Neil Adams Grappling series:
Basic Armlocks and Basic Chokes and Strangles
Photo sequence from Neil Adams' seminat (not from this video series)
Review
by Absolute Storm
General Points:
Price: First off, these tapes aren't necessarily good value for money.
The chokes tape is 42 minutes long, and the armlocks tape is only 32 minutes.
At £18 each, that's not a lot of tape for your money.
Still, assuming you’re happy to lighten the load on your wallet, let’s
look at the tapes themselves.
Production: The picture and sound quality is excellent. Moves are shown
from all the right angles, and then shown in slow motion. Finally, footage
of high-level Judo contests finishing with the technique in question is
provided.
Pitch: These tapes appear to be pitched mainly at Judo players. However,
(where possible) moves are also demonstrated without the gi. Additionally,
Neil demonstrates the occasional illegal move (such as using a facelock
to make the opponent expose his neck). This gives the tapes more of a
MMA / self-defence feel than most Judo tapes.
Onto the individual tapes:
Tape 1 - Armlocks:
This tape looks at one specific technique only: rolling a turtling opponent
onto his back into juji gatame.
That may seem like very little to base an entire tape on, but don't forget
this is Neil's trademark move.
In addition to going through, in detail, his own method of carrying out
the technique, he also goes through the variations used by three other
Judo champions.
He also demonstrates a number of techniques for breaking the grip of an
opponent who is caught in the cross armlock position but keeping the endangered
arm tightly held.
As mentioned, these techniques are also demonstrated without the jacket.
I would say the moves demonstrated are all practical, useful techniques.
Most of us would have something to learn from this tape. There was one
grip-breaking technique that I didn’t like (because the leg was briefly
taken off of the opponent’s face) but hey, I’m not the Judo champion.
I could easily see these versions of the rollover juji being used in Judo,
BJJ or submission wrestling. In MMA, you might be better off taking the
rear mount and working for a choke. Fortunately, that happens to be the
main focus of the next tape in the series:
Tape 2 - Chokes:
The first section of this tape starts with Neil demonstrating versions
of hadake jime (naked choke) from the rear mount, including ways to cope
with an opponent who is carefully defending his neck.
Neil carefully demonstrates the correct way to insert the rear mount hooks.
Sometimes, Neil rolls into the rear guard to make it easier to apply the
chokes. It is good to see that he does not cross his ankles in this position.
However, he often doesn't put the “locking” arm of the choke behind his
opponent’s neck. He seems content to just leave it resting on the opponent’s
forehead.
The middle part of the tape takes a slightly less structured approach,
focusing on a random selection of chokes from the guard.
Personally, I felt Neil's techniques in this area didn't appear quite
so polished. He didn't figure-four his arms for the arm triangle from
the guard; he applied his guillotine neck crank with only one hand and
so on. There’s not a lot here that interested submission students wouldn’t
already know.
The last section of the tape perhaps puts Neil on more familiar territory.
It focuses on gi chokes from the rear guard. Mainly it deals with okuri
eri jime (sliding collar choke) and kata ha jime (half nelson choke).
Both of these chokes are demonstrated excellently, with a few interesting
refinements (such as the use of one leg to entangle one of the opponent’s
free arms).
The contest footage for this section is particularly engaging.
Overall, I'm not quite such a fan of the second tape, largely because
I feel I already knew most of the moves being shown. However, there are
still some interesting little variations of basic chokes on offer and,
as mentioned, there is some spectacular in-action footage of the chokes.
As a side note, I was entertained by some of the provocative statements
on the back of the videos' covers:
"No man in the World has a greater understanding of armlocks than
the great Judo champion Neil Adams."
"Top class fighters from many disciplines travel from all over the
World to train with Neil and learn from him the secrets of successful
armlocking."
I wonder what that last one's a reference to?
Related links
Reviewed November 2001
