Ultimate Krav Maga 5 disc DVD set

The Ultimate Krav Maga 5 disc self-defense instructional DVD set provides a comprehensive program of self-defense based on the Israeli self-defense art of Krav Maga. It is an exceptionally well produced and informative program that covers a wide spectrum of self-defense principles and skills. For the person who does not have access to an instructor in person, or for the person who wants supplementary material to study at home, these five DVDs offer much to study and learn from.

Before I get into the actual instruction on the DVDs, I want to comment on the production values. They are top notch! The packaging is professionally done with good graphics and information on the box and on the disc faces. The actual filming was done with high quality equipment, interesting editing of inside and outside scenes, clear sound, text on screen to illustrate certain points, good angles, and so on. The DVDs have good menus and simply put, the production values are fantastic.

However, we all know that all flash and no bang doesn’t give you much. I’ve seen some instructional DVDs that were well produced with a lot of flash that didn’t teach anything worth watching. I’ve also seen some simply produced instructional programs that provide excellent instruction. This DVD set actually does both. Production values are high, and the material taught is solid and well done. I may do some things a bit differently and teach some things a bit different, but overall this is a really good solid program for self-defense and Krav Maga. The one thing I did not like as much was the length of the pauses when the text points were on the screen. Maybe it is because I read fast, but I thought those broke the flow of the program at times, but that’s just me. The information was good for sure. Let’s look at what the program covers.

Disc One is titled Your First Defense and the instruction is by Duncan Robert Pattle. He is the host of the program and teaches basics and fighting. After a short introduction to the program, the DVD goes into teaching about awareness, shielding objects, common objects to be used in self-defense, basic movement and stances, shadowboxing and movement, and then to some of the basic self-defense tools a person uses such as straight punches and palm strikes, front and roundhouse kicks, hammer fist strikes, hook punches, uppercuts, stomping kicks, and finally elbow and knee strikes. The instruction is good and basic. This DVD was designed for the person new to self-defense training and Krav Maga. The DVD ends with an example of pressure drills. It is approximately 81 minutes long. I was really glad they started out with the segment on awareness, because that is so important.

Disc Two is titled Your Natural Response to Danger and features John Whitman as the instructor. There is an introduction where you learn a bit about Whitman, and then the program goes into showing defenses against various attacks/holds. The attacks are: choke from the front, choke from the front with push, choke from the side, choke from behind, choke from behind with push, headlock bar arm, carotid choke from behind, sleeper hold, guillotine choke, headlock from the side, headlock from the side with roll, various bear hugs and there is also a section on preemptive strikes where Whitman teaches drills to hit first when you know a fight is unavoidable. The DVD concludes with a pressure drill. It is approximately 86 minutes long. I was familiar with the techniques taught by Whitman and he does a good job of teaching them. A few things I would teach a bit differently, but that’s me. It was good instruction for those attacks/holds.

Disc Three is titled On The Street You Can’t Tap Out and features Duncan Robert Pattle as the main instructor again but it also features instruction by Amnon Darsa. Areas covered: 360 outside defense, inside defenses, live side vs dead side, inside defenses with forearm, reflexive hand drills, stop kicks, scooping, defending high roundhouse, defending hook punch, fighting drills, an intro into ground fighting, defenses against tackling/shooting, backward breakfalls, forward breakfalls, forward rolls, getting up from the ground, defensive position on the ground, combatives on the ground, forward breakfalls with counter, defending punches when pushed to ground, defending soccer style kick on the ground, inside/outside defense on the ground, inside/outside defense against a stomping kick, bridging, front choke with push to ground, rear choke on the ground, headlock from the side on the ground, headlock from a seated position, and finally it concludes with another pressure drill. That’s a lot of material and the disc is approximately 112 minutes long. The segments taught by Darsa were not as engaging due to Darsa’s accent and he’s not as articulate a speaker as Pattle and Whitman. This does not take away from the fact that he provides some very valuable teaching to this program. Again, I teach some things differently (like the breakfalls), but I recognize that there are more than one way to do some things.

Disc Four is titled Surviving Deadly Weapons and its focus is on just what the title says, weapon attacks. The instructor that teaches the defenses against gun, stick and knife attacks is Eyal Yanilov. He has an impressive background in Krav Maga and does a good job teaching the defenses on this DVD. They include: defense against upward and downward knife attacks, using common objects to defend knife, finishing modes for downward knife attack, finishing modes for upward knife attacks, defense against straight stab, defense against knife slash, defense against knife on the ground, defense against overhead stick attack, defense against two handed overhead stick attack, defense against baseball bat swing, defenes against handgun from the front, defense against handgun from the front with push, defense against handgun from the side, defense against long gun, and finally a pressure drill. The disc is approximately 76 minutes long. Yanilov is good at what he does, and he teaches well. However, I don’t think I’ll replace the gun defense techniques I teach and prefer with the ones he teaches on this program. Again, I understand differences, I just didn’t care for some of these as well as I do other techniques I’ve studied and practiced.

The final disc, five, is only about 18 minutes long and is titled Injury Prevention. It features Dr. Vladislav Shut who covers warm ups and stretching along with Ian A. Novotny. Static and dynamic stretching are looked at and explained and an emphasis is put on dynamic stretching as being better for warming up and static stretching for cooling down. This is definitely not a full resource on stretching and flexibility, but it is definitely a good addition to this program because it is important for anyone who trains in any combative type art or program.

If the above were not enough, I’ll also point out that the first four discs also have special features that add to this already voluminous program. I think one of the main benefits of Krav Maga is that they teach basics at high intensity. Both are valuable for realistic defense. If you learn and practice everything taught in this program, you will have a very good foundation. There is a lot here to learn and practice. This is a valuable resource for any self-defense and/or Krav Maga library.