Brutally Honest – Rick Young’s Cross-training – Long Range Cross Training – Hard hitting

Brutally Honest
Cross-training – Long Range Cross Training – Hard hitting
By Matthew Sylvester

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.

Assembly

None needed.

Appearance

Produced to the normal high standards that I’ve come to expect from Summersdale both the cover and the DVD cover meet my expectations ensuring that this series of DVDs is going to look good on your shelves.

I’ve also noticed that they are starting to colour co-ordinate the covers so that if you’re an eclectic and have a wide range of Summersdale DVDs you can spot your specific ‘star’s’ DVDs just by looking for their colour.

Build Quality

Good solid colours and printing on both the cover and DVD without bleeding make this look professional.

The audio and sound quality are good and you can hear and see everything as well as you need to.

The students used to demonstrate the techniques being taught are solid in their presentation and don’t let the fact that they are being filmed get in the way of the business at hand. Whilst they are busy demonstrating the techniques, Rick is able to point out anything that they are either doing well or slipped up on and it is the latter that makes this series so refreshing. Rather than edit out the mistakes to ensure a ‘perfect’ presentation, Rick takes advantage of the mistakes to show how they can be corrected and how things can be improved.

I especially like the way that there is always something to learn from Rick’s presentations and this doesn’t always have to be a new combination or technique. Rick’s approach to sparring is very different to the ‘put the gloves on and go’ mentality that we have all been faced with at some point of our life and which no doubt still forms a large part of our life. Rick is very keen on making sure that students are well-trained and prepared with a small arsenal of attacks and defences before they even start getting down to the nitty-gritty. This is something that I’m most certainly going to adopt myself for any new students I decide to take on and I might well write an article on how that goes as a follow-up to this article.

Ease of Use

Yet again the quality of martial artist that Summersdale is working with means that they are also working with a high quality of instructor and this comes across in Rick’s teaching methods.

Sparring techniques and philosophy are especially worthwhile and most certainly applicable to any style that utilises sparring in its syllabus.

Price
At £24.99 this is an ideal price to pay for a DVD such as this. No matter what percussive style you study this is going to help you and your students build up a good repertoire. Get it

This DVD can be ordered from http://www.summersdale.com