Search - Defensive Tactics: Jim Wagner's Reality-Personal Protection on DVD

Realistic self defense with minor flaws

Seppo Vesala | Helsinki, - Finland | 04/20/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This film is second in series where world famous self defense instructor Jim Wagner shares his system of self defense. Wagner is known as a teacher of realistic, self defense oriented martial arts instead of sport-like techniques. That's why I was anxious to see what his system is like. Although the film delivered the goods, I was somewhat disappointed.

The film opens up with a ludicrous macho intro, where Wagner clears a building with a handgun, shoots some watermelons with a sniper rifle and does all other stuff to get adolescent boys interested in the film. Perhaps that kind of stuff impresses some people, but every time I see something like that, I began to wonder whether there is any real substance in the product at all. And this continues, as throughout the whole film, Wagner is dressed in SWAT battle uniform and even some battle gear! I feel it would have been much better if he would have worn just regular street clothes.

The film explains everything form the beginning, starting with different distance categories, proper posture, movement and the like. So it's evident that even a person with no previous experience in martial arts can watch this film and understand the concepts. The techniques presented are all very simple, taking very little time to learn. There were some things I did not like very much, like teaching to hit with an open fist (and he did not even mention the possibility of injury to your own fist when hitting a hard target). Wagner presents only a handful of techniques, but they cover the basic strikes and kicks you can use in upright posture. In the film, he also handles some legal issues as well, such as avoiding to use excessive force in a self defense situation.

Overall, this film gives you very good and realistic system for unarmed, upright self defense, although you have to order several films to get the whole system.

Run time: 0:46"