Self Defense Made Easy, Vol. 1: Defensive Techniques: DVD Review

Self Defense Made Easy, Vol. 1: Defensive Techniques, with Gene Simco: DVD Review

Produced by: NYMAG, 2004
Running Time: Approx. 60 min.


This two set DVD is by famed Jiu-Jitsu expert, Gene Simco, and author of a very popular book called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: The Master Text. The first disk deals with self-defense for the average person; the second, with police officers. Due to my lack of in depth knowledge of police procedure when dealing with suspects I will refrain from discussing the second disk.

This disk deals with using BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) for self-defense and is fairly well put together with a very simple look to it from the menu and throughout the rest of the DVD. The sound track includes some rock and the picture quality was good, though the sound quality in some parts was not the greatest.

From the beginning of the DVD I didn’t like what I saw very much, although Simco does have some practical advice on some issues. It’s painfully apparent that most of his techniques are based on what might be called a best-case scenario, where an attacker is inept or a situation which is not very dangerous.

At the start, Simco talks very briefly about avoiding confrontations, which I feel he’s a little vague on since his expertise isn’t self defense. He talks of learning of your environment and planning ahead, parking in well lit areas and the like, and then he jumps right into the actual techniques. While vague and simplistic the advice was good nonetheless.

He explains how one is better able to be more aware of what's going on in front of you, rather than behind, because we don’t have eyes in the backs of our heads. I don’t really understand his thinking because being aware just isn’t about our eyes, but all of our senses combined. We may hear someone come up behind us, etc.

The first attack that is demonstrated is a rear bear hug with the arms trapped inside. Simco points out that many martial arts may try a backwards head butt, groin grab, or foot stomp, but claims that an attacker may be out of reach, or wearing “ steel toe boots,” and such techniques would fail. It’s funny but while watching him demonstrate how the groin grab would “fail,” his attacker moved away from his right hand, and moved closer to Simco's left hand, causing his groin area to become vulnerable to Simco's other hand, but Simco completely ignores this.





Another failure by Simco is to address the finger peel, or break, even though he places his hands on the attacker’s hands several times while demonstrating the throw and can be easily done. Even in less dangerous situations a finger peel, something I've done countless times to friends while roughhousing, can be very effective as well.

Another thing he says of those techniques is that if the opponent is very strong he can’t move his arms, yet just as he says that he once again places both his hands on his opponents’ making the finger peel or break tactic very convenient and fast. He also says of those techniques, “Although it’s effective it’s unreliable.” Huh? How can something be both effective and unreliable? That's a contradiction. Perhaps he meant that while a technique can be effective in some situations it's unreliable in the situation he's describing. Perhaps, but perhaps not. As I've already mentioned, a very effective finger peel/break was probably the fastest and most reliable tactic he could have used from that position, but he is a Jiu-Jitsu instructor and wants me make students feel what he's teaching is good self-defense.

To escape the bear hug Simco uses the step around the attacker and trip him over your leg method; a classic Jiu-Jitsu technique that I’ve seen many times.

One thing that I like is that he uses what he calls “common denominator moves,” which is the use of one or a few techniques that can be used in a wide variety of situations, and that the learning of many techniques against different attacks can get you in trouble. That’s great advice; I just don’t like many of the techniques he chooses.

After the bear hug, he shows the same sweeping technique against a half nelson and rear choke hold.

One thing that surprised me was he mentions awareness of a second opponent, but I don’t feel some of the techniques he shows prepares someone for that fact because grappling by its very nature is for one on one combat – at least the kind he is teaching here. He also neglects weapons being pulled while on the ground (although later on he shows a knife defense while top mounted but nothing about something being accessed while performing the other techniques) and foul tactics. For example, with the first throw presented, Simco fails to mention that having your back to your attacker could be dangerous should he attempt to reach around and gouge the eyes the second they hit the floor. The attacker won't always have his wind knocked out of him either, unlike what Simco says. In some cases he may not even be phased by the throw, but Simco is not planning for a worst-case scenario, but a non-threatening playground tussle.

Next you get to the section where frontal attacks are addressed and as with just about every grappler I’ve come across makes the same misunderstanding. He says that you do not want to strike your opponent because you could easily break your hand, and that the situation you will most likely face will not be life-threatening, and talks of situations that a teacher, law enforcement officer, or you and a friend might get involved in where you need to restrain someone. He then goes on to say that retraining techniques are controllable in that you can vary the severity, but that’s just untrue. With striking you could palm strike someone in the upper chest, or pop them lightly in the face to get your point across. No need to break someone nose, as Simco says, with a strike. Unlike what he says, striking can be used in a less threatening situation.

Another thing he claims is that a smaller person doesn’t want to try and hit a much bigger person, yet I know of smaller people who hit like a mule and could easily knock a bigger person out. It’s just that their understanding of striking is minimal. Also, most attacks occur within arm's length or closer, making striking a good option.

Simco talks of getting into a situation and getting into a confrontation management position and giving the opponent “a way out,” instead of getting into a fighting stance and more likely getting into a fight. That’s very good advice there and I don't have anything to add.

