My experience with Lt. X's videos

**jtkarate** · Posted On: 8/22/2007 8:35pm

Pedsmd...what are you wanting to get from training? Exercise? Self defense? Spiritual Harmony? etc..etc...

**chingythingy** · Posted On: 8/22/2007 9:22pm

Originally Posted by pedsmd

Indeed, Satori. I have no idea why I envisioned being able to "train" through a DVD anyway. Actually, I do know why, I'm on call 50% of my life, leaving little time for training in a real dojo. Pipedreams, for sure. I just like sports, and if MA provided me self-defense ability at the same time, then so much the better. I'm just not sure I want to do Tang Soo Do (the closest dojo and where my son goes). I'm near Athens, GA.

We've got an ER doc in our school that travels in 30 min to train. He's a stud, built like a 5ft. 4 Captain America. Sometimes he gets called out of class, but he's an awesome addition to the school and just rolls with it.

**melk** · Posted On: 8/22/2007 11:15pm

Ok I am either going to sound like an idiot or a troll, but I have to ask, who is Lt. X. and what does everyone have against him? Honestly I have never heard of the guy before, but I am interested?

**PPlate** · Posted On: 8/22/2007 11:32pm

Originally Posted by pedsmd

The content of the Merc combatives was essentially: escape from wrist-grabs (that took an entire disc),

LOL! Entire disc? In the original Cestari video, he spends like 1 minute on this. It's basically to yank your wrist up towards your left or right, always towards the thumb of the holder. Or just hit him. And it works.

basic stomp-kick, memorizing certain sequences (like "cover-step-thrust", then "thrust, thrust, chop, thrust, push"), apparently in an effort to just emphasize to keep moving aggressively during a fight, not necessarily to adhere strictly to sequence, explaining chops, tiger-claws, and chin-jabs as well as eye-gouging, fish-hooks, and nose-gouges. That's about the sum of the MC 1-4. Again, nothing wrong with the info, just excruciatingly long to present and nothing I hadn't read for free already.

pedsmd, would you mind elaborating on what "cover" and "thrust" means? What are the actions? I think I can safely assume that "step" refers to "drop step", ala Jack Dempsey.

I'm not familiar with what "cover" and "thrust" are. (I hope it's not a reference to sex with an ugly woman).

BTW, who's the instructor in all these Lt. X videos?

**Judah Maccabee** · Posted On: 8/22/2007 11:37pm

Boyd, you want to know what was in the videos?

Educationally: He refers to several legitimate psychological concepts like chunking and concept mapping, then attempts to bamboozle the viewer into believing that his system actually uses such ideas and that such ideas make you a badass fighter.

Martial-arts wise: Every problem can be solved with a hip throw. A badly-done hip throw. Guy tries to kick you in the balls? Parry the leg and HIP-THROW.

**Sam Browning** · Posted On: 8/22/2007 11:47pm

I'd be interested in finding out what our doctor thought of the neurology portion of LT X's lecture on the first disk of top secret training.

**PPlate** · Posted On: 8/22/2007 11:56pm

The problem I see with the combatives program (or rather Lt. X's marketing) is this. It may work well against an untrained person in a fight (like _ing _un).

It will work well if you can get in the first shot (typically an axe-hand to the throat).

However, if (and that's a huge if) you're not able to catch someone off guard, and the fight is on, many of the strikes are iffy.

It will definitely NOT make you "fear no man."

I'll give some examples.

- axe-hand to the throat, bridge of nose, temple. The axe-hand to the throat will be completely useless against someone who holds his hands up in a conventional boxing/kickboxing stance. You'll not be able to land it, because his guard is in the way. If you get close enough to axe-hand him on the bridge of nose, he can punch you while you're still a far way off. Temples are also easily covered by the hands.

- chin-jab/tiger claw. These have very similar mechanics to a punch, and a trained fighter will deal with it in the same way easily. However, the same cannot be said for the Combatives guy, he might not be able to deal with the follow ups that a boxer/kickboxer will deal.

- knee to groin. It's not so easy to land a knee on someone who's trained, even if you clinch them first. The distance between you and him is dynamic and constantly changing. Try it without grabbing first (as I see it done in the Cestari tapes) and you increase the difficulty a great deal. Just ask any kyokushin guy.

