Martial Arts instructional DVDs: The best ever!
OK, it's not as if I've seen them all, but I've seen quite a few of them (about 250). And it's not as if I'm a couch potato dedicated to watching "how to beat up other human beings" kind of tapes (that would be kinky, wouldn't it?). I've been training for about twenty years and I'm kind of using myself and my training partners as guinea pigs to test the stuff I watch. I've done striking, I've done grappling and I've done doth striking and grappling, so I rather know what I'm writing about. About thirty percent of the instructionals I've seen were nothing but wasted time and money. Another sixty percent were ok but I had to dive into a lot of fluff to distill the essence, the good stuff. And then there was a ten percent that changed the way I train, the way my body performs and the way I fight. These are the ones I want to write about, so here I go:1. Matt Thornton's Functional JKD Series 1
2. Real Contact Stick Fighting Series Vol 1-6 by the Dog Brothers
There once was a time when people in martial arts must have thought that Jean Frenette could fight and perhaps believed that preset drills such as one-step sparring and FMA's Sinawali could make one effective in combat. The karate guys were sure that they couldn't practice full-contact since one of their punches was enough to kill any opponent. Sure, there were also the kyokushin guys, the full-contact karate guys from the US and Muay Thai fighters of course, but the consensus was that drilling is as close to fighting as one can get. The change came in the early nineties partly because of the UFC and partly because of some training groups like the Dog Brothers who fought full-contact with non padded sticks and Matt Thornton's Straight Blast Gym who advocated "alive" training against fully resisting opponents. Thornton's Funtional JKD Series 1 first DVD includes kick-boxing instruction, alive focus mitt training, footage from hard sparring sessions and - most important - interviews with Matt himself and his instructors explaining the difference between "dead patterns" (preset drills) and alive training, that helps you hone your skills under pressure. DVD 2 focuses on what is called "trapping range" in JKD circles, and Thornton cannibalises on drills such as Wing Chun's Sticky Hands and FMA's Hubud and Tabon Siko Nordabis, stating clearly that he's never ever been able to use any of these in real combat. He then goes on to suggest the Greco-Roman wrestling clinch as an effective alternative for the trapping range and brings in the best possible expert to explain and demonstrate, none other than Randy Couture. Basic pummeling and takedowns from the clinch are covered here as well as attached and unattached striking from close range and the drills suggested are sure to elevate your game to a higher level. Finally, DVD 3 is an introduction to positional ground fighting and BJJ. The Straight Blast Gym curriculum has evolved a lot since the nineties when this was filmed, but back then this set was a real eye-opener and the contents are still useful.
What Thornton's set was for unarmed combat, the Dog Brothers RCSF set was for Filipino martial artists that wanted to test their art under pressure, not under huge amounts of protective padding. Eric "Top Dog" Knauss, probably the best stick fighter of the late 20th century explains plain and simple that in order to fight with a stick, you must first be able to hit hard (so that you command your opponent's respect), you must then be able to move fast to all directions, when you can't move you have to use reliable blocks, when the fight goes to the ground you must be able to grapple and when using double sticks, twirling like a cheerleader is the only thing you must NOT do. The Dog Brothers curriculum has also changed a lot in the following years thanks to the genius of Mark "Crafty Dog" Denny, but Knauss was also a stylist like no other and seeing him first demonstrate his skills and then apply them in real contact fights is a feast to the eyes.
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