4. Degree to which this will make someone a better Martial Artist10:
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): 9
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: 98% (Excellent = 4.5 stars)
Secondary Grading Criteria:
1. Beginners
benefit: Excellent
2. Intermediate benefit: Excellent
3. Advanced benefit:
Excellent
4. Time to benefit: Immediate
5. The need to buy additional tapes
to understand this one: Can stand on it's own, but should be seen as a set
Written Summary:
If your art originated
in a temple in the mystic East, if it has been practiced secretly and unaltered for
hundreds of years, mostly in the form of kata, and if you believe that is the ultimate
in producing fighting ability, DO NOT buy these tapes. Everything Matt Thornton says
will sound like Mandarin Chinese and the parts you do understand will irritate the
living daylights out of you. Instead buy some tapes on the deadly pressure point
strikes hidden in your forms.
For the rest of you out there, if you buy only
one set of videos this year, let these be the ones. If you believe that there has
been an evolutionary development in the martial arts over the last few decades, from
Bruce Lee to the Gracies to the all-round fighters of today ( such as Frank Shamrock,
Randy Couture, Bas Rutten, Maurice Smith, Mark Kerr etc. ) then you will want to
see these tapes.You may never be half the fighter any of the above are - to us mere
mortals their ability is scary - but if you follow these concepts and ideas, if you
consistently implement them in your training, you will end up being as good a fighter
as you can conceivably be. There are a handful of video instructors out there on
the cutting edge of martial arts developments ( Tony Blauer, Eric Knauss, Matt Furey
and one or two others would be my choices ) and Matt Thornton is definitely in there.
So even if you have to sell your body to medical science or your sister to an Arab
oil sheik, buy these tapes ( no, I've never met Matt Thornton, he hasn't offered
me any money, nor has he threatened me ).
As to the content : The tapes should
really be seen as a set, since tape one introduces the fundamental concept of "aliveness",
which is then also further explored in its application to the clinch and to groundfighting
in tapes two and three. Tape one also covers in some detail the stand-up fighting
range, or "game", as Matt would call it. To summarize aliveness : Real
combat is chaotic, if your training is not alive, the discrepancy between it and
what might happen on the street will be such that a lengthy hospital stay is nearly
guaranteed.
Many examples of alive vs. dead drills are given. Matt uses some
humourous examples to make his point , such as a game of chess and a baseball swing
training session. If these don't get you smiling, you're definitely practicing a
secret temple art.
The second part of tape one deals with the basic stand-up
fighting game, i.e. punching, kicking with and without shoes, the sraight blast,
the sprawl and a variety of other technical options. The only slight criticism one
might make, and even that is very much a matter of opinion, is that the tapes could
have been edited a little more strictly. The tapes were put together quite artistically,
interspersed with interviews, humour, fight footage and some really weird and interesting
music. I like the result, but there may be those that will have wanted something
slightly tighter.
Two other minor disagreements: According to Matt the primary
street attack is a tackle. In over four years of nightclub work as a bouncer here,
in the harbour area of Cape Town, South Africa, I have found the primary form of
attack to be the wild, swinging haymaker, followed perhaps by the broken beer bottle.Whatever
U.S. police statistics and Rorion Gracie might say, I never found the "95 percent
of all fights go to the ground" rule to hold true. Obviously even ten percent
is enough to make the study of ground fighting obligatory, and it is perhaps a minor
point. Maybe I've just read one Rorion Gracie column to many.
Also, although
one or two women can be seen, this is clearly not an approach that will find much
favour with most women or children. In some ways a real pity, since most women's
self defense either ignores groundfighting or practices it in a one-two-three technical
manner. Anyway, these are all minor points brought up by a reviewer who would otherwise
feel too embarassed by just going on and on in absolute admiration. Buy these videos
NOW!
E.P.
