Street Chin Na: Joint Locking and Bone Breaking Techniques for the Street - Review

"Street Chin Na: Joint Locking and Bone Breaking Techniques for the Street" with Willie "The Bam" Johnson is a good program on locking and tough training produced by Paladin Press. The DVD was not filmed in Paladin's studio, but rather in Johnson's school with Johnson and a few of his students. Johnson brings a lot of energy with his demonstrations and teaching, and the quality of production was high with clear sound and great visibility, combined with a very good DVD menu selection to assist the viewer in finding sections to study.

This is what the DVD covers:

Chin Na Warm-up: This section has a brief introduction as Johnson and students toss a bean bag around and then includes Johnson and his students performing various drills such as: Bean Bag Catch, Iron Body Conditioning, Tree Stump Catch and Roll, Long Staff Twisting Drill, Forearm Drill, Touch the Shoulder Drill, Punching Drill, Slap/Elbow Drill, Wrist and Arm Escapes. These drills can help toughen a person up and may be something you want to incorporate into your training, though I personally don't think I'll be teaching them in my classes.

Pressure Points: Johnson demonstrates various pressure points on a partner in this short chapter, but does not clearly show exactly what he is doing. For those of us already familiar with various points and weak areas of the body, it is not a problem, but for a novice, they might not understand just what Johnson was doing.

Hand Techniques: In another short chapter, Johnson, along with students, illustrates some basic traditional punching techniques. Again, it is more of a demonstration of these strikes as Johnson and his students "shadow box" with these techniques.

Chin Na Set: Johnson has two of his students perform a two-man "form" incorporating various Chin Na techniques. Johnson does instruct them through the form defining what they are doing and why.

Defensive Techniques: This section of the DVD is broken into 16 short chapters or techniques that include defenses against wrist grabs, cross wrist grabs, lapel grabs, front chokes, bear hugs, headlocks, finger pointing, punches, bear hugs from behind, and full nelsons. Johnson does a good job of teaching these and the program provides a decent sampling of locks and defensive techniques. I think martial artists from many styles could incorporate some of these into their training. One thing I did get a bit tired of while watching was all of the yelling. As I mentioned, Johnson brings a lot of intensity into his teaching, which is good. However, the partner (Johnson's son for many of them) he does the techniques to is constantly grimacing and yelling in pain. (Grimacing was okay, but the yelling got old) I've participated in and have watched many demos where the person taps loudly, yells, etc. for the demonstration. When teaching, I don't feel it is necessary to make my partner scream while instructing. The screams got a bit annoying and sometimes distracting from what Johnson was teaching. Yes, it is important to train with intensity, and the better you know your partner, the harder you can go. I just felt it was too much at times for an instructional program. Johnson has a lot to teach, so I hope his style does not prevent some from learning from him.

Chin Na Takedowns: This portion of the program focuses on 8 different takedowns that Johnson teaches. Again, it is a good sampling of various takedowns and Johnson does a good job of illustrating them. Many martial artists may find a new trick or two in these as well.

Jailhouse Workout: This is the final chapter of the DVD. The purpose of showing this workout is to teach the flow and intensity that Johnson brings to training, not to teach the techniques they use. A lot of the drills are again more conditioning, with the participants striking and kicking each other with a lot of force. I agree with Johnson that many places do not train like this, but that it is training that will better prepare you for self-defense on the street. This portion should motivate you to get to the gym and train with intensity, although some people might not like training with such contact.

I thought there were some good joint locking techniques in this program, but unfortunately there was a lot of time spent showing people do conditioning drills rather than teaching joint locks. I would have preferred more techniques and less conditioning drills.

The package also includes a bonus DVD titled "Chin Na/Street Combat Fusion." This is Johnson's take on traditional with a more modern approach. The program includes 18 various self-defense responses against different attacks. This bonus DVD is an hour long and contained more of what I wanted in the first DVD. When you add both DVDs together, it is a much better program and teaches more self-defense responses and techniques. It also concludes with some comments by Johnson that are poignant for any martial artist. Those final comments increased my respect for Johnson and his students.

"Street Chin Na" with Willie "The Bam" Johnson, produced by Paladin Press, is a good program. It does not contain instruction on as many joint locking techniques as I thought it would, but does contain some basic locks and a few different twists on some locking techniques. It also includes instruction on incorporating locks with other techniques which is very important. The program also emphasizes tough training, and if you are looking to make your workouts tougher, there are some drills here for you to use. I'm sure any martial artist that adds this DVD program to their library will find things to incorporate into their training.

You can see a 7 1/2 minute video clip of Street Chin Na and order from www.burrese.com