Can some experienced martial artist give me some critique on this video?

Admittedly, I watched only a little of the video. There were some good techniques done, some bad techniques done, and some good techniques done vary badly. The main concern I have is about their knife defenses. All I can say is if they ever have to deal with someone that knows how to use an knife, they are as good as dead.

Here are only a few comments about knife defenses:

* Trying to knock a knife out of someone hand like was shown will work, but is so risky and un-reliable that no one I know that knows knife defenses would ever recommend it.

* I know that was only training, but no one that knows how to use a knife would hold one like they are doing.

* Someone that does not care if they kill you or seriously injure you will not let you see the knife. They will have it out of sight, move in close using one hand to obstruct or cover your eyes, while the other stabs you.

NOTE: knocking a knife out of someones hand by striking them or kicking them is risky and is also tactically a bad idea. If you can't escape and must fight, you control the hand/arm that holds the knife. Best done by grabbing their hand so they can't let go of it. you want to be in control while keeping the knife where the attacker can't use it and no one else can get it either. It is a good idea to control the attackers arm that holds the knife yet not take the knife into your own hands. If you take the knife and happen to us it on the attacker killing him, you are guilty of murder as far as the law is concerned. The law basically says that a deadly threat is someone that has both the means (in this case a knife) and the intention to kill you. Once you take the knife if you kill the attacker you are now by definition the one with the means and intent. On the other hand if attacked by a knife and your should kill the attacker whale he is still in possession of the knife, it is deemed self-defense.

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Coulda done without that awful Flight of the Bumblebee, distortion-guitar / smash-drum remix. Thank God for the mute option. Bad remix, but the piece fits perfectly seeing as, ironically, that song is from The Tale of Tsar Saltan which is a fairytale poem, which is exactly what that "black belt" test was - a fairytale.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. Certain/most techniques displayed were questionable, but the real shocker for me was when I looked at the bottom to see this was suppose to be a test, and a black belt test at that. There does seem to be a level of legitimacy of technique and understanding, but for some reason they seem to be playing more than taking it seriously as self defense technique. I've personally trained with a Kajukenbo practitioner who's now studying at our Hapkido school, and he's never once demonstrated anything quite like that. What he's shown is more down to earth. I guess the instructor would rather just have fun with his classes.

The very first technique shown, is the main reason I left my Kempo school. The knife is knocked out of the hand, and you proceed to attack your "stunned" opponent. The instructors exact words to me were, "This is useless in real life, but at parties people will be like, "what the hell???" That was the last straw.

The technique displayed in this video is that of extremely flawed teaching methods. However, that doesn't always mean the instructor has no skill. The head instructor at my Kempo school was actually quite a skilled martial artist. It baffles me how they couldn't apply that to their teaching.

The hip throw in the beginning....I have seen four year old children perform it better. This is yet another school pumping people with false security, and giving people a distaste for the traditional arts.

The instructor himself I'm sure is a credible martial artist. But the "skills" displayed by the students are simply garbage. Those knife disarms and joint locks are being utilized with "dead" opponents. They are not reacting like human beings.

But anyway, I'm sure you know all the things wrong with the video. So to get to my point. I was at a very similar school. The instruction was that of nightmares. However, the instructor himself was a knowledgeable guy, they just let their training methods go out the window. Their kid's classes grew bigger, and they were doing gun disarms my third lesson. Unrealistic ones at that.

think schools like these start out with good intentions, but something goes sideways eventually with these types of schools. I'd rather train with this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2yZc_ZpGe8

EDIT: I love at the end they're all sitting there like tough guys. Its sad to see people so blatantly brainwashed into believing they're actual self defense "experts." Hitting people with a belt is not the same as the hard fist of a deranged drunkard or the blade of a very sober calculating criminal. That school is pure trash. But again, the instructor himself may possess skill, how these teaching methods come about is beyond me.

I do not have access to Youtube now. I will look at the video later tonight.

I have always stated that if anyone looks thoroughly enough, you will find embarassingly incompetent Kajukenbo people on Youtube.

I have always stated that there are extremely hardcore Kajukenbo schools, hardcore Kajukenbo schools, Kajukenbo McDojos, and Kajukenbo schools operated by instructors who never trained in Kajukenbo.

The majority of the contributors think the people in the video are bad, I will take your word for it.

I will say that McDojos ruin the reputation of a style.

I will say that giving out Black Belts to people who never trained in the style may also create McDojos.

So I will not defend the McDojos and the people who received Black Belts in Kajukenbo without any training. I went through 9 years of training in a hardcore school and I am not a Black Belt. I will defend those who paid for their Black Belts.

EDIT: I watched part of the video, not all of it. While the instructor does have a physical Black Belt and a certificate to prove it, there is little evidence that he actually trained in Kajukenbo. I witnessed a lot of martial arts techniques, but very little Kajukenbo. I did recognize a toned down version of Basic # 5. So the instructor probably learned a bit, of Kajukenbo. I will not go into the techniques that were demonstrated, the Top Contributors already said that most of it won't work, and I probably would agree.

Sijo Emperado told us 3 important things, "Be friends with pain.", "Before you can inflict pain on other people, you have to know what pain feels like". And the next thing Sijo Emperado told us, I will have to paraphrase because I don't remember the exact quote ( it was more than 25 years ago ).

He told us that in a multiple opponent situation, no matter how good you are, one opponent will get in that lucky shot, and if you are not used to being beaten for real, you will get knocked out. He wanted us to get used to being beaten for real in training, so that no one knocks you out in a street fight. I see little evidence that the students are trained like that.

I am 50 years old now. I am not the same as I used to be when I was in my twenties, I think I can knock out those young men just with body shots. And I don't those young men can hurt me. They are an embarrassment to the Kajukenbo brand. But it's not their fault, I don't believe their instructor ever trained in Kajukenbo.

