I was just checking my Gmail and saw a Google Ad on the side of the page – Google obviously knew I was into martial arts so gave me their most profitable martial arts ad. It looked like this.
Firstly I didn’t want to click the add so just went straight to “FightFast.com/Fight_Moves” in a new tab, but that gave me “404” error page, so then I went straight to the domain root – fightfast.com – where I saw a featured YouTube-hosted video – youtube.com/watch?v=2K-an7cIwOA – containing 15 minutes of words on the screen saying how great their techniques are, but not actually showing a single person or graphical depiction of any movement at all within this video – it was pure words arranged in a mesmerising manner – typical of scams.
So I clicked through to the YouTube page for the video and then clicked through to the profile it was held on – youtube.com/fightfastvideos – and saw lots of other videos all with actual people demostrating techniques – Eureka!
So I scanned the video descriptions looking for something funny or crazy – they were all pretty common to be honest – as expected, simple messy moves like elbow strikes that you’d learn in a Krav Maga class. Then I saw one about a Stomp Kick – was he gonna stomp on some guy’s head while that guy was on the floor? Let’s check it out, because that would be dirtier than dirty! It would be utter insanity, yet I’ve seen it taught in many a class I’ve attended to date.
Well, it turned out to be a simple stomp to the opponent’s chest. Nice move! No damage really, just pushing them back a few yards for a few seconds. Real clever. Well, actually it’s a pointless move unless you’re trying to clear some space in a hurry, which in all fairness you may be trying to do, especially if there’s multiple attackers which you’d rather take on 1-by-1.
The interesting thing is, the guy demonstrating had classic idiosyncrasies of modern Wing Chun clubs – his guard was rigid and off-balance while his footwork was robotic and vulnerably positioned – just like they teach in so many Wing Chun clubs these days – even my teachers have done such things – I can only put that down to lack of experience sparring with genuine soft-style martial arts experts, or training based on denial.
Turns out this guy was an official representative of FightFast. Dodgy Wing Chun teachers get a long way in the martial arts industry because Wing Chun is so effective even with ridiculous bad habits built in.
Just to be clear, the simple stomp kick to the chest with toes pointing directly upwards is not a genuine Wing Chun move, even though it’s the move featured in the main picture of Wikipedia’s Wing Chun page, and this video’s first comment was one by a Wing Chun practitioner giving his regards. Just to be clear, this kind of kick involves way too much “force against force” – way too much rebound to fit in with the genuine original Wing Chun system. How deceived our Wing Chun schools are these days!
I’ve tried critiquing random YouTube videos before, but felt bad about it – it’s kind of a dirty thing to do – nobody’s perfect after all. But reviewing this ad has kind of given me the idea of checking up on all martial arts related Google Ads because they’re not only full of b/s but are proactively trying to scam as many people as possible via their AdWords campaigns.
What’s most ironic is that the instructor in the stomp video – Tommy DiLallo – has his own YouTube account called MAcritique!
Stay tuned for more reviews!