Street Self Defense or Stree Safe Videos?

[dragonlord]

What are the best self defense videos?

Michael Pace's Street Self Defense videos:

https://www.street-self-defense.com

Pace's Bio

http://www.goshinryukarate.com/chiefinstructor.html

OR

Paul Vunak's Street Safe videos:

http://www.vipglobal.com/instructional-video-vunak.htm

Vunak's Bio

http://www.completemartialarts.com/whoswho/halloffame/paulvunak.htm

Has anyone bought either of those videos?

[shasan]

haven't bought any, but from what I know about Paul Vunak, I would go with him.

Also check out www.senshido.com I haven't watched their tapes, but i have NEVER heard a bad thing about them.

[shasan]

Plus the karate dude's thing looks a little to salesy to me... being a marketing guy myself.

Sales letter is the oldest trick in the book... btw, the offer will probably NOT end on Monday, September 1st so don't be taken in by that... oldest trick in the marketing book... all the small-time internet marketers use it.

[alwaysmixwell]

"What are the best self defense videos?

Michael Pace's Street Self Defense videos:
www.street-self-defense.com"


i have bought this video.. actually got in the womans self defense.. so i watched it.. i think its BS... alot of stuff on there is like eye gouges, upper thrusts to the nose... knees to the groin.. i mean not BS but basically tactics that im sure alot of people know..i returned it and got my money back i dont think its worth it..

[kengar]

Paul Vunak's Street Safe videos:

http://www.vipglobal.com/instructional-video-vunak.htm

Vunak's Bio

http://www.completemartialarts.com/whoswho/halloffame/paulvunak.htm

Has anyone bought either of those videos?

this site has some pretty good reviews. I've seen some of Vunak's tapes and they're not bad, I'd be interested in seeing the Street Safe myself.
http://home.att.net/~erik.mann/reviewsa.htm

[brokenelbow]

The first Street Safe is pretty good, the others tend to go off into Vunak land. IMO skip learning self defense from tapes and take a months worth of BJJ.

[Thai Bri]

BJJ for self defence?

I would certainly include some groundwork in the great scheme of things. But when there are no Gi's, no ref, no mats, no room, and no guarantee that your opponent hasn't got friends around...... I think thats probaly the worst advice I've ever heard.

Don't get me wrong. I love grappling, and know the basics. I also know people who can tie me in knots.

But self defence has relatively little to do with BJJ. No offence, but you're giving bad advice there.

[brokenelbow]

If I had the choice between spending $100 bucks on a self defense tape or getting 1 months hands on training in BJJ I'd take the BJJ. You are guarenteed to learn something usefull, you will get the experience of dealing with another human in close quarters. I'm not saying you'll be a street fighter with one month of BJJ but you would learn a few real skills that you could add to in the future.

The biggest sham in martial arts today is the selling of easy self defense.

[Thai Bri]

Actually, there are greater scams. But I see what you mean.

I also think he should get his rear end into a training hall. But with something that includes grappling, rather than being dominated by it. But there are far more ingredients to good self protection (and scones) than fighting moves.

I honestly reckon any inexperienced person could improve their safety 500% by reading Geoff Thompson's "Dead or Alive" book.

[brokenelbow]

Agree with you there TB.
Thompson's book is a good place to start as is The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker and Strong on Defense by Sanford Strong. Most of self defense is mental and plain common sense.

Time for scones and donuts.

[sub wrestler]

You would be hard pressed to find a better self defense series than Matt
Thornton's Functional Jeet Kune Do one and two.

Seriously check these out before buying any other video series.

I have not seen Richard Dimitri's material, but I hear it is really good.

[Rashid]

Dimitri and Thompson

I find Richard Dimitris materials to be amongst the best I have seen including Geoff Thompson's. Just cannot go wrong with either of these two. Dimitri's shredder concept alone is enough to increase anyone's skills regardless of their level.

[kengar]

You would be hard pressed to find a better self defense series than Matt
Thornton's Functional Jeet Kune Do one and two.

want is it that you enjoyed about Thorton's stuff. I've heard good things about them but would be interested in you views.

[sub wrestler]

Kengar, sorry its taken me so long to reply.

Matt's curriculum is awesome and so is his ability to instruct. In a fight, there a certain inevitable ranges. Striking, clinch, and ground. Matt incorporates the best training for each of these ranges....the best strikers (western boxing), clinch range (greco-roman wrestling), ground (BJJ and freestyle wrestling). The foundation of Matt's curriculum is aliveness. Aliveness is simply training against a resisting opponent. This is similar to sparring in boxing, and hard wrestling. From this type of training you develop timing, motion, energy, conditioning, and a level of self confidence in your technique that can't be duplicated by any other form of training.

The material in Matt's tapes is second to none. In his top game tape (series two), Matt systematically teaches how to hold someone down. This tape has forever changed my ground game. He also teaches high percentage submissions from a variety of top positions. His other tapes are equally as good.

I used to buy into all the 'street fighting dirty secrets' mentallity. About 12 years ago, my best friend and I were messing around. It was the striker vs grappler debate. My argument was that I could either knee, elbow, punch, or twist his head off before he could take me down. He said it's not that easy.
He proved me wrong in about 2 seconds. After proving me wrong about 3 more times, I was still not convinced. I started researching all the street fighting books at the time, took a class in pressure point fighting, etc, etc.

Flash forward a few more years, same debate. same result. He took me down so fast, had me mounted and neck cranked me untill I literally begged for my life. That was all it took.

I started researching wrestling, etc. Read books, watched tapes, etc. Did this for about a year and a half. Problem was, I had no place or nobody to train. Thought I was a bad ass though cause I 'knew' all these moves.

I finally had the opportunity to move to another city, which had a gym that offered jiu jitsu. I didn't know what to expect. Didn't know a soul in town.
I joined the class. The class was instructed a very famous nhb fighter then and still to this day. I walked in to that class, there were two other people there. The instructor took off his winter coat, looked at me, and said lets go.
He literally beat me untill I couldn't walk....and he didn't throw one punch. I had never been so humbled in my life...it was the absolute best thing to ever happen to me. He invited me back the next day, where I took an equally worse beating from some of the other nhb fighters there. Afterwords, they invited me over for some beers and the rest is history. I started training as much as I could with some of the toughest guys I have ever known and have been doing so for about 5 years now (different group now though) The better I seem to get, the more humble I seem to get, and the more compassion I seem to have, and the less and less (should read..absolutely rarely) I even think about street fighting or defending myself.

My ability to defend myself however, as a result of this type of training has gone up by a factor of 10000 since my eye gouging, eagle claw to the throat days. I am not saying these techniques don't work because they do. I'm not saying a street fight is the same as a nhb fight or training. What I'm trying to say, is that I think there are good ways to train for self defense, and there are really good ways to train for self defense.

Matt says it best in one of his tapes. Take two guys. For 363 days teach one of them sport jiu jitsu and train it as a sport. Take the other guy and teach him how to eye gouge, pull hair, etc etc. On the 364th fourth day, teach the guy who has been doing sport jiu jitsu how to eye gouge, pull hair, etc. Let them fight on the 365th day. See who wins. (I think thats how it goes)


Sorry this is so long. I hate steering someone in a direction (to Matt's tapes) without first backing up why I think it's a good direction to go.

Take Care

[kengar]

Damn Sub, big post. Thanks for the feed back and glad your enjoying you training experience.