Mark Kerr - Seek and Destroy - No-Holds-Barred


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Here it is. The Mark Kerr - Seek and Destroy review. More than a year in the making and way over budget!

Anytime I review a tape set I think carefully about the person teaching. What would I want to learn from this person? In other words, what do they do well? I also think about what I would not sell my spit to learn for this individual. A brief look at Mark Kerr and his impressive NHB record tells me a few things. I want to learn how to take people down like he does. I want to learn how he gets in such great shape. I don't think I want lessons on punching and kicking from Kerr. I don't think I need lessons on mount escapes from Kerr. I think you get the idea. I am always willing to watch and try and learn. However, this tape set, like many, falls into the trap of trying to meet their tape quota by stretching the bounds of their knowledge. Just because they turn a camera on you and you have a willing opponent, does not make you an expert on techniques that you have only a superficial knowledge of.

Panther runs into this problem more often than most tape companies. Their pricing structure is based on all tape sets being tons of tapes. Kerr's tape set weighs in at 8 tapes. That is a small one by Panther standards. If you tighten the set up a little and get rid of the 8 slow motion replays for each move and other deliberate time killers, this would be 5-6 tape set. Panther does have the lowest prices in the market. If they go any lower, Panther will be paying people to take their tapes away in bushel baskets (However, they might sell you the basket). Unfortunately, it has been my experience that you get what you pay for in the instructional tape market. That being said, this might be Panther's best effort to date. Kerr is articulate. He may look like he just walked off the set of 2 Million BC, but he is educated and well spoken.

Back to a point I mentioned earlier. Other than takedowns, I really don't see Kerr having a lot of technique to offer. He is from the crude "ground and pound" school of fighters which was introduced by Mark Coleman. Some might think this is kind of closed minded and an oversimplification. Guilty, but hear me out.

If I announced a Kerr vs. Royce Gracie fight, why does everyone get so excited? I think the attraction is to see if Royce's skill can overcome Kerr's strength. You might be saying, "Hey, what about Kerr's techniques, he has skill too." Let's think about this. If you reverse the physical attributes of the two fighters, would you still be interested in the fight? Make Kerr 180 pounds and make Royce 255 pounds of chemically enhanced lowland gorilla muscle. Royce "The Shave Gorilla" Gracie vs. Mark "The Pencil Neck" Kerr. Would this be a reasonable fight to put on? I would say no. I don't think Kerr would have the technique to make it a credible fight. A 255 pound, 3% body fat Royce Gracie would crush 180 pound Kerr into little bits and then stomp on them. I don't think Kerr would even be able to take Royce down in that situation. Moreover, I think Kerr would lack the defensive skills to survive Royce's power and size. So ask yourself, what happened to all the great technique you might have thought Kerr had. Take the size and strength out of the equation and you are not left with much. So, now you have a tape set that will teach you the techniques that have made Kerr successful. Hmmm. All I can say is, hit the gym and then hit the chemicals and then grab these tapes.

This being said. Would I tell Kerr to change his tactics. Probably not. He is huge and strong. This counts for a lot. I do have trouble when someone who is not of the same physical stature watches these tapes and attempts to imitate the techniques. The results might not be pretty. Just keep this as a caveat when you watch these tapes. Kerr can be heard on several occasions on the tape set saying that many of the moves would not work against him. Really, no shit!! Kerr often has trouble muscling through many of the moves. That alone is a red flag in my mind.

In sum, Kerr is known for his takedowns and his impressive physique. Get the 3 tapes devoted to the takedowns and the 1 tape devoted to defending takedowns.. Kerr is not know for his punching, kicking, escaping the guard, escaping the mount, and leg locks. Don't get the tapes devoted to these things. I will say one thing. Mark Kerr will never earn a Dumb as a Brick Award from me. I see a guy who is trying like hell to build his skills in the areas that he thinks he is deficient. Kerr has made great strides in many areas. These tapes have an "on the job learning" feel to them. This is similar to the Maurice Smith's tapes. I walked away with the impression that 6 months ago he did not even know many of the moves he is teaching on the tapes.

