Kibun presents jiu-jitsu and wrestling moves.

Over 140 techniques on one DVD spanning beginner to advanced applications.

“Kibun”, a Japanese term meaning “spirit of mind”, is the work of jiu-jitsu stylist David Welp and wrestler Pablo Cunningham who work as police officers in Southern California.

They are both fighters with the Huntington Beach-trained Welp fighting mainly in Southeast California and Cunnigham having additional experience overseas. Welp has trained for 27 years in a variety of martial arts including Korean Kuk Sul, Muay Thai and American style kickboxing and Cunnigham has been a wrestler from youth through college.

The DVD broken up into 7 sections: basic positioning, armlocks, leg/ankle locks, chokes, wrestling moves, counters and escapes, and sweeps. A picture-in-picture window is used sparingly most sections and featured more prominently in the ankle lock section. Techniques are shown Vale Tudo style, in just a t-shirt and shorts and move quickly with the practitioners going through some techniques twice.

Below is an evaluation of the DVD based on 10 criteria:

Setting: Excellent. The standard blue mat surface did not clash with the instructor’s clothing during any of the ground techniques. For the stand-up techniques, the walls behind the practitioners were made of glass block or were lightly colored and did not effect the instruction.

Lighting: Good. Generally it was a non-issue. The only time it was a factor was when viewing chokes or locks in tight proximity and sometimes the area of concentration was a little dark.

Clarity of Video Image: Good. The images weren’t fuzzy or grainy. At times there was a slight yellowness to the screen when a there was a segment change and unfortunately a few of the picture-in-picture clips were too dark or too high in the corner to be effective.

Sound: Very Good. The sound dips occasionally when the instructors head is down (like during the single-leg takedown sequence) but generally all of the audio is legible. There was no underlying hum or buzz to conflict with the explanations.

Explanation of Technique: Good. The only negative here is that majority of techniques are shown only once, likely to pack in more information into the DVD. Obviously some techniques are more complicated than others and require a more detailed explanation. This would have been especially helpful when seeing techniques from the single camera angle without the benefit of the picture-in-picture function. Obviously this is a video and not personal instruction so every question cannot be answered but an additional minimal resistance demonstration or mentioning possible application pitfalls would have been helpful. Officer Welp’s delivery is slow, clear and direct while Officer Cunningham’s delivery a little rushed but quite convincing.

Use of Picture-In-Picture Video Window: Fair. That is a nice option to have and it could be used a little better in future DVD presentations from Kibun. I feel it could’ve been used more in the arm lock section, like for the forearm crush from sidemount, or with the hand placement on the rolling kneebar technique. Also, some of the windows were dark and it was difficult to see what was taking place. This may have been a result of the size of my particular television set (a relatively small, by today’s standards, 27 inch monitor), but the edge of the window sometimes fell outside of my TV screen. However this is their first effort and you can always improve on the original.

Quality of Techniques: Good. My only gripe here is that after the broken down explanation, it is often helpful to show the techniques in a very limited resistance or no resistance application. Things like sweat, fatigue and general environment play a factor here. This has a lot of good street technique for general purposes.

Quantity of Techniques: Excellent. They packed likely 3 to 4 tapes worth of techniques into one DVD giving the customer an amazing value for their dollar. Even if you’ve seen most of this stuff before, and maybe feel you’ve seen them performed better, you still can’t get a more concise library of techniques for the $40 price tag. Having it all on one DVD cuts down on storage and will keep you from fumbling through multiple DVDs to find which one has the technique you’re looking for.

Best Section of the DVD: It would have to be Officer Pablo Cunningham’s section on wrestling… but it’s not just because of the techniques. It is a combination of Pablo’s delivery and David’s off mike reactions. Pablo is brutal and makes David experience every technique to its painful finish. David is often seen grimacing and can be heard gasping from impact under Pablo’s winded explanation. There was no question whether Mr. Cunningham knows how to hurt people.

Over-All Value of DVD: Good. You cannot under value the amount of information you are getting for the price. These technique videos are designed for a common “view it then practice it” type training so you can always run through the techniques and work out your mistakes. Price: $39.95
Available at: http://www.KibunInc.com
Running time: 75 minutes