Roaches in your VCR/DVD Player: We review tapes, etc
Shivworks: Reverse Edge Techniques V1
Officer Roach
There is no nice way to put this. This tape is about how to kill someone with a knife. Not self-defense. Not defense against a knife. It's murder. An extract of the Arnis knife method called pikal that are reduced to its bare essentials, it is taught as a method of taking someone out with a knife. It's a messy and nasty style of attack and it is demonstrated not against other people with weapons but against a person trying to close or grapple. The author is a narcotic officer in Mississippi and the justification on the tape to that this may be necessary in close quarters (Its not a lot of justification either: just a quick comment). Now, I don't live or work in Mississippi and I know their laws tend to be a bit different at times, but I can't see how I could justify to Internal Affairs, a jury, or the local press doing that to a suspect. Heck, I am not sure if I could defend it if my life was at stake; it is going to be damned hard to convince an investigating officer that you needed to stab someone that many times. Technically the stuff works, the tape is well made, the demonstrations clear and well-explained, but the moral and legal premise is pretty shaky. I'm not sure this tape serves any real purpose at all. Yes, knife attacks are brutal and ugly -- but decent folks need to know how to defend against them, not how to shiv someone.
Com-Tech Blade Specificity Tapes: Axe & Tomahawk, Push Daggers
Practical Roach
James Keating is an interesting fellow. Part of me really wants to like the guy, in spite of his friends' interesting tattoos, primarily because of his constant admonitions to safety, and the sense that he's just a genuinely nice man. But I would be sorely remiss if I didn't point out that there are some fundamental assumptions on these two tapes that carry a whole lot of RAID, starting with the notion that either of these two are "self-defense weapons" that should be carried for said purpose. Laws vary here and there, but if you carry a 'hawk concealed under your shoulder for defense in "urban areas," buddy, your legal problem are just beginning. Regarding the theoretical background, I suspect that if you have the original tapes, there's no problem at all. But if you're coming to these tapes without having seen the others, and particularly as a person with little to no martial arts background (as is clearly implied in the Axe & Tomahawk tape), then I gotta tell ya... it's not "how to handle axes, tomahawks, and push daggers." It's "how to handle these tools within the fighting framework of Arnis." If you're not sure why that's a meaningful distinction, go hit the essay page. The tapes begin with some examples of weapons with which one can train, both real and practice, and though perhaps a bit too slanted towards Cold Steel (there are many makers of 'hawks out there), that is generally a good thing, too, since it's quite clear that Keating himself isn't going to hit you for a buck on training tools.
The problems come about because "the Arnis approach to a given weapon" totally ignores the context in which these weapons are used. On the Push Daggers tape, this is a good thing -- mostly. The authentic techniques for the push dagger should absolutely not be taught to the public, unless the distance-learning student is angling for a visit from Officer Roach. The push dagger is not a weapon for fighting. It's a weapon for ambushing and murdering people (and Keating is dead right to allude to its unsavory reputation). The problem with that is, that the student working from this tape alone, not being taught the typical ways in which said ambushes might be launched, is treated to the notion that knife attacks happen like a scene from West Side Story... the techniques themselves have some validity within the framework of a practitioner highly practiced in Arnis and its drills. Whether the bugs in the office could take meaningful advantage of said drills... is up to some serious debate. As regards the 'hawk, it starts to go seriously downhill, because Keating's interpretation is entirely contrary to the nature of an axe and how it's used most effectively. Keating repeatedly advocates the use of a 'hawk in two hands, where it should be used in one, and the use of trapping techniques where simply hitting the other man is the correct and appropriate response. Contrary to the tape, an axe or hawk is an excellent thrusting weapon, whether or not it has a spike on it... I'm going to jail for a long time if I hit somebody with a 22-pennyweight ring on my finger. Now, extrapolate that to a 1-3 pound axe head, and connect the dots. To his credit, Keating comes right out and says that he assumes you're up on smacking people... but his trapping examples are embarrassingly, laughably bad, particularly the ones where he repeatedly disembowels himself with his opponent's knife. Maybe he's aware of the danger in that move -- sometimes, you do have to eat every rule in the book raw.... but a beginner being taught techniques like that as stock moves is being very poorly served. And if you want to know how to throw a tomahawk... there are much better places to learn good technique.
Like I said, I really want to like the guy, so it pains me to say this, but both tapes do require a serious RAID alert: Keating pulls a seriously bad no-no when he has the "bad guys" on the tape do one motion, and then stand stock-still while the defender does several counter-attacks against the assailant. Several times, the offending troglodyte simply stands there with the "pause" button on while the defender makes truly suicidal moves, secure in the knowledge that he's not going to get tagged, and tagged hard. This is particularly egregious on the Push Dagger tape. If Keating does a second recording of this series for DVD, he needs to go back and make his bad guys give a more realistic response, precisely because the tapes are geared towards neophytes, who need to be aware of what the opponent can do in order to ruin his day.
In summary, were I an Arnis practitioner, I would certainly consider purchasing these tapes. They give ideas how to adapt the weapons into that tradition's context, and, if nothing else, how to improve one's distance and timing through the use of a different training tool. Interesting Stuff...... if you're already operating in that stylistic context, and if you don't take the hokey "this will keep you alive in the street" stuff too seriously.