Despite making great strides, Kerr is still mainly a ground and pound kind of guy. The funny thing is, the area that Kerr needs to gain more understanding is the area that he has probably had the least amount of growth and that is grappling. Kerr dominates on the ground not because of his technique, but because of his massive size and strength. I shudder to think what would happen if Kerr were to run into someone who is his physical equal or bigger. I would recommend Kerr take a serious look at the De la Riva tapes. If Ricardo "Mr. Bean" De La Riva can make the moves work, Kerr should be able to do it ten times better.

As a side note, many might walk away from the above discussion and think I hate Kerr and/or all wrestlers. Nothing could be father from the truth. Put Kerr in the line-up and I will be there, front and center, yelling for him. However, these reviews focus on the quality of the teaching and technique on a given tape set. A fighter's success or failure in the ring or my liking or not liking them is not a factor.

Again, in sum, Kerr is known for his takedowns and his impressive physique. Get the 3 tapes devoted to the takedowns and the 1 tape devoted to defending takedowns. Kerr is not known for his punching, kicking, escaping the guard, escaping the mount, and leg locks. Don't get the tapes devoted to these things. Its that simple.

Kerr does a good job explaining the basics of closing the distance. Kerr covers mainly single leg takedowns and how to escape from some of the common counters to takedowns. Most of the counters are where you shoot in and your opponent sprawls back and under or over hooks your arms with his arms. This provides a variety of "puzzles" that need to be solved. The whole point of the tape is to get idea about proper distance, closing the distance without getting hurt, establishing proper posture and then taking your opponent to the ground. As is the Panther tradition, they show one move in slow motion 9 times!!! Unbelievable. Once, maybe twice, but don't kill tape with this nonsense.

This tape builds on the previous tape. I was happy to see this. Often Panther does not seem to have any sense of continuity running through their tapes. Kerr starts the tape with a few more takedowns. One of them is a nice variation of the traditional shoot in grab them around the back, hook a leg and fall forward. It is easy to execute and effective. Kerr then spend the rest o the tape dealing with shooting in when your opponent punches or kicks. He does a nice job with this material. Again, as with all the tapes, Panther attempts to kill tape by showing a move 6 times in a row in slow motion. Yawn. Fast forward. Yawn.

This tape covers takedowns that start from a variety of standing positions. There are several takedowns from when you and your opponent are facing each other and are locked together while jockeying for position. Kerr covers the situations where you have one arm over your opponent's arm and one arm under, both under and both over. Each situation is unique and has a different solution. This is the weakest of the three takedown tapes. Too many of the moves leave you in a bad position if they fail or are too hard to pull off against a large opponent. I got the sense that Kerr's opponent on the tapes was being too nice. He would forget to be nice and Kerr would have some real difficulty pulling off the move. Kerr would try to teach this unexpected counter by his opponent. From there on his partner would not put up the struggle.

This is one of the best tapes out of the set. Kerr covers how to defend against takedowns. He covers how to sprawl and how to pry someone off who is going for a double leg takedown. Kerr also demonstrates how to counter when your opponent captures your kick. I am not sure what this was doing on this tape, but it was a nice move anyway. The tape ends with an interview with Kerr. Kerr talks about his 16 years in wrestling. The interview was reasonably informative. Now that the UFC has ended their "up close and personal" interviews before each fight, it was nice to get some info on Kerr. This interview also confirms what is apparent from the tapes. Kerr is making his own style up as he goes. The moves we see on the tape set are his own personal set of moves. This tape set is a snapshot of Kerr at the moment. If the set were done a year earlier or a year later, the set would be very different. This is not a set of moves designed for the fighter with average physical attributes.

This is, for the most part, a lame tape. I can't help but walk away with the feeling that Kerr is making up his techniques as he goes. I think this tape is just a snap shot of where Kerr was in his development at the time the tape was made. He was trying to come to grips with what works for him. Most of the moves on this tape require the power that Kerr is known for. Not a lot of finesse here. Kerr starts with using the scarf hold to control his opponent. He then moves into basic strikes to get your opponent to roll to his stomach. From here he shows how to get the hooks in. If your opponent is not cooperating, Kerr shows how to force your opponent to give up his back. The tape ends with one escape if your opponent has your back. This move might work for Kerr, it will not work for anyone else. Like many of the moves on this tape set, the physics are not there to make the moves work. You really need to have overwhelming strength to pull it off.