In my original instructor's school, those students would not get past their first rank. They would still be consider white belts. They have not demonstrated enough aggression, and toughness to pass their first rank. In fact, I think most of those students would quit in a few weeks in my original instructor's school.

I did not watch the belt whipping yet. If any of those students got whipped with belts, it was against Kajukenbo protocol. Only 6th Degree Black Belts and higher are whipped with belts when they get promoted. Practitioners from White Belt to 5th Degree Black Belt have to go through whatever the school designates as the procedure to prove that you can survive beatings. No exceptions. I cannot discuss this, because my original instructor made me promise to never talk about this. I will say that White Belts watching promotions usually quit because they do not want to go through this. Kajukenbo people have to go through whatever the school designates until 6th Degree Black Belt.

If the instructor whipped the anyone under 6th Degree, it is because he didn't want to put his students through what real Kajukenbo students are supposed to go through.

EDIT2: I did some research and found evidence that the instructor never trained in Kajukenbo. I am just shocked at the new low price that anyone can purchase a Kajukenbo Black Belt. I guess what gives it away is that the instructor claims that there are 20 belts from White to 1st Degree Black Belt. I don't think ATA has that many belt exams to go through.

EDIT3: I did more checking. This is a Escrima, Jeet Kune Do and BJJ school. The instructor purchased a Kajukenbo Black Belt in order to become part of the Kajukenbo brand. I believe this works on the local population. The only people who can tell that what they are teaching is not Kajukenbo are people who have already trained in Kajukenbo for a long enough time.

I found out about the 20 belts before 1st Degree on the instructor`s FAQ page.

I'm sure he knows a lot, but as a teacher, he's not that great. There is a lot of flaws in his student's techniques. They're right, but just sloppy. Also, the stickfighting just shows how low budget they are. True short sticks don't snap off like that. They splinter, but they do not break, even if you hit a coconut.

It's really up to you though. If you feel you can learn some stuff off this guy and feel comfortable with that, then by all means. Personally, I don't think I could train under this guy just because I've been exposed to teachers who have such a high caliber for refining my art.

I only watched the first 2-3 minutes. It says it is a black belt test , but most of the people I saw looked like beginners or intermediate level belts who were still learning the techniques. My guess is that this is not actually anyone's blackbelt test - it's just footage from regular classes. Nothing is being done with the intensity that would suggest a black belt test.

The good:

I liked their standing lock flow.

They all seemed to have solid hip throws, though I think a few of them were too upright.

The bad (aside from that music):

Their boxing was atrocious. God-awful footwork, no sense of positioning, crap defense... I could take three weeks and improve their boxing 100%, and all I'd have them work was footwork and stance stuff.

The ground grappling wasn't much better. I saw very little bridging or shrimping, which are the fundamentals of ground movement. They seemed pretty clueless about how to effectively use the guard. That guy at the end worked far too long for an arm bar the guy was basically giving to him.

Holy crap, jumping guard? That's a no-no for street defense, and even many sport-fighting situations. I wondered why they did that so much, espeically when none of them seemed particularly skilled at ground grappling.

Their foot sweeps/reaps/trips looked awful. No unbalancing to set it up, and the guy usually just flopped for them.

Uke, in the self-defense situations, didn't show much, in any, intention. I'm also not a fan of guys acting like they've been hit, as if I'm watching a high-school-level stage fight.

The weird:

Their sacrifice throws looked... "off", I guess. It looked like a lot of times they went for something like tomoe nage, but clearly they weren't, as they tossed the guy off to the side. Not sure what to make of that.

There was clearly a heavy Filipino martial arts influence, but I didn't think that was part of the original Kajukenbo. I'm not sure if that means that the style has evolved, or that this one particular teacher added stuff.

Speaking of which, not sure what to make of their stick work. Without explanation, it seemed like they started off with choreographed sequences, then one guy would break the rhythm and... free flow, I guess? It seemed like a good way for someone to get accidentally smacked with a stick.

Not sure how to feel about the belt-lashing at the end. Part of me objects to the macho-masochistic "tough guy" culture of needless pain, and another part understands that such rituals are common in "warrior" communities, and realizes that the belt is going to sting a bit, but not do any actual damage.

Conclusion: they seemed pretty good at stuff that was choreographed, and really bad at stuff that wasn't. Also not sure what to make of some parts of it, and I'd like more of an explanation before really passing judgement on thsoe parts.

At my MMA gym, nobody swears when there's youth and fundamentals class going on. That's because there's kids and women that either don't want or shouldn't hear it. However once the pro class starts and its just "the guys" swearing is pretty common. Actually there's a study that says people who swear A lot are much more likely to be truthful. I don't feel us swearing bad at all. I'm in the infantry and every other word on base is a swear word.

Fist off, that was supposed to be a Nidan test, but their techniques was that of a hachikyu.

1.) There was no structured footwork. They punched with no pivot, not step, et cet.

2.) Stick techs lacked half steps or mobility, they just stood there and swung sticks with no technique.

3.) The Uki crumbled, I am surprised a few Ukis did not injure themselves.

I would expect this level of sloppiness in the color belts, but it is inexcuseable for brown or teacher levels.

i hate to respond to your question so negatively but in my opinion, perhaps it is because i have been to both sides and i only accept high standard masters but, his weapons style is weak, his stances too natural so no speed , power or balance, and his style is as dull as a fifty dollar wall hang katana.

this video here is of my master i hope you enjoy it, this man has taught me more than an average man could learn in a lifetime and im proud to call him my master, he inspired me to break past borders and be better than best. -this was also 5 years ago so he is a lot better now mind you, though the skill shown is still very impressive at least.- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_wjAJX7BJo