Primary Grading Criteria:

1. Production/Tape Quality: 8
2. Instructors demonstrated skill level: 10
3. Comprehension Score/Immediate Understanding:10
4. Degree to which this will make someone a better Martial Artist: 10
5. Score on delivery vs. hype: 9
6. Degree to which we'd recommend this product: 9
7. Wasted Time (The higher the number, the less "fluff"/repetition): 10
8. Playback Score/Watching it over-and-over again: 9
9. Would I purchase more of this company's products: 10
10. Overall grade based on cost vs. value: 1

Grand Total: 95%

1. Beginners benefit: Excellent
2. Intermediate benefit: Very Good
3. Advanced benefit: Good
4. Time to benefit: Immediate
5. The need to buy additional tapes to understand this one: None !

The more I watch Jiu Joe Jitsu, the more I like what Mr. Saladino teaches. After having watched several of his tapes, his highly effecient Vee Jujitsu influence becomes more and more apparent. I highly recommend this series, based on what I've seen so far. And forget purchasing just 1 or 2 of Mr. Saladino's tapes! Even though each tape can stand on its own, and benefit a person greatly, the real beauty of this system is learning to use and combine what's taught on each of his tapes, especially the last 3 we've reviewed (Tapes 2, 5, and 7). If a person were to really dedicate oneself to learning each of those 3 tapes, they'd have one heck of a fighting system. Purchase anything less, and a person probably wouldn't get as clear a picture of how everything Mr. Saladino teaches fits neatly together, and compliments each other. And if that's not a strong enough recommendation about this series, let me put it this way, "Because of it's thorough and complete utilization of various martial arts techniques, and it's infinite possibilities, this is THE style I wish I'd started out with 20 years ago!"

Having said that, let's now discuss what's on this tape. This tape mainly deals with blocks, strikes, and counters. Mr. Saladino prefaces his instruction on this tape by saying "In this tape we won't be covering grappling or submissions. That can be found on other tapes in this series". Which again, if you get tapes 2 & 5, will fit in perfectly. Mr. Saladino starts out by covering the more common strikes (10 in all), and 3 popular kicks, used by most martial arts styles.

What I personally found very refreshing was the complete lack of "head high" kicks. All the kicks I saw were demonstrated below the solar plexus. Mr. Saladino didn't seem to require a person to have the flexibility of a Bill Wallace, or Jean Claude Van Damme, or insist a person waste time trying to achieve that, to enjoy and be effective in his style. What a relief to not have too waste 30 minutes, to an hour per day, for the first 2-3 years of a persons training, trying to achieve the splits, without any guarantee of results!

After the strikes/kicks, Mr. Saladino demonstrates 5 different blocks (inner, outer, upward, downward, fanning). While demonstrating these blocks, Mr. Saladino shows how to block and counter using various strikes. I found this section to be kind of similar to what many TKD enthusiasts refer to as "one steps", but taken by Mr. Saladino to about the 10th power. Where I've seen many TKD instructors show 3-5 different techniques per "one step", Mr. Saladino does about 10-20. In my opinion, this part of the tape makes it totally worth the price of admission.

Having come from a TKD background, and being taught many times just 3-5 techniques per "one step", I've seen many students freeze, not knowing what to do next if those 3-5 techniques don't put an opponent down, or out. I've also seen students freeze when trying to come up with their own freestyle "one steps". Any student that's ever had that problem, should definitely get this tape. Mr. Saladino does a wonderful job of opening ones eyes, during each technique, to an endless number of striking possibilities. Way to go Joe!

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