Review by  Rick Robinson
June 18, 2001.

Bob Orlando has presented a fine video that is full of useful techniques, but even better; he teaches five principles of his arts that can be applied in any situation.  He also shows both hand, and footwork, drills that one may use to help develop speed, and flow.

The five principles that Mr. Orlando shows are: Adhesion, Whiplash, Gyroscopic Rotation, Seating and Shearing.  Adhesion, where the defender first takes the ground from the attacker by moving his defense through the attacker's position, then the defender sticks as closely to the attacker as possible as he continues his technique.  Whiplash, where the defender's techniques use a counter at one level and a brace at another so that the defender might brace the attackers body with one arm as he snaps the head back with the other.  This differs from many other arts bracing technique where the defender might hold the back of the head or neck and use an elbow smash to the front.  The effect does cause a whiplash effect when used as above, but may also be used in a scissors type takedown, or many other ways that are demonstrated on the tape. 

Another concept is Seating, the defender uses his own body to pin the attacker once he is down, often dropping both knees, while maintaining balance, onto the attackers body and neck.  By learning these, and the other, principles one does not simply add more techniques to one's arsenal, but one learns how to create their own techniques, and better understand and apply the ones already known!

The last part of the tape has several footwork, hand work, and foot and hand drills that one can actually use with a partner to enhance speed and flow, and make their practice sessions more enjoyable.  I love using drills for my classes, and I have gleefully stolen several from this tape.  Some of the footwork drills use an unbalancing technique followed by a nifty little "flip kick" that I used to surprisingly good effect when I sparred with my students last week.  I will definitely keep this technique, and work on it.

The tape's quality is very good in both visual and sound.  The background is plain and dark enough to make it easy to see the techniques presented.

Because of the manner of presentation on the tape, the cross over appeal is tremendous!  I can definitely recommend this tape to any serious martial artist.

In my opinion,

Sensei Rick Robinson