Charlie Rose - Final Four, NCAA Basketball / Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett (March 29, 2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)As Rose acknowledged in his introductory remarks and opening questions, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett refuse to follow the "conventional wisdom" -- or the "sentimental...wishful thinking" about Iran that characterizes most of the rest of Washington pundits and even policymakers when discussing Iran. Flynt Leverett said that he analyzes the facts as they are, not as some would wish them to be. Thus, he and Mann concur on their assessment that: Ahmadinejad most plausibly won election in a vote that was not marked by outrageous fraud; that the Green Movement does not have broad support or strong leadership.
Rose appears to have spent more time preparing for the Final Four segment that preceded the Leveretts interview than for the Iran discussion; with one exception, Rose repeated the talking points that have more to do with Israel than with US - Iran relations; namely, the two great canards that Israel has relied on to demonize Iran since Ahmadinejad's election in 2005: "Ahmadinejad said Israel should be wiped off the map;" "Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust." Rose slipped into full-alpha-male posture as he insisted that Flynt ADDRESS THESE ISSUES! Flynt did not flinch, not a muscle. This viewer would have preferred that Dr. Leverett lambast Rose for repeating nonsense than any self-respecting journalist would know was wrong, but Leverett contented himself with taking Rose to school, patiently explaining that "Ahmadinejad is a very good politician, and while his rhetoric -- on both "Israel's existence" and Holocaust -- does not play well in the West, it serves his purposes among both Sunni and Shi'ia, who seem him as standing up to Israel. (Rose made some reference to Rafsanjani being in opposition to the "power structure" in Iran; Leverett corrected him on that misperception: Rafsanjani and others may have differing agendas, but there is no evidence of deep fractures in the power base; indeed, Rafsanjani told a leadership conference that the "Supreme Leader is the unifying center.")
Hillary Mann said that, as a Jewish person, she is hurt by such statements, but that as a strategic thinker, it is her assessment that Israel's security was better served by ignoring similar rhetoric from Sadat and making peace with Egypt, and that, similarly, and similar to Nixon's engagement with China, Israel's security would be best served by ignoring the rhetoric and making the necessary strategic moves to "turn Iran," to "engage Iran" to achieve a rapprochement.
Flynt Leverett just gets better and better. Hillary Mann Leverett seconds his views usefully.
It would be helpful if US policymakers paid more attention to strategic thinkers like the Leveretts.

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Ultimate Krav Maga Self-Defense Instructional Set (Beginner to Intermediate) (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)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.
Reviewed by Alain Burrese, J.D., author of the DVD set Streetfighting Essentials.

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Krav Maga is a no nonsense self defense system that is easy to learn and retain. The 'Ultimate Krav Maga' 5 DVD Box Set (Beginner to Intermediate) features some of the best Krav Maga instructors from around the world including: Guest Instructors John Whitman from Los Angeles, California; Amnon Darsa and Special Guest Instructor Eyal Yanilov from Israel. You will learn: beginner to intermediate practical self defense techniques against weapons, holds, grabs and how to deal with multiple attackers standing or on the ground, plus much more. Learn what Law Enforcement officers and Military units from around the world are using to help save their lives on the street and on the battlefield.DVD Special Features: Hostage Gun/Knife techniques - Aggression/Pressure drills - Full interviews with Eyal Yanilov and John Whitman - About the founder Imi Lichtenfeld.NO RINGS. NO RULES. NO BULL. What is on the DVDs:DVD 1: 'Your First Defense' (Awareness, common objects, movement and combatives training) Approx: 81 minutesDVD 2: 'Your Natural Response to Danger' (Defenses against holds and grabs) Approx: 86 minutes DVD 3: 'On The Street You Can't Tap Out' (Surviving street fights standing and on the ground) Approx: 112 minutes DVD 4: 'Surviving Deadly Weapons' (Defenses against hand guns, long guns, knives and clubbing weapons) Approx: 76 minutes DVD 5: 'Injury Prevention' (Dynamic and static stretching) Approx: 17 minutes Total Instruction: 372 minutesDVD Format: NTSC DVD Zone: ALL REGIONS

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Ultimate Krav Maga Advanced Series Part 1: Striking, Fighting Tactics & Drills Review

