Crush Kick Basics; Crush Kick Y2K

Frank Navarro, a martial arts and aerobics guru who has worked with action star Jackie Chan, demonstrates the moves for his cardio kickboxing program "Crush Kick" in these two tapes aimed at instructors and general audiences, respectively. In Crush Kick Basics, Navarro works with teachers he's certified, explaining the various stances for karate, kickboxing, sumo, and Western boxing in detail, and demonstrating the bob-and-weave, upper cut, hook punch and shuffling footwork utilized by boxers. The fact that this is really made for instructors, combined with references to a book (not seen) and necessary preliminary training, makes this unsuitable for general audiences.Crush Kick Y2K, on the other hand, does offer a general workout for the burgeoning cardio-kickboxing crowd that has sprung up in the wake of the Billy Blanks Tae-Bo phenomenon. Unfortunately, while the workout is intense, the production itself is pretty lackluster, consisting of a single unbroken camera shot for the first three-fourths of the workout, followed by a stretch and cooldown session. Given the availability of so many other top-notch programs on cardio-kickboxing, these tapes are strictly optional. Aud: P. (E. Druda)