Brutally Honest – Rick Young – Trapped in his sights – Middle Range Vol 1

Summersdale Productions are definitely starting to put themselves firmly on the map and this is starting to show in the finer details. Their DVD box-covers continue to improve in design and now even the DVDs themselves are improving with a very new and tactile label being attached. All in all these are some of the better-produced DVDs that I’ve bought in a long while and that includes normal film DVDs.

This title only serves to make their catalogue stronger and I can’t wait to see what else Rick Young has to offer.

I must admit that I like Rick Young’s approach. In the last two DVDs he was quick to praise his helpers and encourage them along as they performed for the cameras. This time he’s given them prime position in an ‘also starring’ billboard at the start of the DVD.

His choice of location is good and the sound quality on this is excellent considering it looks like they’re in a pretty large gym.

Rick’s take on trapping is interesting and I was pleased to see him explaining his ideas behind trapping as it then makes it much easier to see why he’s doing what he is. Keywords like ‘momentary immobilisation’ and ‘minor hits to major hits’ have stuck with me.

Just as with the Long Range DVDs, Rick’s insistence on isolation in order to build a good structure is a welcome breath of fresh air and is a good counter to ‘people don’t attack like that’.

There is a saying used when comparing techniques and styles ‘a punch is a punch’ and this was demonstrated very well by an application for a favourite pattern of mine called Do San and basically involves downward palm block and spear hand strike to neck. The actual trapping aspect was something that I’ve not considered that way and so I was glad to be able to relate this to my own training.

This DVD is slightly different to the Long Range DVD in that Rick uses Chinese terms along with acronyms, assuming that the viewer understands the references. This is unfortunate because I must admit that I started to get confused as he mentioned what sounded like ‘BLT’, Bong Sau etc rather than sticking to English.

Another drawback to this DVD was that unlike in the Long Range where he builds a technique up in easy-to-understand stages, Rick dives straight in and gets very advanced very quickly. Within 11 minutes of the start of the DVD I was confused. Okay there’s a freeze frame and slow motion option on DVD but even with this it’s still far too advanced for a non-trapper like me to follow. Coupled with the acronyms this meant I really started to struggle linking it to techniques that I might know.

I did like the interesting mix of Wing Chun and Kali and I liked the way that it was broken down into separate chapter (thank god considering the language differences). Again it was unfortunate that Rick got very advanced very quickly as Kali is something that I’ve always been interested in and seeing the empty hand was very interesting regardless as to whether I was able to keep up.

The pad work section was again very interesting and demonstrated how they can be used to build up striking and trapping drills. Again though I was left standing at the back with all the other white belts.

I would love to see more of Rick’s work in this area but feel that maybe he should do a beginner/intermediate/advanced range or break this down on the DVDs.

Aside from my inability to grasp the techniques this DVD is more than up to the usual Summersdale productions and I recommend that anyone with an understanding of Wing Chun, JKD, Kali or any other form of trapping get this.

You can buy this DVD from http://www.summersdale.com