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(More customer reviews)Well I have got to emphatically state that the wonderful people who produced this and the Ultimate Krav Maga DVDs, really are above and beyond when it comes to customer service. I recently received this DVD and was thrilled by not only the speed of shipping, but also the care in which they took to make sure that I was one of the first people to receive this newest addition to the Ultimate Krav Maga DVDs series.
I just finished watching both discs about an hour ago and am now tickling the keys on the keyboard in order to give you my thoughts on the contents contained in this two-disc advanced set, which by the way builds upon everything you would have learned in the first set in the series, and is the first of a several volume advanced series that will be released over the next few years.
Now before I actually get into the nuts and bolts of the contents of these two-discs, let me first say that I especially liked the care they took in packaging this DVD set as it is a two-disc set and that automatically lends itself to the possibility of one or more of the discs being damaged during shipping. This can be easily remedied and was done so once again with this set. In between the two-discs, which be the way were securely fastened to their center holding clips on each side of the jewel case, was a piece of Styrofoam padding to make the discs more secure and less likely to become dislodged during shipping. Bonus points easily added for that!
I would also highly recommend that you get the first set of DVD's in the series, in order to make what is being taught in this set easier to understand and implement. However, if you already have an extensive background in Krav Maga or another self-defense discipline, then it shouldn't be too much of a hindrance if you don't already have the first set of DVD's, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to get it anyhow since there is always more that you can learn. So with that being said, on with the review.
THE INSTRUCTORS
Duncan Pattle
Rune Lind
Renee Nolte
Dana Ben Kaplan
DISC ONE:
REVIEW of TECHNIQUES
The first sixteen minutes was spent reviewing the following key combatives from the first DVD.
Stances and Footwork
Palm Strikes
Straight Punches
Hammerfist Strikes
Hook Punches
Elbow Strikes
Uppercut Punches
Knee Strikes
Front Kick
Stomping Kicks (which were actually Advantage Kick, Side Kick, and Back Kick) and
Roundhouse Kick
This was a nice review of what was previously taught in the first DVD set and was done rather quickly, but not overly so, and the instructors touched on all of the key points without making it too quick or drawing it out too long. I also really liked the little 30 second countdown clock that they had in the lower right hand corner of the screen and the key points of each technique coming up on the bottom of the screen in white text after the initial review of the technique was completed by the instructor.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
Spinning Hammerfist: (5 minutes)
Inward/Outward Chops (Knifehand Strikes): (6 minutes)
Forward, Back, Side, and Upward Headbutts: (9 minutes)
Offensive Back Kick: (6 minutes)
Spinning/Jumping Back Kick: (6 minutes)
Inside/Outside Slap Kick (Crescent and Reverse Crescent Kick): (4 minutes)
Heel Kick/Spinning Heel Kick: (6 minutes)
Each one of these section went into the proper execution and application of each of the techniques being taught. Now while I didn't necessarily agree with everything in this section, I did find a lot of useful information in it. Although I did have a small degree of difficulty with a couple of things, the first being how the back kick was being executed in the Offensive Back Kick section. This is not the correct way to execute the back kick and can lead to a whole lot of problems if executed the way it was being shown in this segment. I don't recommend that you execute the back kick this way and would highly recommend that you get the book; Back Kick: Achieving Kicking Excellence; Volume 1 (it is available here on Amazon), in order to learn how to execute the back kick correctly.
I did really enjoy the statement from the instructor during the headbutts segment where he tells you that you can actually hurt yourself worse with a headbutt than your opponent if you don't execute the headbutt correctly. This can also be said for pretty much any technique, and merely reemphasizes the fact that proper technique is where it's really at.
As was done during the review portion of this DVD, the key points of each technique came up on the bottom of the screen in white text after the initial instruction of the technique was completed by the instructor.
FIGHTING TACTICS
Counter Attacks against One Attacker
Counter Attacks against Two Attackers
Escaping Multiple Attackers
Attacking the Hands
Overwhelming the Attacker
This was the final section on the first disc and lasted approximately sixteen minutes.
There was some really good information in this section, but also a couple of things that I really didn't agree with. I mean what makes more sense and is easier to accomplish; approaching a brick wall and trying to; go through it, under it, over it, or around it? If you said around it, you have won the prize and are off to a better start than most. You will understand what I am getting at when you watch the Escaping Multiple Attackers segment.
DISC TWO
This disc consisted of various training drills that you can implement into your training to broaden your horizons and make your training more realistic and to prepare you for an actual violent encounter.
Some of these drills I already use, although I have modified them to some extent to my way of teaching, and have found them to be very effective. However, there were a couple of the drills that I thought might lend themselves to developing some bad habits, but maybe that was just me. So I will leave that conclusion to you after watching those segments in this section. This section was approximately forty minutes in length and contained the following drills.
Target Acquisition
Gauntlet Drill
Fight to Your Feet Drill
Zero to Sixty Drill
Zero to Sixty Drill under Low Light Conditions
Advanced Zombie Drill (You just got to love the name of this one.)
Distractor/Obstructor Drill
Staying in the Fight Drill
Simulated Knockout Drill
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this DVD set as it contained a lot of good information, although like I said earlier, if you already have an extensive background in Krav Maga or another self-defense discipline, you may already know a lot of the information contained on these two-discs. If you are new to Krav Maga, definitely buy this set along with the first set Ultimate Krav Maga DVDs.
I would also recommend the following Krav Maga books and DVD's:
Krav Maga: How to Defend Yourself Against Armed Assault
Krav Maga - Use of the Human Body as a Weapon Philosophy and Application of Hand to Hand Fighting Training System
ISRAELI COUNTER TERROR WARFARE DVDs COLLECTION
Street Krav Maga Combat Essentials for Real-World Self-Defense with Branimir Tudjan
Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Krav Maga Instructor
Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence book and DVD series.

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