Getting good instruction where you train can be a mixed bag, and it is always good to compare what you are doing with what other training is going on out there. If you are in a situation where you want some points of reference to check your training against, or are on your own and unable to find quality instruction, you should buy this video.
This website is not a place to hawk wares and I am not interested in renting out space or having advertisement banners here. But I also think that good instructors should get paid, and paid well. I also think that people who develop quality products should be recognized and welcome to contribute to the open market. This video, particularly when contrasted against many vanity style videos lacking instructional content, is quite good. In addition, another thing that is nice is that everything is in English, so if you don't speak Japanese you can still get quality instruction and demonstration.
I want to tell you all the things I liked about this video first, before I discuss some of the truly trivial and minor issues that might exist. Firstly, Joel Ertl and Anita Bendickson are serious karate people. They both have excellent control and are very good at modeling stances and technique. This video gives marvelous pointers in kizami, hip rotation, directions in punching, moving oizuki, hand shape, making turns, and stances. This video is excellent for beginners to karate to check what they are getting at their own dojo is in sync with good fundamentals.
Ertl and Bendickson have very strong fundamentals, and this is the key for good karate. Good kihon makes for good karate. I can see that they are very interested in doing things exactly like they appear in texts like Dynamic Karate by Master Nakayama. Ertl and Bendickson are also good teachers for students too. You can see this quite clearly in how the video is designed. Each waza is demonstrated slowly and carefully, then shown at higher speeds. After each technique pointers are given and the finer points of how to develop good fundamental technique is explained. It is necessary for beginning students to watch and listen to the video repeatedly. There is lots of good stuff to keep referring to.
At the end of the video Joel Ertl takes the student through a thorough stretching routine. Good kihon needs a good stretched-out body and the routines at the end of the tape are very good.
Now for the criticisms. Frankly, there are not very many. I found myself watching the video and part of me is thinking, "This stance looks too high", "That back leg is not ramrod straight", "That soto-uke is not completed". But then I thought, "These are not necessarily 'errors', but rather, some stylistic differences. A stance which is not at its maximum length gives some flexibility in movement. A back leg that is not ramrod straight may help balance on the front leg. And a soto-uke not rotating as far as we do here in Japan still has its uses. All is not lost. Don't worry so much".
The only minor concern that I would have of a tape that is focussed at beginners to karate, is to stay away from such terminology like "hip vibration". The term is too vague, and the physical concept is far beyond what beginners are able to understand when beginning karate.
The fact is, the good stuff on this video so outbalances the "bad" that it is difficult to criticize the work. I fear that my criticisms may in fact be too nit picking in the false belief that I have to have a "balanced" evaluation of the work.
One thing that really should be dropped, however, is the music that goes between each Technique's explanation and that is at the beginning and end of the tape. It is a little on the campy side, and if someone were to walk past the room where I was watching this video and heard only the music, they might wonder what kind of video I was actually watching.
With all of that said, and both the crunchy and smooth laid out before you, check out this tape. It is well done, professional, and easy to follow for anyone beginning their karate training. You can contact Joel Ertl and Anita Bendickson through their website at http://www.karatevid.com.
Mark Groenewold
Ishikawa-ken, Japan
Sept 2001
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