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 First International Seminar - DVD Review

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kilogulf59

kilogulf59


Number of posts : 1450
Age : 64
Localisation : Central Wisconsin
Registration date : 2008-02-20

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PostSubject: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeFri 27 Aug 2010, 16:43

No, I was not there however, Den was kind enough to give me one of his last copies of the 2003 International Seminar in Liverpool (thanks again Den). I shall give my impressions and comments to the best of my ability, I not being a professional writer.

Unsurprisingly, it was excellent, Den is a natural teacher, and his method is both clear and concise as it covered the following topics:

First, he gave a great explanation of combatives, which many find difficult to characterize; combatives it is what works, simple, unrefined. Combative needs are defined as “reasonable performance under extreme stress as opposed to extreme performance under reasonable stress”.

As for the others they are:

- Time frame of fight. 5 to 10 seconds maximum.

- Fitness emphasized. Anaerobic exercise is recommended. Reference Anaerobic Training

- Vital pyramid. (from pyramid top down) kit, skills, tactics, mindset. Mindset is first and foremost for survival/victory. Tactics was clearly defined as separate from skills, which is sometimes not accentuated properly; a tactic is the usage of skills, tricks, or techniques, armed or unarmed, to attain a specific effect, i.e. driving the assailant backwards or nonstop pummeling of the assailant, etcetera.

- Mode of dress. Most overlook this. Train in what you normally wear! Check shoes - should be lace up not slip on (slip ons slip off), solid with no-slip soles.

- Tiger claw/palm heel. The hand/finger/wrist form and thrust, piston-like action is explained and also the eye’s are not the primary target. Wrist bent 90 degrees and fingers hooked like holding a softball or cricket’s balls? This is the strongest position and the hooked fingers reinforce the wrist and are preferred to open fingers. Practice right and left handed. Eye/target/hand coordination not necessary. Learn to use your peripheral vision. Don’t telegraph techniques!

- The slap. (KAG-would iron palm be beneficial?) Difference between open and cupped hand slaps. Don’t underestimated the technique. Fore and backhand slaps and combinations. Body English shown, but not mentioned, especially on short-range slaps. Multiple opponents, slaps flow easily from one to another, even at 180 degrees. (KAG-punchers do the same…footwork).

- Knee strike. Big brother to elbow. Not trying to KO but destroy base. Low targets, legs (front, back, sides), groin, low belly, NOT his knee front. Two knee strikes, offensive and defensive, offensive is coming into fight, defensive is while engaged and no other strike is applicable. Keep hands up when kneeing to avoid his head coming in on impact.

- Axehand. Fairbairn’s primary technique. Thumb up preferred and fingers tight together, hand and wrist rigid. Power comes from arm and elbow. Strike to center of what you see i.e. center of face. Short AH, fold arms hold bicep for nonchalant look prior to strike (side hand). Note-Den combines drop step with AH to put full weight behind the strike. Long AH is a cross-body movement. SAH uses a short snap motion and the drop step, LAH uses body torque with follow through i.e. chopping down the tree or a golf swing.

The SAH and LAH were taught as a combination, SAH w/DS, retract, LAW w/BT.

Note-Drop step and body torque will be used with the elbow and tiger’s claw, amongst others, for short and long variation of each.

- The strangle. Strangle interrupts blood flow, choke interrupts air supply. 6 seconds for strangle, much longer for choke. Object of either is unconsciousness. Choke is longer and higher possibility of death. From face-to-face, a “spin’ must be applied in conjunction with the strangle. The preferred method is Hidaka Jime, with the off hand behind the head.

- The Thai or pivot kick. The Thai or pivot kick: applied with shin (preferred) or foot. O’Neil taught this in WWII and called it the pivot kick. Main target is outside of middle thigh. (KAG-I believe there is a nerve group running down the leg at this point). The object is a knockdown. Applied with force and follow/step-through, even if nerve center is missed, force will knock legs out.

- Situational control. This is highly important and was covered very well. The use of body and facial language, timing, and distance to benefit you is covered. Remember, not everyone who approaches you is an enemy den states, by controlling the situation you gain time and the choice to initiate or not.

- The V-5 elbow drill. This is a series of elbow combinations…sweet. Ken’s note, unfortunately either the disk or my player gave me trouble during the last segment of Disk 1. I did however get the gist of the drill.

- The chin jab. Same hand form as the TC except this is a short very close, straight up his front technique. A few variations are taught as well, one being the angle chin jab. Either his head and/or you are at an angle, essentially deliver the jab, don’t try to reposition to a face-to-face profile. The next was a double chin jab. Combinations were also revealed such as CJ-knee-CJ. As an adjunct to the CJ the holding or trapping of the assailant was taught. This entails one of two methods. One is the placement of the off-hand at the small of his back and pulling simultaneously with the jab. The other was a frontal belt grip, yank him powerfully towards you, and deliver the jab. Either of these increases the effectiveness of the CJ immensely.

The follow up is the eye gouge and then downward shove back and into the ground. Caution on jamming your knee into the ground. The other option is a neck twist takedown. The jab breaks the tension of the neck muscles, from there grab the head and twist him down, Den referred to this as using his head as a steering wheel. Another CJ trick incorporated Geoff Thompson’s “listening fence” where you pretend not to hear the man, tell him so, and then lean into him as if attempting to listen better and then a surprise CJ. A bit of play-acting is involved here to ensure the surprise is delivered. This seems more of a door attendant’s or bouncer’s technique and I’d imagine it is quite effective in practice. It is a preemptive strike to be used when you know violence is going to erupt.

Den mentioned an E.A. Sykes wartime chin jab variation in which one holds a flat metal cigarette case in the palm or a china teacup (base to palm) and delivers the jab…brutal, but that’s war.

