The Human Weapon

[YoungMan]

If they are going to Korea, they most likely will get the Kukkiwon version of Tae Kwon Do history.

Although in fairness, the Kukkiwon has been more honest in recent years about the history of Tae Kwon Do, referencing the Japanese occupation of Korea and acknowleging the influence of karate and kung fu on post-war Korean arts.

But it will most likely focus on modern Tae Kwon Do, which bears little to no resemblance to Japanese karate, and could legitimately be called a reemergence of the traditional Korean style of fighting.

[bushido_man96]

That would be the road that I hope they take. We will see, though.

[YoungMan]

One of my wife's running friends is going to DVR it for me.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Jason Chamber's MMA background stacks up against a Korean free fighter. Jason might be fighting for personal pride, but the Korean guy is most likely fighting for Korean pride and thus has more to prove.

[ps1]

Ah- finally got all of the videos seen! I don't really feel like giving too much of an in depth review though, so I'm going to try to keep it short.

Silat:

Crazyyyy stuff. Silat was definitely one of the more unique ones covered, and I found it very interesting. A lot of the styles actually reminded me of Chinese systems such as hung gar or Eagle claw- however these guys seem to go at it fairly hard core. Oh- and there is a claimed crazy trained in a cave super killer silat master....AWESOME. The jumping through hoops, claims of instant death from a knife, and some other things made me roll my eyes at points though. Also although Bill passed the challenge, it felt to me that he made the same mistake one too many times

I saw this one just the other day! I was so excited because the form of chuan fa I study is heavily influenced by silat! It's called poekoelan and comes, primarily from Indonesia. Harimau (the tiger form in the show) is one of the animals learned.

I agree that they exagerated the deadliness of the kriss knife. But I was very disappointed by the "challenge." It was a simple rank test. Nothing more. It was very clear that he had to perform certain techniques and nothing else. In addition, his "attackers" performed certain techniques as well. I was hoping he'd actually get to do the circle of death where the attackers come randomly (in ones or twos) and attack randomly, actually trying to get you. I just feel it really did silat a disservice.

[bushido_man96]

The last episode that I saw they did kind of a recap episode on what they had done so far, and they also showed some behind-the-scenes glimpses. It was ok, but they tried to break down what they thought was the best of the strikes, locks, throws, and chokes that they learned and saw. I think a recap would have been better than finishing them with "but the best .... they encountered was" approach. However, to each their own. If it is their opinion, then they are certainly allowed to portray it.

[ericjones80]

i've only caught a few episodes of this show but it does look pretty interesting. How is Chambers' MMA background holding up?

[bushido_man96]

i've only caught a few episodes of this show but it does look pretty interesting. How is Chambers' MMA background holding up?

Chamber's MMA background seems to prepare him very well for most of the stuff that they encounter. His training and conditioning are very good, and they serve him well. Most of the striking and kicking he has had experience with in MMA associates him with most of the other stuff when they fight, and his level of training serves him well.

[The BB of C]

I just got done watching the Ninjitsu episode. There was some pretty cool stuff in there. I especially liked the obstacle course. I couldn't believe that Bill Duff won his fight and Jason Chambers lost. That usually doesn't happen

[bushido_man96]

Yeah, the Ninjitsu episode was really done rather well, I thought. Not a lot of hocus pocus, mystcial stuff made it into the episode.

What I did have trouble swallowing was the high-level dan rankings that they guys in the challenges had. Other than that, I don't have many complaints about the episode.

Bill handled himself very well, I thought, as did Jason. When the Jason's challenger decided to go hands-on with Jason, I was pretty sure that Chambers was going to put the hurt on him, and he had him very much in control.

[The BB of C]

That's the same thing I thought when that guy dropped his weapons and went hands with Jason. I yelled at my television "Bad idea, buddy." Sure enough, the guy got thrown.