Restraint and Control Strategies

When you find someone with over thirty years of martial art training and law enforcement experience who can actually TEACH, you should run, walk, crawl to learn from him. Loren Christensen is such an individual, and if you cannot learn from him first hand, his new video set "Restraint and Control Strategies: State-of-the-Art Defensive Tactics for Law Enforcement and Security Professionals," is the next best thing.

In this two-video set, Christensen gives detailed explanation on the techniques and skills that are most effective for real street situations. Besides teaching the viewer how to perform techniques, Christensen explains the concepts behind the techniques and how a police officer, security personal, or just an individual needing to control or restrain someone in a street fight, can use them more effectively in real life encounters. Included in these control techniques on the first tape are the armbar, lower back wrist flex, police wrist flex, bent arm lock, bent arm wrist flex, shoulder lock takedown and the outside twist. Christensen teaches these and their variations from the minimum custody hold to applying them from an attack. Each section has a review segment to aid in actually learning these techniques to use yourself.

In tape two, Christensen gives further excellent instruction on principles that will help save you when things get ugly on the street. He covers principles such as the action-reaction principle; where the head goes, the body will follow; and the distraction principle. He goes into detail on how circles will aid in performing the techniques and generate more power to put a person on the ground. Christensen knows full well that sometimes a technique does not work in the street like planned, so he covers going from technique A to B when things are not working. Being able to change in mid-flow is a valuable skill, and the instruction on these tapes will help you develop your ability to handle these tough situations.

Besides the principles taught in the second tape, many more techniques are shown as well. Christensen covers hair techniques, pressure points, striking techniques, and prone subject techniques so you can control the subject after using one of the numerous takedowns described earlier. I especially enjoyed the fact that Christensen teaches in the tapes, and is more concerned with passing on solid information that will help other officers and individuals in real life encounters, than he is about impressing viewers with his own skills. These are tapes you will learn from, and if you practice what is being taught, your effectiveness and use of techniques will undoubtedly improve.

Even if you are familiar with some of the techniques taught on these tapes, Christensen's detailed instruction is sure to help make them more effective and painful. Whether you are in law enforcement or security, or a martial artist wanting to increase the effectiveness of your joint-locks, these videos are an invaluable addition to any self-defense video library.

Reviewed by Alain Burrese, J.D., author, speaker
Hard-Won Wisdom From The School of Hard Knocks, Hapkido Hoshinsul, Streetfighting Essentials, Hapkido Cane, and The Lock On Joint Locking series