BodyCombat 40 - 10 years

Thanks to Glen and Raina:

It is obvious from the start that this release is all about one big combat party! Presenters were Dan and Rach, Hernan and Tanya Walker from the UK.

Overall Glen really enjoyed this release - a lot more than he enjoyed BodyCombat 39. The complexity is a little higher than in BC39 (well, that wouldn’t be hard at all!), but again we have no evasive side kicks, no jump knees and no gingas.

The esquiva is back - and unusually it’s in track 4 (which means all you esquiva fans could do two esquiva tracks per class when you start mixing). Track 4 is a rock track with an esquivas/lunge/jump kick combo on the right hand side, which then goes into tubthumping in the middle - before going back into the rock track for the esquiva combo on the left (think a la We Will Survive from BC37).

Highlight for Glen is track 6 (and that’s odd because track 6 is usually one of his least favs) - there is a really cool side kick kata. Track 5 is great too - tonnes of performance opportunities with the Tutti Fruitti "a-whap-bap-ba-loo-bap a-whap-bam-boo!" (with everyone in the room throwing their arms up on the "BOO!") - felt a little like BodyAttack but heck that’s forgivable in a track 5. There are loads of jump jabs going forward and shuffling back.

The Muay Thai is probably the only track that perhaps is a little disappointing, the song is good ("Speed" - no idea who it is by but could be Nick Skitz or similar) but the chorry is d-u-l-l. It is literally just knees and descending elbows (addition - there are some streetbrawler downward punches in as well). Glen found it one of the easiest Muay Thais he has done (if not the easiest).
No crunches in the conditioning track again (weird two releases in a row) but again we have the hover and a new move the "komodo dragon" (think press up position bringing your knee to elbow, sounds to me like the upper body condition sometimes done in the BodyAttack).

Cool down is beautiful (with a lovely song "Use Somebody") and there are some great soft kata's to lower the heartrate. Fantastic end to the workout.

Overall, a great release. Nothing new (save the komodo dragon), nothing revolutionary but a decent workout and not totally basic chorry as was the case with BC39. The release is definitely not as hard as BC38 nor BC37 for example - no killer kick katas with 200 or more kicks but I think a solid release.

Preliminary tracklist:

1a: Layla (Caribbean Mix) - DJ U Hey vs DJ Minagawa from Skitzmiz 30
1b: Hot n Cold - Katy Perry
2: I Know Kung Fu - Shitdisco
3: Sweetheart (Squad-E Remix) - Rezonance-Q from Hardcore Til I Die
4: Is a mix of one rock track I don’t recall, then Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, then back to the original song
5: Tutti Frutti - Little Richard
6: Burn It To The Ground - Nickelback
7: A techno track called "Speed it up"
8: Set you free - N-trance
9: Let it Rock - Kevin Rudolf
10. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon