John La Tourrette - Practical Knife Fighting and Defense

Company: Warrior Publications
Tape Name: Practical Knife Fighting and Defense
Cost: $69.95 (for 1 tape?)
Length of Tape/Time: Approximately 1 hour
Number of Moves/Techniques: 30
Return 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: 1
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 1
3. Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding: 1
4. Degree to which this will make someone a better Martial Artist: 1
5. Score on delivery vs. hype: 1
6. Degree to which we'd recommend this product: 1
7. Wasted Time (The higher the number,the less "fluff"/repetition): 1
8. Playback Score/Watching it over-and-over again: 1
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products: 1
10. Overall grade based on cost vs. value: 1

Secondary Grading Criteria:

1. Beginners benefit: Poor
2. Intermediate benefit: Poor
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:

This video is a rather dated look at the way knife fighting was taught in the late 1980's in various karate dojos around the country. The material on this video may have been " state of the art " in the eighties, but definitely not now. Mr. LaTourrette (also known as The Speedman to readers of Black Belt Magazine advertisements) is the instructor on this video and is fairly entertaining as he goes through his martial arts tough guy routine. But the material on this video must not be mistaken for true knife fighting or self defense techniques.

I have one cardinal rule for evaluating any video that deals with knife fighting or knife self defense: Never attempt to kick a knife out of an attacker's hand. Period. In my reviewing universe, this rule is an absolute. Mr. LaTourrette actually spends about 20 minutes teaching various ways to kick a knife out of an opponent's hand. In addition to this absurdity, he goes through various "techniques" that are impossible to pull off in the heat of battle. Contorted limbs, weird bending squats, and generally unsound biomechanics are found throughout this entire video. Maybe Mr. LaTourrette can kick a knife out of a guy's hand. I don't know. But I do know that the average student/martial artist should never attempt such a move. Never.

This video is also an amusing collection of various martial arts cliches. In addition to the obligatory "kick the knife out of his hand" technique, we also have the standard reference to a "professional knife fighter". Has anyone out there ever met a "professional knife fighter" ? If so, I would like to know about it. All of the required b.s. about ki is in here as well as a plethora of worthless knife fighting techniques. My favorite is the old standard where you deflect an overhead stab into the clumsy opponent's own leg. We should all be so lucky to be attacked by an uncoordinated oaf. There is a lot of kiai's and guys slashing the air like they were related to Leatherface (see Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Very entertaining. But I wouldn't want to spend any money for it.

Practically speaking, there is virtually no discussion on how to deploy a blade. There is no reference, even in passing, to any of the filipino martial arts which are the foundation for most of the effective knife fighting systems worldwide. I really do not know where Mr. LaTourrette came up with this stuff but he certainly did not get much of it from the Phillipines. There is next to nothing about learning about the flow or how to fight spontaneously. It's just one technique after another. One and two and three and…

There are few decent tidbits of information such as learning about the point of no return and some good tricks on how to trick your opponent into attacking where you want him to attack. But the decent tidbits are outweighed greatly by the irrelevant, the unrealistic, and the sadistic (he shows a few things about how to cut someone's throat from behind. Not my idea of self defense). Some people may be offended by Mr. LaTourrette's barrage of profanity and references to the male anatomy. In this video, there is something for everyone. Something for everyone to be offended by that is. I found myself torn between laughing out loud and shaking my head in disgust and disbelief. While this video is definitely good for a few laughs, it is certainly not recommended by this reviewer as a purchase.

CJ

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