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| Essential Shotokan Vol. 3 |
This is the third tape in the Essential Shotokan series produced by Perfect Form and directed by David Gomez. And just like the other two, this video has a wide selection of technique that is explained in coherently with a close attention to detail. Viewing these tapes a few times over now has made me appreciate the vast range of material covered here. It is remarkable, to say the very least. David Gomez has done a remarkable job with this series and we can see his work really shine here. He is a consumate perfectionist and the video work is immaculate.
This video covers the gamut of Shotokan technique in kicking and striking. Great care and attention are paid to the front snap kick, side snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick, reverse roundhouse kick, back thrust kick, backfist strike, hammer fist strike, knife-hand strike, ridge-hand strike, elbow strike.
Although this tape is really long (83 minutes!) it really burns through the various techniques and requires you to watch and re-watch each technique as it is performed in basic, intermediate, and advanced methods. Excellent advice is given to students and teachers of Shotokan karate how to identify common errors in snap kicks, thrust kicks, and striking techniques. In addition, common sense training techniques are suggested to help both student and teacher develop proper technique. Common errors are identified and corrected. Simply superb. I am becoming somewhat of an Edmond Otis fan. He is an excellent instructor.
One thing that often has divided Japanese and Western karate-ka is the ability to kick. The Western world may have at its center some disadvantages in developing natural flexibility. For example, many Japanese people grow up in households where people sit on the floor. Sitting in seiza from childhood onwards can give a Japanese karate-ka some natural flexibility in thigh and hip muscles and also help them be able to have a more natural hiki-ashi (retracting the leg after the kick (literally "leg pull"). In this video we can see Otis-Sensei kick as naturally as any Japanese instructor. Mawashi- geri (roundhouse kicks) often plague most Western students of karate, but here we get excellent instruction and demonstration how to do it correctly, and with focus and power.
A few things that I liked about this video in particular is that they included the seldom used reverse roundhouse kick, explained the hammer fist and ridge-hand strike, and included elbow technique. This tape, like the other two are extremely well produced, are very clean, and present techniques from different angles so that the viewer can see everything clearly and in detail.
My only criticism of this tape is that it could have actually been two separate tapes, one for kicking and one for striking. But I am sure that having a nice round number of three was something that makes this series a little more marketable. Nevertheless, Otis-Sensei does not leave much out as he crams as much possible information in one video cassette as possible.
I have already raved about how good this material is in the other two reviews so you can gather by now that I think that these tapes are an excellent addition to any serious karate student or instructor's video library. They can teach you a lot about karate, or how to teach karate.
I want to thank David Gomez for sending me this material, and for also including demo clips on the Essential Shotokan CD-ROM. That was very cool too. It is a real pleasure for me to review this kind of work, especially material of this caliber. I hardly have to worry about being too critical at all. This stuff is a real gem.
Once again, if you want to see for yourself, the contact information is as follows:
www.essential-shotokan.com
info@essential-shotokan.com
http://come.to/gka
Mark Groenewold
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