FSCJedi
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2002
- Messages
- 711
Alright, I'm going to try to do this as objectively as I can. I recently purchased Jim's first tomahawk training dvd and have had a chance to review it a couple times. I'll do a "by chapter" review and try to stick to the highlights:
The Review
First off, he has an "Intro" section where he just talks about the purpose of the video. Short and sweet, then he moves on into...
...the "Weapons" section. In this section he has layed out several weapons that could be used with the techniques he teaches. These weapons include several from Cold Steel (the Bad Axe, Rifleman tomahawk, and Special Forces Shovel) and Vietnam Tomahawk, the Glock entrenching tool, some medieval type handaxes, and a spike tomahawk that was once (might still be) offered for purchase made by someone associated with his school. However, he only uses the Rifleman, Vietnam tomahawk, medieval handaxe, and Bad Axe for his demonstrations.
Next up is the "Basic Movement" section. In this he shows 6 planes of motion/striking with the tomahawk. He doesn't, however, show the vertical (from above and below) striking plane, prefering instead to stick with the diagonal and horizontal planes. Also in this section is a circular "flourishing" drill he shows that teaches switching hands while the hawk is in motion and helps to get the feel of what motion the hawk would use when attempting to trap the enemy. He also shows a two-handed "sliding" exercise that is also used for switching hands/directions when holding an axe with two hands. Jim gets into some body mechanics as far as moving your legs/feet when striking and using your body to put more force into the blow, but mostly relies more on the body's "instinctual" movement. All of these can be done by one's self.
The 4th section is the "Intermediate Drills" section and shows practicing with the Philipino drill pallasut and it's concepts. For those who don't know what that is (like I did before watching this), pallasut is a passing exercise that allows you to catch a strike, move it out of the way, and make your own strike which is in turn blocked, allowing a counter which you block, etc..., all with either the head or butt of the weapon. It seems like it would be a very good drill to use, but you (in my opinion) have to have a practice partner to use to really get any benefit. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the video continues in this manner.
This section moves very easily into the next section which is the "Combat Sets" section. I did get a lot of out of this section as Jim shows how the pallasut drill can be used for strikes, trapping, disarming, and various joint-type locks. Some of the disarms can even be used as take-downs. I REALLY liked the take-down he showed where he blocks a strike with the hawk, passes the arm with his free hand, strikes the leg with the hawk, then strikes the side of the head with his free hand, turning the opponent away from the leg which was just struck and literally spinning the enemy to his knees with you in control of his head, finishing him off with a downward strike to the head or clavical/shoulder area with the hawk. Really really cool and very fast to execute! I also liked the move where he uses the head of the hawk to trap the wrist, then brings his own arm and the butt of the hawk to trap the enemy's whole arm in a type of arm bar, much like a police officer would use a PR-24.
Jim did do one move that I didn't like where he blocks a strike with the hawk, then spins himself underneath the trapped arm to take down the enemy by rolling him forward. This, in my opinion, would take to long to execute and leaves you vunerable to counter attack to easily. There's also one Jim does where he steps into the body of the enemy and takes him down in a Judo-type hip toss. This one, also, looks to me like it would leave you open to counter attack (maybe an arm bar), but would quicker to execute than the first one.
The next section of this training dvd is the "Intermediate Exercise" section. Though it is bulleted at the beginning of the section, Jim only briefly touches on the subject of concealed carry of the tomahawk and its deployment. He does a neat exercise called "passing" where he defends from two weapon strikes (from the same direction) by block/passing them from one side of the body to the other. He also shows some disarms where the enemy is using an axe and you are empty handed, which is pretty useful against any smallish sized hafted weapon.
The last section of the dvd is his throwing section. I found this section to be very lacking in instructional material. Mostly it was Jim and one of his students just throwing the Bad Axe and Rifleman (which threw very well, mind you) and a strange, almost fantasy-type axe. All throwing was done with a two handed grip, much like competition double-bitted axe throwers. While this was remarkably effective, to me it wouldn't have as much of a place in combat as the "traditional" single-handed throw. The target was also a wide tree with out any discernible "bullseye". I feel that this section could have been improved dramatically by a good throwing walk through with a few words on stance, grip, release angle, axe rotation, etc...
Final Thoughts
For it's price, I am happy with the purchase of this training dvd. The instructional material, while maybe faster paced than some might be able to learn from, was usually performed multiple times and often from different angles, which helped. I found myself watching the Intermediate Drills and Combat Sets sections multiple times just for the trapping/passing and joint locks/disarms/arm bars as they were where I got the most "new" material from. Those sections in themselves make it a worthy purchase in my mind.
If I were to say anything instructional-wise needed improving, I'd say it would be that a step-by-step method (read: start, stop, explain, next move, stop, explain...) of showing moves should be used, and maybe expand a little more on the basics (a slash versus a hack/chop versus a rake). While in conversation with Jim, he did state he deliberately didn't talk much about "hitting" with the axe because that should be obvious. While this is true, I feel that maybe a section on these attack types could have been useful between the Basic Movement and Intermediate Drills sections.
All in all, an ok buy to compliment book learning. This was the first tomahawk instruction DVD I purchased. Check it out. As I am still learning (as any good student of a martial art should be), I'm not disappointed and I'm sure anybody else who feels like they could learn something more won't be either. Definitely a nice inexpensive addition to your fighting tomahawk library.
