Company: Warrior Productions
Tape Name: Hard Core Killer Knife Fighting
Cost: $69.95 (a lot of green!)
Length of Tape/Time: Approximately 1 hour
Number of Moves/Techniques: 35
Rturn Policy: ?
Experiences in dealing with this company: ?
The Instructor: John LaTourrette
Company's Address: 6252 Dark Hollow Way, Medford, OR 97501
Company's Phone Number: 541-535-3188
Web Page: http://www.thespeedman.com
E-Mail: sales@thespeedman.com

Primary Grading Criteria:

1. Production/Tape Quality: 8
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 9
3. Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding: 9
4. Degree to which this will make someone a better Martial Artist: 9
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 ): 9
8. Playback Score/Watching if over-and-over again: 9
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products:8
10. Overall grade based on cost vs. Value: 9

Grand Total: 86% ( Fair = 1.5 Star )

Secondary Grading Criteria:

1. Beginners benefit: Fair
2. Intermediate benefit: Fair
3. Advanced benefit: Poor
4. Time to benefit: Immediate for most
5. The need to buy additional tapes to understand this one: None

Written Summary:

One thing you can say for Mr. LaTourrette's videos and that is they have the coolest names in the martial art video business. This one is entitled "Hard Core Killer Knife Fighting" but it doesn't live up to its colorful title. This video however is superior to the previous video that we reviewed by Mr. LaTourrette called "Practical Knife Fighting and Self Defense". The quality of this production is strictly home video quality and was apparently shot sometime in the early 90's, judging from the way the video looks. I do not believe that quality production and quality information always go hand in hand. But for $69.00 dollars (the asking price of this particular video), then I think it is fair to insist on a higher quality production.

Those viewers with a filipino martial arts background (which emphasize knife work) will be astonished at the amount of misinformation on this video. It appears that Mr. LaTourrette is teaching Parker Kenpo only using a blade instead of empty hands. I think most martial artists will agree that kenpo stands well on it's own as an empty handed art. But when weapons enter the equation, I will have to go with those arts whose knife skills have been tested in combat. And that leave us with the filipino arts and not much else, including kenpo. Basically, I am suspicious of any system that purports to teach knife work that is not directly related to the filipino arts. Sorry, but that is the way I see it. I know some high ranking kenpoists will be outraged and will claim that their knife work is introduced only at the very highest levels of their system. Okay, I can see their point but my gut level feeling and my personal training in the filipino arts says that the earlier a student is introduced to blade work, the more effective the training is over time.

Back to the video. Mr. LaTourrette is very fast, either with a blade or with empty hands. But a lot of the stuff on this video is " knocking down straw men ". Mr. LaTourrette usually shows his great speed when attacking first. Most anyone can look devastating when they get to attack first. The legalities of slicing a man to ribbons WHEN YOU INITIATE THE ATTACK are painfully obvious to the viewer but are ignored by Mr. LaTourrette. Also, some of the wired in techniques that Mr. LaTourrette uses are preprogrammed to work against either stationary opponents or based on people reacting in predetermined way (Hello, Jerry Peterson). Once again, Mr. LaTourrette is also trying to kick a knife out of an opponents hand on this video. Sorry but most people who try this under the stress of a real fight will get their legs slashed like tires in a high school parking lot. Mr. LaTourrette loves to kick at people when the other guy has a knife. He uses one move where he rounds kicks the opponent's thigh before going in for the kill. Try that against a filipino martial artist and he will put his knee right into the kicker's shin. Guess who wins that one. My point is: Don't try a bunch of kicking nonsense when you're in a knife fight. You should use your legs to move around, get in and out, hopefully run, but not to kick. You may need both those legs. Mr. LaTourrette is big on nerve shots and hitting relatively small targets in the heat of a fight. I think not. Relying on precise and finely coordinated movements is a recipe for disaster, especially in a knife fight.

Mr. LaTourrette teaches knife fighting by learning technique. This is like learning to read before you know the alphabet. Concept training (David James, Hochheim, Worden, Keating, Blauer is where it's at in real training , especially in knife work. Most people cannot learn a technique for every situation. Learn the concepts, and the techniques will follow. If you like learning techniques, there are quite a few on this video. But it seems to me like a backward way to learn how to fight with a knife. Have you ever watched serious martial artists train for knife fighting by knife sparring? If you have, you will never see "techniques" being used. Things are chaotic and ugly, never nice and neat like in techniques. But you will see people who knife spar using concepts.

Mr. LaTourrette introduces (at least to me) a technique called the Meal of Death. It's an impressive flurry of knife slices, hand strikes and checks and a few low line kicks. As Darth Vader would say "Impressive. Most impressive". Fun to watch, probably a real blast to learn how to do, but how practical ? Can't say for sure but it does look good. But is it real hard core killer knife fighting ? I think the D.A.'s office calls it legalized mayhem or something like that. Do this to an opponent, even an armed one, and you're going to prison. Guaranteed. But doing it for real is probably impossible anyway so I guess I should just ignore it. (It appears very complicated).

There are few tidbits of good information on this video. Some subtle moves such as how to align one's body to disguise an attack were very good. But knife fighting fantasies abound on this video and I would not recommend it for purchase. Check out our other reviews for superior products on the subject of knife fighting.

CJ

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