Let me introduce Egan Inoue for those who don't know who he is. He was the 1996 Blue Belt - Brazilian National Champion and is the 1997 Purple Belt - Brazilian National Champion. He was a two time World Racket Ball Champion. He is pure muscle and in tremendous shape. He is the proud maker of the worst grappling tape set on the market. These tapes suck. This should be the end of the review. Period.
In a nutshell, here is why these tapes suck. Stay with me for a moment. Let's say you just started karate and after 6 months you are now a yellow belt. I am happy for you. You travel to a big karate tournament like the Battle of Atlanta. You enter into the yellow belt division and you kick ass and take names. You crush all the other yellow belts. You should be proud. However, I have a serious problem if you now decide to make an instructional video tape set based on your "vast" experience. Your tape set should have a warning label that says "WARNING: These tapes are taught by a beginner and contain a very superficial understanding of the techniques taught. Use at you own risk." This is exactly what Egan did with this tape set. Egan went to Brazil and won the blue belt division. Congratulations, I am very happy for you. Then he immediately came out with this tape set. Fine. You have had your fun. You've made your money from a desperate public. Enough is enough. I can't believe Unique Publications still sells this tape set. This tape set was only average at best when it was released. It has aged about as well as a $20 crack whore in Time Square.
If you buy this tape set you are, in the words of Ross Perot, "paying full price for a cheap seat." I can't imagine why you would buy a tape set from a blue belt when there are some great tape sets from legitimate black belts.
After I got done watching this tape set I asked myself who this tape set would be best suited for. I have yet to arrive at an answer. The tape set appears to be directed at beginners. However, the tapes are not so much instructional as they are demonstrational. Egan does a move and you are left to just kind of figure it out from watching. For anyone who has seen the Ruas Vale Tudo tapes, they suffer from this same lack of explanation accompanying the moves. Ruas at least had an excuse, he does not speak much English.
Let's assume you have trained with Egan at a school for a couple months and you grab your camcorder and ask Egan to quickly go through the moves you have covered. This tape would be a great reminder, but would be short on instruction. This is exactly what this tape set is like. You might ask how the hell did Egan win the Blue belt division in Brazil. Having not seen his fights, I can only guess. LOOK AT HIM. The man is pure muscle. With even a scintilla of technique and his overwhelming strength he would crush most people. He is a naturally gifted athlete. Naturals often make the worst teachers. If asked, they are often hard pressed to explain how a move is done. Because of their gifted nature they simply execute the move with out thinking about it. If you doubt this, have Barry Sanders teach you how to be the best running back in the NFL. See how much you learn. Step one: "Be Barry Sanders." Step two: "See step one."
These tapes are not for beginners. The techniques are taught only superficially and assume a clueless opponent. To add insult to injury, there are too many wrong moves laced throughout this tape set. I would not send a beginner into this minefield of moves. This beginner would never know if the next step would lead to disaster. One of the ways Egan shows to escape the mount made me wince. Step one, raise both of your arms and push on your opponent's chest until arms are straight (I can feel my flesh crawl already). Step two, raise your legs and hook your opponent's chest pulling him back and off of you. Step three, receive severe beating or optional armbar from opponent. I watched several scary films this Halloween but none made me cover my eyes in shear horror like this tape set. For the love of god man, make it stop! Jason DeLucia tried this on Royce Gracie on one of the Gracie In Action tapes. For all his effort, Jason just got a spanking and was sent to bed with no dinner. Imagine if Royce was trying to hurt him.
The question then becomes who is this tape set geared for? No one. Any person with more than 6 weeks of BJJ will laugh at most of the moves on this tape set. I could actually feel myself becoming dumber the longer I watched this tape set. Me break guard, Mongo CRUSH. Mongo KILL. Mongo write review. I had to go and watch some South Park reruns just to recover some sharp wit in order to write this review. It was close, but I survived.
I give Egan the benefit the doubt. I am going to guess that if Egan had any control over the sale of this tape set he would have pulled the plug on it long ago. It is time he do a replacement tape set that reflects what he has learned in the last couple of years.
I hate to be so negative. On a more positive note, I can honestly say that the season premier of the X-Files fit perfectly on my copy of Egan's "The guard" tape. You won't need Scully or Mulder to investigate the fate of my copy of Egan's "The Mount" tape as the episode finishes next week.
Bottom line: Don't buy this tape set unless you have run out of scary movies to watch this Halloween. Unique Publications, the joke is over, you've had your fun, you've made your money, it's time to pull the plug. These tapes are an embarrassment in this crowded tape market. There are some great tape sets that have quality black belt instructors, why in heaven's name would anyone spend their money to receive blue belt level instruction. For once, take the advice of psychotic filthy rich midget like Ross Perot, and "don't pay full price for a cheap seat!"
Bill Lewis BJJ33@aol.com