In Simco’s discussion of defending against strikes, I found this to be a little funny because although he teaches a good concept of blocks and parries, similar to what I’ve been trained to do in Dynamic Combat, his application of it is laughable.

When they throw punches it looks as if they’re just slapping each other, and tells you to move your hand just a few inches, and not past your centerline, to parry and deflect a straight punch, but that defense will be crushed by a stiff straight attack. He’s simply not putting enough strength into the parries, same with the outward blocks against hooks, which is even funnier. He tells you to just twist your wrist and make a small movement to the outside to parry circular punches, yet a good hook would go right around those so called blocks. He does show some good low punch deflections with the forearms and elbows, though. Simco’s kick defense is the well known lifting the leg method, and is practical.

Next, offensive striking techniques are discussed but again Simco does not educate his viewers. He teaches just one: the front push kick. He explains all of the obvious advantages of kicking, but none of the very serious liabilities, such as balance issues being the main one. Yes, as he says, the leg is longer and more powerful, but most people will not be coordinated enough to utilize such techniques. Furthermore, if someone is coming at you with a flurry of punches or a pushing attack kicking can be risky if it's not timed just right and you end up getting knocked off balance.

Next, some techniques against someone trying to attack you while you’re on the ground are shown and he shows the same technique of getting behind the attacker as before, the only difference is you’re on your knees this time. Some good techniques he shows are kicks and pushing off against someone standing over you while you’re on your back and how to stand back up and is pretty good, except for when he shows how to push someone off while they’re between your legs and you don’t have the space to get your feet on their hips. He tells you to dig your heels in the ground and slide on your back to get the space, but I guess he forgot that you might be on concrete and you’ll tear your back up, and/or, the rough surface will hinder your movement, unlike the smooth mats he’s demonstrating on that you can easily slide across.

Near the end of the DVD he shows some weapon defenses. First he shows his knife defense, which is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. He tells you to attempt to grab the attacker’s knife wrist, and then grab the blade. What?! His thinking is that if you grab the blade and wrist, you will prevent him from switching hands, or twisting out of your grip. But realistically if the guy’s strong enough, you’ve only got a one handed grip and you’ll more than likely get your fingers severed as he breaks that one handed grip. He also claims that by grabbing the blade you shrink the length of it and while struggling if you happen to get stabbed it will penetrate less. But Simco argues that after you get a hold of the wrist and blade you’re told to twist it out of the guy’s hand, much like you would in stick training and the like, but this isn’t a stick! Does Simco expect an attacker to come at you with a butter knife or something?

Let's wake up from Simco's dreamland.

A sharp blade could slice into your fingers and hand deep to the bone in some cases, even if you've got a grip on the attacker's wrist, just from the jerking and pulling that will take place as the attacker tries to regain control of his weapon. Another issue is that if you're training for a worst-case scenario, even assuming you don't get cut very deep and you're able to pry the knife loose, the attacker's other hand is still free to strike you freely while you're struggling with his knife hand.

He also shows this defense, as I mentioned earlier, while being straddled and attacked with a downward stab. With the distance cut down considerably, that wouldn’t be very likely since the reaction time would be nil.

One thing I have to say that is good is that Simco makes an excellent point that blocking a knife can be dangerous if you extend your limbs and the opponent can go around your defense, but that's the only decent advice he gives for knife defense. I truly feel sorry for anyone who listens to him, as they are not learning anything of value regarding knife defense.

Finally he demonstrates a defense against a firearm, which is actually pretty decent with a few misunderstandings on Simco’s part. For example, he tells you that you have to move to the outside or an attacker can bend his wrist and shoot after you grab and deflect, but it can also be done from the outside as well, if the attacker really tries, it’s just that his assistant is cooperating. The final part of each gun defense is Simco doing the well known grab the barrel, twist and point it at the attacker, which can work if your attacker is not a good fighter and uses his other hand to attack you, or tries to regain control of the weapon.

One small detail I noticed when Simco was demonstrating a gun defense was he had is hands near the weapon, then pretended to reach back for his wallet to give to the mock attacker, then came back and deflected the weapon with the same hand he used to reach for the wallet. That's just silly because he’s increasing the distance he has to travel, and increasing the likelihood of not deflecting the weapon in time, and the attacker will likely see that large action coming and you're liable to get shot.

One thing I didn’t like about the DVD is that throughout the instructional portion there are short clips of Simco’s BJJ sport DVDs, which was a little annoying. I think he should’ve refrained from doing that, and just put an advertisement at the beginning or the end, which there is a good a advertisement at the end of the program, so why put those clips there? Another thing that bugged me was the camera man. In some of the shots when Simco and his assistant are showing something, he zooms in very tight and you can’t see what’s happening. At one point when Simco is showing a takedown defense, all you see the assistant’s eye for several seconds.

I have to say that I wasn’t expecting a very practical method and I was right, though there were a few good points made, but I think many of these sport oriented guys should stick with what they know best and leave the self defense aspects of martial arts to the true experts.

Despite the grim review, if you’re still interested in buying these DVD’s you can order directly from Gene Simco’s website, www.jiu-jitsu.net.