Gear Report
Power Behind the Punch vol. 1 and 2
By Jeff Martone and Steve Baccari (Running Time 90 minutes), $59.95
I am not a boxer and I probably never will be. To tell you the
truth, I'm more of a runner. But I was still excited when I heard
about this DVD. Why? Because Jeff Martone is perhaps my favorite
strength trainer out there and he teamed up with Steve Baccari,
who is a top-notch boxing coach. I had heard through the grapevine
that Steve introduced kettlebell training at his boxing gym and
that his already high-level boxers reached new levels of power.
They were literally thrashing the competition. As a matter of
fact, one of his boxers had lost a match prior to his kettlebell
training. Roughly two months later, he fought the SAME opponent
and he was the hands-down winner.
This DVD starts out with the basics, including the kettlebell
swing, and then moves onto some tougher stuff, including an introduction
to Jeff Martone's H2H juggling drills. They do a solid job of
teaching the basics, with particular attention to proper form.
They give excellent advice including some excellent diagnostic
strategies to get you swinging the bells properly in the shortest
amount of time possible. The basic exercises covered are the 2-arm
swing, 1-arm swing, DARC swing and the snatch. They show each
of these exercises with a dumbbell as well. I think this is a
sensible decision, because not all boxers will have access to
kettlebells, but this should not stop them from getting a killer
workout. Throughout this video, they show ways of doing other
exercises with simple or improvised equipment.
This training package also comes with a variety of workouts demonstrated.
This includes three variations of the DOE Man Maker for pre-season
training, five different circuits, plus detailed discussion on
how to structure your training at different times throughout the
year and in different situations. What do you do when a fight
is cancelled and you have some down time? Or conversely, what
do you do when you have to fight with little advanced notice.
One other thing I like is that they do emphasize training as something
that is important, but they still put it in perspective and remind
the viewer that boxing comes first. Sometimes people get so caught
up in their training that they lose sight of what they are training
for. It is obvious that Steve Baccari has a lot of experience
in developing boxers from the ground up and turning them into
champions. This DVD also has quick biographies of some of the
fighters in the gym spread throughout the video. Even the young
kids have incredible power and speed.
This video focuses mainly on kettlebell training, but it also
includes a section on neck work, grip strength, ab work and other
specific drills for boxers. I think this makes it a well-rounded
package. The overall production values are excellent. The DVD
includes an index, so you can jump quickly to the section you
want. The menus look excellent and they have a very appropriate
feel. There is nothing too flashy, but it looks clean and professional.
The audio and video quality are both excellent and the video is
well-edited. For example, in the workout section, they do not
show the whole workouts, but just enough to give you the idea.
There is no wasted space or filler on this video. It is pure content
and everything is good. I give Power Behind the Punch my highest
recommendation, not only to boxers, but to anyone interested in
athletic strength training. I think that Power Behind the Punch
has enough tough guy appeal to transcend its focus on boxing and
find popularity with a wide variety of people.
The Good: A solid, complete package on conditioning for
boxers.
The Bad: It costs $60, which is cheaper per minute than
many other training videos, but still expensive.
The Verdict: I think this is the most comprehensive kettlebell
training package out there. It stands alone as an excellent introduction
to kettlebell lifting for athletes and ventures into some exciting
workouts and methods of training. It is top-notch all the way.
FULL K.O.NTACT KETTLEBELLS:
The Martial Art of Strength Training
Vol. 1 the Root
By Steve Cotter, SRKC (Running Time 44 min), $44.95 + S&H
Steve Cotter is perhaps the best martial artist I have ever met.
He is a champion full-contact fighter and has an incredible ability
to impart his wisdom to others. On top of that, he is one of the
strongest people I have ever seen. He performs rock bottom pistols
with 140 lbs and he can perform bodyweight pistols with such ease
that he can literally jump out of them. This video is his first
in what will be a series of videos covering the martial art of
strength training.
What separates this video from the crowd is that it is not a collection
of exercises, nor is it really about conditioning. By my understanding,
it is a method of using weighted exercises to strengthen and reinforce
the core concepts of martial arts. In volume 1, the Root, Steve
Cotter covers your connection to the ground. In the world of martial
arts, this connection is called your root. Imagine trying to throw
a punch while standing on a slippery sheet of ice. You will have
no power, because you have no root. The goal of this video is
to teach you to strengthen this connection to the ground.
This video starts off with an absolutely incredible intro sequence.
It shows Steve performing some martial arts demonstrations in
which you can see his power and fluidity. And then I saw something
that I honestly did not think was possible. Steve is shown performing
the full front splits between two BOSU balls (imagine a Swiss
Ball cut in half with a platform on the bottom) and then he jumps
up, switches his feet and lands back in the splits. Unbelievable!
After the amazing intro, he goes over some basic stances and movements.
The ultimate goal of the video is to strengthen your movement
in and between these positions. Next, Steve covers the basic kettlebell
drills. This includes the 2-arm swing, 1-arm swing, clean and
2 kettlebell clean. There is nothing new here, but they are well
taught and will serve as a good intro to anyone that is not familiar
with these techniques.
Up next, he gets into the movement drills. These involve the same
basic movement patterns that were covered in the beginning, but
now you will be holding the kettlebells in different positions
in order to strengthen your rooting. I was pretty impressed while
I watched this. It just makes sense to do these exercises, but
I had never thought of doing them before. My favorite part of
the video comes next. It is the Dragon Twisting exercise. I have
never seen anything like it! It develops not only strong rooting,
but powerful rotational strength as well. It is a movement straight
from the martial arts, but Steve Cotter has ingeniously adapted
it to become a powerful exercise. The last part of the video covers
variations of the one-legged deadlift and different kicking drills.
What makes this unique from other kicking tapes I have seen is
that it does not focus on the kicking leg only, as most videos
do. This one focuses on developing super strength in the support
leg. And it works. As I performed these exercises, I could definitely
feel my base becoming more solid.
I feel like I am jumping the gun a bit with this review, since
parts two and three have not yet been released. I have not seen
the full picture yet, but I am looking forward to seeing where
Steve is going with this. He is off to a great start. The production
quality of this video is the best I have seen for any kettlebell
training video to date. He hired a professional film crew to work
on this project and you can definitely tell. It has a clean, polished
look. My one criticism of this video is that parts of it get repetitive.
A handful of exercises are covered and then followed by the same
three variations. Ultimately, I was left wanting more because
the information presented is so good. A veteran to kettlebell
lifting will probably only find a few new things in here. They
are solid gold, but for $45, it is a lot of money for a few new
exercises. For a dedicated martial artist, this price is a steal
for what you will learn, but for anyone else, it is a bit on the
pricey side.
The Good: No training video I have ever seen does a better
job of tying exercises to concepts. The intro sequence is mindblowing
and the production values are top notch.
The Bad: Expensive. The introduction to the basic kettlebell
lifts is going to be redundant for many people.
The Verdict: If you train without thought or you feel that
your training is disconnected from your goals, this video will
show
