Mix a Terminator and The Karate Kid together and you\’d probably get police officer James Kodzis—a no-nonsense mixed martial arts expert who would show no emotion breaking any bones in your body.

In one of his many fundamental teaching DVDs, Jujitsu 1, Kodzis displays the strikes, escapes and grappling techniques that help give you the leverage over your opponent. Kodzis starts from showing you how your stance should be, how to fall properly and get up properly without eating a knee to the face, punching open and close hand, elbow strikes, knee strikes and stomp kicks.

Kodzis also shows you clinching defence, takedown and sweeps, using the sprawl, defence against strikes on the ground, attacking and defending against the mount or side mount and much more. For 80 minutes, Kodzis shows you the offence and defensive fundamentals for each situation, easily one of the main strengths of the DVD as there is a good balance of offence and defence unlike in other training DVDs.

The best part of the DVD comes in the special features as there are a number of training drills that Kodzis goes through with his fellow MMA partners. Instead of Kodzis just demonstrating the techniques, his partners actually try to counter his takedown attempts or try to break his guard.

There are a number of camera angles given towards each technique; an overhead shot and slow-motion for particular moves such as when breaking the guard would have been more helpful and effective in understanding the demonstrations. None of the positions are taken inside a cage, only on a thin mat, so no consideration is given towards cage fighting.

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If you want a basic visual idea of how to do combat style jujitsu instead of a sport style this DVD is a great start. Arguably not the most intense DVD Kodzis has come out with as his Police Ground Combat, which is previewed on the DVD, is a lot more physical and you can tell Kodzis looks like he is in a fight to the death in that one.

If you’re looking for combat style submissions then you’ll have to check out Jujitsu 2 as that is the main focus on his follow-up.

Jujitsu 1

Starring James Kodzis

Directed by Sang Kim

Produced by Turtle Press

Run time of 80 minutes

Click here to order the DVD