Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars
By tim b on March 15, 2013
Format: DVD
Lock-On: Joint Locking Essentials (Alain Burrese)
Volume 5: Combining Locks and Lock Flow Drills

In Volume 5 of the Lock-On series Alain expands upon material previously demonstrated in the Lock-On series Volumes 1-4 — finger locks, wrist locks, elbow locks and shoulder locks. This volume ties it all together through his use of the concept of Flow Drills. With my limited Martial Arts training and experience, the ideology and use of Flow Drills as a training regimen is new to me. Flow Drills are designed to ingrain the techniques demonstrated, and to train the mind and body to transition from one technique to another – seamlessly as well as effortlessly. The flows teach you to look for transitions based on your current circumstances or needs, but they also teach you to look for the flaws, and to look for the principles employed and what makes them work.

All of the information shown in this set can be useful in the context of a negative social encounter. The ideas here would be useful for some of those self-defense scenarios. I find that the information here is going to be of use to Security, Bouncers, and anyone that needs to safely deal with an aggressive opponent, in a safe manner, which could also be those in Law Enforcement.

Alain does a good job of explaining some key principles throughout this volume as well — weight distribution, anchoring or basing as it’s been described, proper grip — but also surprise, speed and the need for PRACTICE!

At 21:00 into the DVD, Alain starts to demonstrate combinations – using two techniques chained together in sequence. He goes through Finger Locks to Shoulder Locks, Wrist Locks to Elbow Locks, a lock called the ‘V’ Lock, the use of the Standing Center Lock, and the Chicken Wing Lock. These are all demonstrated as responses to some common grabs — cross-arm, same side, etc.. Alain also demonstrates an ‘S’ Lock, something I learned during my brief training in Aikido. Another important concept here is the takedown and finishing moves — proning out an aggressive person to gain control for possible cuffing techniques, or even to transition back into an exit escort technique after verbal commands have been given and the aggressor starts to comply again.

At 40:00 into the DVD, Alain gets into more complex chains of techniques – 3 and 4 techniques strung together as transitions. This is where he also starts to demonstrate the ability to initiate contact rather than being in a self-defense mode. The techniques don’t always have to be done from a strictly defensive mode, but could be implemented from an offensive mode as well, meaning that YOU are initiating the technique without waiting for a trigger-event. Initiating would usually be done by those aforementioned individuals in Security or Law Enforcement that have a responsibility to take action when the situation deems it necessary to do so.

At 57:00, Alain ventures into a few very complex drills – chains of 10 or more techniques – these I believe will just enhance your ability to transition in smaller chains, to enhance the overall educational value of your previous training.

The DVD ends with some PREVIEWS – something I’m definitely looking forward to as well. Alain explains that this series is meant to be a series of add-on techniques that can be used with any other Martial Art, which I totally agree with.

There are of course many things that need to be considered, and Alain summarizes some of those here – using other skills along with these techniques – that could be strikes, kicks, throws, and maybe use of weapons. He talks about Use of Force, which is something that every Martial Artist needs to learn, understand, and follow.

For my own needs, this series has been a very good find — it has given me many techniques that I could use to deal with less-than-pleasant situations that my job requires me to deal with. In watching this DVD alone, for the third time tonight, I learned a few things that I had missed in previous viewings. I also learned that I am learning — seeing things differently than I had previously. Alain is very good at explaining all of the techniques in this series.

You can learn from a DVD and from books — but training it is essential. Alain makes the learning part easy, and straightforward.

© Copyright 2013, tim boehlert