Tony Blauer videos ?

[lbraun]

What do you think about the Blauer videos ? Especially the early Panic Attack series from Panther Productions?

[Shimora]

They are probably the most overrated tapes on the market.
Blauer just mixes various pieces of other guys material and calls it his own.

For a laugh you should read the BS letter someone wrote into Black Belt magazine last month about Blauer. They claim that after reading an article on Blauer they were able to physically overcome an intruder in their house using calm headed thinking and devestating forearm blows simply from READING an article on Blauer. I think this is incredible for someone with no previous MA experience.

So incredible I put Blauer's S.P.E.A.R system in the same league as SCARS, SAFTA, Krav Maga and all those other BS systems designed to extract money from your wallet.

The only true Hybrid system is NINCHIDO.

[Underdog]

I agree with shimora.

I read an article on black belt were Blauer explained the SPEAR system. Three or four pages FULL of detailed bulls!t that really can be condensed into:

IF SOMEONE ATTACKS YOU BY SURPRISE, RAISE YOUR HAIND IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE TO BLOCK THE INCOMING BLOWS!

Just marketing and hype.

[duchman]

He is legit!
He is one of the most respected ug members i asked him some questions he is very smart!

[Tony10]

I did see that letter in Black Belt and it was laughable because it was so obviously somebody's idea of marketing.

I don't think Blauer's stuff (well, what I've seen of it), though, is B.S. I don't own any of his tapes, but a lot of the stuff I've seen/read by him is sound. Whether he "invented" a lot of it is always the debate I guess. I don't really care. People rag on that Geoff Thompson guy, too, but I got one of his books recently and definitely picked up a few new things.

However, I wouldn't lump Krav Maga in with hocus-pocus s*** like SCARS or SAFTA--I think it's legit. What's to argue with about it? Just that the moves aren't original? Well, whatever--I just care whether it works. If they had it here, I'd be signed up in a second. People I know who've studied it rave about it.

Anyway, I cannot believe that letter made it into Black Belt. Maybe if their editorial staff spent more time here gettin' an education on sniffin' out the B.S., that wouldn't happen! LOL.

[yusul]

Ibraun: look up martial arts video reviews using a search engine. there r also other third-party internet reviews that rate his tapes favourably. i'm not going to comment on how good he is, since i havent seen his full tape set.

Shimora: Tony Blauer never claimed to come up with a martial art with original techniques, his style emphasises the psychology of a fight and being mentally prepared. If u read the BB article, he was showing how he closed the gap, but also stated that you can use the techniques from Your style to finish off your opponent. he seems to emphasis concepts over techniques. how do u define hybrid art?

Tony10: the letter might have been legit. by your logic, any letter that would have said, " I read about the guard technique in a magazine, and using it along with my current training I beat off a recent attack.", is a bull@$# letter.
come off it, bjj is the only effective style in a street fight? so anything else that works is obviously marketing? the author implied that he had trained in something else, and used the concepts in the article to close the gap. no one would have been able to use those ideas in Blauers article without prior training in a fighting style. btw, i have no clue who wrote that letter, i case u were wondering.

[Tony10]

Easy there Yusul--

a) I never said BJJ was the only effective street-fighting system. I didn't even mention BJJ. In fact, I think BJJ can only be part of an effective system that includes a lot of things.

b) I don't have a problem with Blauer. I think you can learn at least something from almost all those guys. I saw the big spread on S.P.E.A.R. in Black Belt and it seemed pretty reasonable. I'm sure somebody could use it to good effect. I don't know enough about him to say. What I have seen hasn't suggested to me that he's some kind of fraud or snake oil salesman.

c) The reason I doubt the authenticity of the letter isn't because of the content, it's the style in which it's written. After you've read enough bogus "I used my SCARS training, fellows, to defeat martial arts masters!" B.S. accounts or whatever (you see a lot of them on the internet) you get a sense for what's legit.

Who knows? Maybe it was real. I doubt it.

[yusul]

Tony10: sorry, I didn't consider c), you could be right. i guess i can re-read the letter. i see your pt,now, i guess you werent trashing other styles. I agree with your views on Blauer and Krav Maga. I have only 2 beefs with Krav Maga that have nothing to do with its effectiveness: 1. they claim to be the only combat field-tested hand to hand system, implying that its been constantly used. in a real war, are you going use hand to hand against a tank? maybe it was field-tested (with the help of the style known as uzi-do) against palestinian student rockthrowers.

2. In their ads hey claim that Imi Lichtenfield developed it. I have no problem with that, but they fail to mention that they have Also included the techniques from large variety of styles, and i think that they should mention this fact and give credit to their other roots. the Machados give credit to the gracie family, Bruce Lee gave credit to Yip Man; members of any legit style should show loyalty and graditude to their roots. just my opinion.

[Tony10]

Yusul:

Interesting points,

What seems to draw the most fire to Blauer or Krav Maga isn't that their techniques aren't effective; but rather that they're not necessarily "orginal." Or if so, only slightly modified versions of a pre-existing idea. So, yeah: why not just say "Well, this is a version of something from Aikido, etc..."? JKDers pretty much always reference a technique ("This is from Kali, this is Savat, etc.") and nobody seems to deride them.

Ahh, but that's where marketing comes in. Those less informed go for the buzzwords: New! Improved! Secret techniques! Straight from the military! Never before seen! Available only in this system! Undefeatable! Street lethal! Brought over from Russia, at risk to his own life!

Have I forgotten any?

So that's already got experienced people shaking their heads. Because you know--with regard to the striking arts, 'cause I know BJJ evolves daily--not that much is new, or secret, or never before seen, or undefeatable, or if the military uses it why do they use it when they have a gun, or that it's lethal probably only if you don't believe it's street lethal.

As I'm sure you know, it's the quiet guys you got to worry about. I'm gonna start a system and take out ads that say nobody is allowed to take it and there will be no videos forthcoming. I will be a millionaire in three months.

Also, as you pointed out: SEALS and Israeli soldiers aren't going to let themselves get to a scenario where hand-to-hand is necessary. That's why they're SEALS.