- The Perrigard drill. This originated from Dr. Gordon E. Perrigard’s H2H system Arwrology. The drill, suggested by James Sass and modified by Den, is essentially a flow drill. This comprises a tiger’s claw, knee, forward elbow, reverse elbow, and axehand. This is too much to attempt to describe with the written word; nonetheless, it is an impressive drill.

- The stick. This segment, which is near and dear to me, began with an interesting brief background and explanation of the various stick-fighting systems and their respective emphasis. Preferred length is 18 to 24 inches. I don’t think diameter was mentioned however, my preference is 1-1/8 to 1-1/4 inch diameter. Den makes one minute change in Fairbairn’s stick system, he mirrors the basic two-handed starting grip position, and by doing that, he links it nicely into Styers methods. Now the grip is right-hand up, left-hand down. Again this is a bit difficult to put into words, fundamentally Den, with his ever useful tips and tricks and his straightforward style, describes how to perform the techniques of the now combined systems

(Ken’s note-I have both these systems plus many more in PDF format. If anyone is interested, I will be happy to upload them to Megaupload for all to use.)

- Knife work. This is not about so-called knife fighting or dueling this is regarding offensive knife work. Den underscores two points with the first and foremost being safety. Use a proper training knife, no real steel allowed. Secondly, the forward neutral grip is favored as it works sound in all cases and with any knife or knifelike tools i.e. a screwdriver. Covered are the angles of attack common to the Southeast Asian arts such as Arnis and Silat, and in conjunction with footwork. This was all well explained and demonstrated.

Throughout, Den accentuates mindset, aggressiveness, footwork, the drop step, body torque (or body English), differences between offensive and defensive techniques, and legalities to some extent. He indicated that all these will be used with the elbow and tiger’s claw, amongst other techniques, for short and long variation of each, stick and knife work.

Considering this was a one-camera shoot, I thought the quality was very good. The camera angles caught all the action, I was not left wanting while viewing the instructions. At times, the volume could have bee better but this is understandable.

Dennis Martin is a gifted instructor and he has obviously done these techniques a few times before. Anyone can “do” once educated nevertheless teaching is a gift, Den Martin has that gift and those of you who can and do train with the man should consider yourselves damn lucky.

Oh and a note on the class if I may…well done people. You all were very polite, attentive, and there was no offensive language, which is prevalent in many of the current instructional DVD’s that I have seen of late. In other words, the class had class and that says a lot.

What I would like to see happen here is twofold. First, is that Den move stateside, preferably to Wisconsin. Second, I would like to see Den either release this DVD for sale or produce another along the same lines. This was damned good work Den…an outstanding instructional collection.

Kudos and well done Dennis Martin and thank you for being so kind as to share this instructional DVD with me.


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Dennis
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Dennis


Number of posts : 9937
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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeSat 28 Aug 2010, 13:43

Many thanks for the very detailed review Ken. Needless to say, I'm delighted that you enjoyed the DVDs, and found them useful.
Note, I've changed the title of the thread, to make searches easier.
Cheers,

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Den
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thebristolbloke

thebristolbloke


Number of posts : 614
Localisation : Bristol
Registration date : 2007-07-17

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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeSat 28 Aug 2010, 21:46

Ha!

I remember that training Hall!!

Good times


phil

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TheBristolBloke is not a noddy - He's a very naughty boy! !
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kilogulf59

kilogulf59


Number of posts : 1450
Age : 64
Localisation : Central Wisconsin
Registration date : 2008-02-20

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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeTue 31 Aug 2010, 10:00

Was it me or did I hear seagulls in the background?
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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeTue 31 Aug 2010, 10:26

Quote :
seagulls in the background
Possibly. More likely to be Kosovan drug addicts!

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Den
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thebristolbloke

thebristolbloke


Number of posts : 614
Localisation : Bristol
Registration date : 2007-07-17

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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeTue 31 Aug 2010, 22:37

I remember one time we heard what I thought was a bomb going off!

Ask Si about what he found under the mats one time - it still gives me nightmares poor innocent that I am!!


phil

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Dennis
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Dennis


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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeWed 01 Sep 2010, 12:11

The Mount Pleasant YMCA was a very significant venue for us. It was were Terry O'Neill first met Tommy Mac, leading to his working on doors, which, eventually led to me doing the same.
We held many seminars there. Marcus Wynne, Nick Hughes and Lofty Wiseman are among the instructors we brought there.
At one time it was a nice place. I used the accomodation for a visiting group of overseas trainees back in 1983. For some reason the management started filling the place with down and outs, addicts and general scallies. It was a real test of situational awareness just entering the place. A pity, because it had great facilities, now gone.

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saman
Instructor



Number of posts : 100
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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeSun 12 Sep 2010, 15:36

Ken - nice review. I am jealous as it sounds like great instructional material. I echo your sentiments that Den should sell them, even if its just to members here (hint and a wink).

William
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Juan_Carlos

Juan_Carlos


Number of posts : 134
Localisation : Havana - Cuba
Registration date : 2010-04-28

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PostSubject: Re: First International Seminar - DVD Review   First International Seminar - DVD Review Icon_minitimeMon 25 Oct 2010, 18:23

Hi Dennis and everybody else in this wonderful forum...

Fortunately Dennis sent me the DVDs some time ago and they arrived well and safe... (almost a miracle because where I live) but because some technical and personal problems I couldn't start viewing the DVDs since last week.

The introduction is very good and the concepts clears and to the point; a good explanation about combatives and its characteristics; and the main goals of the seminar. Dennis is a very good communicator and a good teacher too. Badly the sound is low some times but you can understand clearly the speech.

I will follow the DVDs this week, and I will post my comments once I had advanced more in the material. But my first impression is very good. Thanks Dennis

Juan Carlos
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