- forward momentum. I think this may be the single greatest thing that will give you an edge in a self-defense situation. However, again, trained fighters train to deal with this. Can be very easily circumverted just by circling off.

- side kick to shin. Very difficult to do this with enough speed and lack of telegraphing to land. Even if the person moves a little, the blow loses a big percentage of it's power. It also loses it's effectiveness without heavy shoes on.

The combatives program is meant to be taught to soldiers in wartime who don't have a lot of time to devote to training H2H. For that it did the job well. It is by no means a superior fighting system, as it lacks so many tools that other stand-up fighting arts (e.g. muay thai) have. One important aspect in any kind of fighting system is defense. Defense against punches, kicks, knees, elbows, throws, etc. This was almost non-existent in the Cestari tapes I've seen.

**melk** · Posted On: 8/23/2007 12:30am

Is it this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Ds_l04T18
Trying to rehash his system which obviously worked so well against Mark Kerr?

**jtkarate** · Posted On: 8/23/2007 7:50am

Originally Posted by melk

Ok I am either going to sound like an idiot or a troll, but I have to ask, who is Lt. X. and what does everyone have against him? Honestly I have never heard of the guy before, but I am interested?

Use the search function and you can find a bit about him

**pedsmd** · Posted On: 8/23/2007 9:35am

jtkarate--exercise and self-defense (or just some fun?) is what I'm looking for--not interested in mysticism or philosophy--I'm good there.

melk--Lt. X claims to have trained lots of military/special forces, blah, blah, and to have knowledge of a learning technique that accelerates one's ability to practice combatives. You can check it out at www.topsecrettraining.com (careful, I've heard there's spyware). I fell for it b/c of the Cestari connection--he seems legit; Lt X not so much. He's well known for his over-the-top marketing and outrageous claims about his products.

Sam--like someone else once said on this forum, as with many frauds, they start with a kernel of truth to hook the audience and provide a seemingly verifiable framework to advance what they're selling. Lt. X describes our brain as "3 brains". Embryologically, the brain has been described as developing into 3 major divisions--the prosencephalon (forebrain), mesencephalon (midbrain), and rhombencephalon (hindbrain). The rhombencephalon gives rise to the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the cerebellum, the 1st two of which function similar to the spinal cord and regulate breathing, heart rate, reflex movements, and other "automatic" functions (ie, the "brain stem"). (Lt. X incorrectly calls the autonomic nervous system the "automatic nervous system"). The cerebellum mainly regulates motor coordination. The mesencephalon is mostly a relay center but also contains cranial nerve nuclei, visual and auditory centers, and other structures. The prosencephalon contains the "higher centers" of the brain including the cerebral hemispheres, basal ganglia, and limbic system, portions of which Lt. X might call the "primitive brain" as they serve to regulate the "fight or flight" response, emotion centers, fundamental sexual drive, etc. So it is clear the issue is much more complex than what Lt. X describes, and this doesn't scratch the surface. Not only that, but the idea of suppressing the "fight or flight" response through the numbers system is basically eliminating the individual's survival instinct--not that it would be successful anyway. The reason people can do super-human feats at these stressful times is precisely because of the biological response that he is trying to suppress. Lt. X's idea of "crossing the centerline" is interesting; basically trying to utilize the logical/analytical left hemisphere simultaneously with the creative/artistic right hemisphere during a fight. I think this applies only during training, not during a real fight. If trained over and over again, one's "muscle memory" may still function well enough to perform moves that were previously burned into the mind, allowing retrieval during times of stress for actual combat. Attempting to retrieve moves or sequences not "trained" into your muscle memory would, IMO, cause just enough delay to result in a bad outcome for you. The exercises he demonstrates to facilitate this "crossing the centerline", which include hip circles, the "elephant", and others, seem to me irrelevant, as possessing a corpus callosum makes this unnecessary.

pplate--"cover" means hand-to-ear to guard against a punch/jab, etc. "Step" mean step to a 45 degree off-center, and "thrust" means chin-jab or chop, etc. The instructor is Lt. X himself, aka Chris Pizzo.