Hey, I don't dispute the fact that you can used an improvised weapon to hurt somebody, even without any training. Heck, you can kill somebody even with a fountain pen. Let me repeat my comments in another way.

1. Which do you prefer in a life-or-death situation: the shovel, or a pistol with 15+1 rounds?

2. You have been training with a weapon for the last ten years (it can be a hand spear, knife, whatever). You haven't dug a day in your life. In a life-or-death situation, what would you prefer to have: the dedicated weapon you know well, or an improvised tool you've never touched?

If I were to happen upon some (human) predator, who would normally be prepared, I'd want a good plan and some good tools.

If the Spetsnaz had plans to use the shovel as a fighting tool, then they probably had specialized training to go with it. I don't think that sort of stuff is so hard to figure out if you had training with a weapon with a similar morphology. But most people haven't had that, and for them the marketing claims probably will stay just marketing claims. I'm waiting for the Montblanc Meistersück Tactical, used by the SAS in hand-to-hand fighting while looking good! For only $899.