This tape is a waste. Since the other tapes dealt with the back mount, I thought this tape would deal with the mount or the side mount. The tape deals with the mount at a beginner's level of understanding and then moves into other positions. Kerr is known for his takedowns. He is not known for fighting from the mount. In fact I would even say it is a position that he tries to avoid when fighting. Kerr shows a choke from the scarf hold. A more technical version is shown on the Sperry 1. The tape then moves on to talk about the North and South position. There is some discussion of blocks and delivering knee strikes from this position and then an armbar is demonstrated of which Kerr has little understanding. Kerr then moves on to talk about submission from the side control. I have to note that each of these positions was called some sort of "mount." For example, the side control was called "The side mount." I guess you are free to call any position you want the mount. Kerr shows a basic Americana lock that was poorly done. If you do the lock as demonstrated you are looking for trouble. If you are a huge monster and capable of simply ripping an arm off, you might be successful with this move as demonstrated.

Kerr then continues the theme of "all" mount techniques by showing a takedown when you catch your opponent's kick and move into a knee bar to finish the fight. Maybe this move is called "The flying kneebar mount submission" and belongs on this tape. Another annoying thing about this tape, is the fact that Kerr keeps showing the same takedown repeatedly. This takedown was taught on a previous tape. I can see him teaching it once as a reminder, but three or four times over the course of the tape is a bit much. This tape is not well organized. The only thing I can think of is that they pieced a bunch of stuff together that did not fit anywhere better. Near the end of the tape Kerr and his partner spar. It became clear that Kerr did not have a great grasp of the basics. Two things help Kerr. Kerr is huge and his opponent is clueless (but also huge). Kerr might have pounded the crap out of tiny Fabio Gurgel for a half-hour, but he never got away with half the crap he did on this guy. Kerr spent part of his time with knee on chest going the wrong direction. Doh!

Kerr walks you through that which he has little understanding. Kerr shows the fact he has little to no experience at fighting while mounted or in the side control. Someone let me know how many times Kerr has actually been mounted in NHB fights? All you will get from this tape is a weak understanding of escaping the mount and the guard. Worse yet, you will walk away with bad technique. The best guard pass that I have seen Kerr do was when he stepped on Gurgel's groin on his way over. Unfortunately, he does not teach the "heel on groin pass." There are 5 techniques taught on this tape. About 1 every 11 minutes!! One scarf hold (called the side control by Kerr). Two mount escapes. One closed guard pass and one open guard pass. All I can say is, I will take a pass. Kerr really has a superficial understanding of these positions. Despite spending 11 minutes on the scarf hold escape, there is no depth to anything here. You would be much better off watching Kukuk 1 that covers in detail a very realistic set of moves designed to escape headlocks.

Just stay clear of this tape.

All I can say about this tape is buy it if you are going to fight Kerr in the near future, otherwise give it a pass. Yes, I know everyone would like to look like Kerr. Yes, it would be nice to see how Kerr ends up looking like Kerr. Kerr does give you lots of conditioning drills, but this is by no means "Mark Kerr's Ass-of-Steal Workout" tape. Really, it comes down to working hard in the Gym and then hitting the chemicals. The chemicals seem to be missing from the discussion. The weakest part of this tape is the first half which deals with punches and kicks. Kerr covers a couple of punches and a couple of kicks. He then covers some useful drills. Again, we see a guy who is really trying to improve his skills and is showing you where he is currently in that process. Kerr is a beginner at both punching and kicking. The best thing to walk away from this tape is to keep things simple. The only other thing to point out on this tape is that it is the least professionally produced tape of the set. In this tape they move into a gym with a ring to demonstrate the moves. They did not get the gym to themselves and the background noise is distracting at best.

Bill Lewis BJJ33@aol.com
© Copyright Bill Lewis 1999 all rights reserved.