3 :thumbup: out of 5
The Review
First off, he has an "Intro" section where he just talks about the purpose of the video. Short and sweet, then he moves on into...
...the "Weapons" section. In this section he has layed out several weapons that could be used with the techniques he teaches. These weapons include several from Cold Steel (the Bad Axe, Rifleman tomahawk, and Special Forces Shovel) and Vietnam Tomahawk, the Glock entrenching tool, some medieval type handaxes, and a spike tomahawk that was once (might still be) offered for purchase made by someone associated with his school. However, he only uses the Rifleman, Vietnam tomahawk, medieval handaxe, and Bad Axe for his demonstrations.
Next up is the "Basic Movement" section. In this he shows 6 planes of motion/striking with the tomahawk. He doesn't, however, show the vertical (from above and below) striking plane, prefering instead to stick with the diagonal and horizontal planes. Also in this section is a circular "flourishing" drill he shows that teaches switching hands while the hawk is in motion and helps to get the feel of what motion the hawk would use when attempting to trap the enemy. He also shows a two-handed "sliding" exercise that is also used for switching hands/directions when holding an axe with two hands. Jim gets into some body mechanics as far as moving your legs/feet when striking and using your body to put more force into the blow, but mostly relies more on the body's "instinctual" movement. All of these can be done by one's self.
The 4th section is the "Intermediate Drills" section and shows practicing with the Philipino drill pallasut and it's concepts. For those who don't know what that is (like I did before watching this), pallasut is a passing exercise that allows you to catch a strike, move it out of the way, and make your own strike which is in turn blocked, allowing a counter which you block, etc..., all with either the head or butt of the weapon. It seems like it would be a very good drill to use, but you (in my opinion) have to have a practice partner to use to really get any benefit. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the video continues in this manner.
This section moves very easily into the next section which is the "Combat Sets" section. I did get a lot of out of this section as Jim shows how the pallasut drill can be used for strikes, trapping, disarming, and various joint-type locks. Some of the disarms can even be used as take-downs. I REALLY liked the take-down he showed where he blocks a strike with the hawk, passes the arm with his free hand, strikes the leg with the hawk, then strikes the side of the head with his free hand, turning the opponent away from the leg which was just struck and literally spinning the enemy to his knees with you in control of his head, finishing him off with a downward strike to the head or clavical/shoulder area with the hawk. Really really cool and very fast to execute! I also liked the move where he uses the head of the hawk to trap the wrist, then brings his own arm and the butt of the hawk to trap the enemy's whole arm in a type of arm bar, much like a police officer would use a PR-24.
Jim did do one move that I didn't like where he blocks a strike with the hawk, then spins himself underneath the trapped arm to take down the enemy by rolling him forward. This, in my opinion, would take to long to execute and leaves you vunerable to counter attack to easily. There's also one Jim does where he steps into the body of the enemy and takes him down in a Judo-type hip toss. This one, also, looks to me like it would leave you open to counter attack (maybe an arm bar), but would quicker to execute than the first one.
The next section of this training dvd is the "Intermediate Exercise" section. Though it is bulleted at the beginning of the section, Jim only briefly touches on the subject of concealed carry of the tomahawk and its deployment. He does a neat exercise called "passing" where he defends from two weapon strikes (from the same direction) by block/passing them from one side of the body to the other. He also shows some disarms where the enemy is using an axe and you are empty handed, which is pretty useful against any smallish sized hafted weapon.
The last section of the dvd is his throwing section. I found this section to be very lacking in instructional material. Mostly it was Jim and one of his students just throwing the Bad Axe and Rifleman (which threw very well, mind you) and a strange, almost fantasy-type axe. All throwing was done with a two handed grip, much like competition double-bitted axe throwers. While this was remarkably effective, to me it wouldn't have as much of a place in combat as the "traditional" single-handed throw. The target was also a wide tree with out any discernible "bullseye". I feel that this section could have been improved dramatically by a good throwing walk through with a few words on stance, grip, release angle, axe rotation, etc...
Final Thoughts
For it's price, I am happy with the purchase of this training dvd. The instructional material, while maybe faster paced than some might be able to learn from, was usually performed multiple times and often from different angles, which helped. I found myself watching the Intermediate Drills and Combat Sets sections multiple times just for the trapping/passing and joint locks/disarms/arm bars as they were where I got the most "new" material from. Those sections in themselves make it a worthy purchase in my mind.
If I were to say anything instructional-wise needed improving, I'd say it would be that a step-by-step method (read: start, stop, explain, next move, stop, explain...) of showing moves should be used, and maybe expand a little more on the basics (a slash versus a hack/chop versus a rake). While in conversation with Jim, he did state he deliberately didn't talk much about "hitting" with the axe because that should be obvious. While this is true, I feel that maybe a section on these attack types could have been useful between the Basic Movement and Intermediate Drills sections.
All in all, an ok buy to compliment book learning. This was the first tomahawk instruction DVD I purchased. Check it out. As I am still learning (as any good student of a martial art should be), I'm not disappointed and I'm sure anybody else who feels like they could learn something more won't be either. Definitely a nice inexpensive addition to your fighting tomahawk library.
3 :thumbup: out of 5
) but will spend more time with it at home tomorrow and Monday evening.