• Rumina Sato Shootfighting
• Number of moves: 45
• Number of Tapes: 1
• Length: 1 Hour
• Level: Intermediate to Advanced
• Rating: 4 Stars

I am always on the lookout for good solid instructional tapes. This instructional tape is one that has been floating around. It is a program that aired on the Samurai TV Network. Rumina Sato demonstrates a ton of moves in the 1 hour program. Sato may not be familiar to you. He is in his middle 20's and one of the best shootfighters in Japan (named Japan's Combat Wrestler of the year in 1997). His wins include an ankle lock against Ricardo Botelho (BJJ black belt), straight armbar against John Lewis (BJJ black belt), and triangle choke against Alan Fried (wrestler).

This tape is an electric collection of techniques from kicking and punching to a plethora of submission moves. I would say that I have not seen about 25% of these moves on any other tape set (these days that is very good). The focus is on takedowns and submissions. You will not find anything about passing the guard, how to get the mount, or transitioning from move to move. This is not a BJJ tape.

My general impression of a tape is ultimately decided often by how many moves on a tape make me say, "That was cool, I can't wait to try that" or "What the hell was that cheesy-ass move, that wouldn't work on my grandmother (and she is dead)."

The moves on the tape as a whole were very solid. There are about 10 moves on this tape that were creative variations of different submission that I can't wait to try out. There were 3 errors in technique that stood out. On one move Sato crossed his feet on juji-gatame without securing the far arm with his feet. On another move Sato had the back mount with his opponent on top of him. The problem is that Sato crossed his feet. He only did this once. Sato's preferred method of using the legs was to figure-four (similar to the triangle choke) his legs around his opponent's waist. This method of holding the opponent is taught in Judo schools, but is not generally used by BJJ practitioners. If anyone has any comments for or against this method, drop me a line.

Not to dwell on the negative, because this was a very good tape, but Sato does the same cheesy mount escape that Egan Inoue showed. You push on your mounted opponent's chest and then roll up and hook the feet on their chest and pull them back. More power to you if you can make this work without taking a severe beating.

For those that like to do "flying" armbars there are some fancy moves taught (with an interesting flying triangle choke demonstrated).

This tape is completely done in Japanese. As a result, this tape is more demonstrational than instructional. That is to say, you have to follow along by watching and can't rely on being told how the move should be executed. That being said, Sato does a great job of going through the moves slowly and clearly. As a side note, the production value was pretty good too.

This tape reminded me very much of the "Submission Bible," the main difference is that this tape is shorter and Sato does not sadistically torture his demonstration partner. I for one am looking forward to seeing how Sato will do when and if he enters the UFC.