The Kickbox2000 video set comes with an Introduction video, nutritional video, basics and advanced videos. This review is only for the Basics workout.

The production quality of the entire video set is really good! (The nutritional tape was a little on the poorer side...alot of echoing)He has two backgrounds with the first round (as he puts it) on a very lavish stage with spotlights. The look has a MTV haunt to it, but I thought it was nicely done. The music is really good and loud enough to hear. They use pretty much of the same kind of music throughout, so there's not too much variety, but I haven't gotten bored from it yet.

I'd rate this workout as an intermediate to high intermediate. It is certainly NO basic beginning workout...which I liked because I will not outgrow this video too quickly! The total workout time is approx. 45 minutes . The workout moves at a steady pace...so there is no resting in between.

Some negative feedback is that there is NO cooldown or stretch at the end of this tape, so you would have to do your own. The warmup is short and sweet, however I would recommend cuing the instructional video for the warmup/stretch as it is very thorough. And lastly when you get to Round 2 (The Drills), there are some combinations that are not repeated on the opposite side. Both sides will get worked doing different punches and kicks, but not equally. You will see more of what I mean when you get into the detailed portion of this review. Other than these few things, the workout is very good! One more comment is that this is NOT a choreographed aerobic workout, so those people who prefer the choreography may not take a liking to this kind of workout. The aerobic section definitely keeps you in your aerobic zone, but you pretty much stay in the 'stance' and do punches, kicks etc.

In Round 2 (the drills) he comments that this is the anerobic segment where you really work on your strength and muscles! He has some people wearing boxing gloves and kicking and punching bags in a boxing ring.

Warmup: 4 minutes consisting of head rolls, shoulder shrugs, side bends, trunk rolls and some leg stretches

Round 1(Aerobic segment) 18 minutes. We start out with single punches, then double punches, then singles again. For the rest of the combos, the majority is done as 8 slower reps, then 16 faster reps (I was able to keep up with the faster reps in the basics...but not the advanced, so I noted they weren't quite as fast), then 8 slower reps again...then he repeats on the other side. Single front knee lifts, single front kicks, single side knee lifts. Combos next: right jab, right front kick, right jab, left cross..then squats to other side and repeat; then you do 8 single roundhouse kicks for both sides, then you do a low, medium, high roundhouse kick with right leg with a punch and then 4 single roundhouse kicks and repeat on other side. Then he does an arm BURNER with tons of jabs and side punches with various combos of repititions on right arm only. Then he alternates front kicks and roundhouse kicks using various combos of reps and then he does the arm burner on left arm. Then he alternates a right front kick with left roundhouse kick 32 times, then he does 16 rapid squats, and repeats last combo on other side with 20 more rapid squats. Then he does some REAL slow side kicks working on balancing and strengthing. Then at the end of this segment he does 3 sets of uppercuts at regular speed, then uppercut flurries with 22 rapid and slow squats, then slower squats with front and roundhouse kicks and ends with more rapid squats.

Round 2 (Anerobic drills) 19 minutes: These drills are not done quickly, but with power and strength.

1:Right Jab (60 times), Left Jab (50 times), Right and Left Jab Combo (50 times)
2:Combo of right front kick, left front kick (30 times)
3:Combo of R.jab, L.jab, R.Front Kick,L.Front Kick (30 times)
4:R.Jab, R.kick, L.jab (20 times)
5:R.Jab, R. Roundhouse kick, L. Jab (30 times)
6:R.Jab, L.Jab, R. Roundhouse, L.Frontkick (20 times)
7:Double R. Jab, Single L. Jab Combo (50 times)
8:Same as above only add R. Rounhouse, & L. Jab (20 times)
9:Flurries of jabs and in place football shuffles,then light skips (or march in place), then 2 more sets of this
10:Alternates Front Kicks as fast with correct form as you can go with light skips in between 3 sets of this.

There is about 5 minutes of traditional abs done at the end of this workout.

Hopefully this will give you a good breakdown of the video so you can determine if this style of workout is for you. I have to say that I throughly enjoyed this workout even though it is not your typical kickboxing aerobic workout. I especially liked the drills. It made me feel very powerful when doing them. The participants (6 of them) are look like they've been doing this for along time and it shows as they have really good form.

Instructor Comments:
John is very motivating and energetic. He gets pretty excited at times and will yell quite loudly as he's encouraging you. It's not irritating at all (kinda reminds me of a drill sargeant), however he says 'Come On' ALOT. It is comparable (maybe John's is more repitious) to Janis Saffel's Kickboxing video where she says 'Awesome' alot. You won't notice the 'Come Ons' as much as when you do the video as when you just preview it. He doesn't count every single rep like alot of kickboxing videos which was really nice! I really liked John as a video instructor!! His form looked very good (although I am not an expert at judging for this)

Debbie Rolin