Fight School on Sky 1

I don't know if I'm posting this in the right place so if the moderator wants to move it then feel free to do so!

I am currently watching Fight School on Sky 1. The name is something of a misnomer as they aren't being taught any techniques just doing lots of challenges. They basically take ten MAists (five male, five female) to China and beast them. At the end of each day the sifus choose the strongest and the weakest for the day. The strongest then gets to pick who fights the weakest. The winner of the fight gets to stay and the loser gets sent home.

The tasks that they are set are quite diverse, testing strength, agility, awareness and how much heart they've got. They all come from a striking MA background and, as you would expect, the fights reflect this. They are all winners of various competitions and titles. The coverage of the actual fights is absolutely shocking - loads of angle cuts and repeats of shots with really bad hitting sounds added!

I think that this type of programme would benefit from having a grappler thrown into the mix. They are all quick and have good kicking and punching skills but if someone manages to close with them they could be in real trouble. Apparently this is not the first time this type of programme has been on and each time they take the same mix of striking/kicking arts and no grappplers. Do they think that it won't make for entertaining TV? Is it only MAists who would be interested in this conflict of styles? I'm not doing this as a striker v grappler thread as that has no doubt been done to death. This is a entertainment value question. Is there more entertainment in watching strikers/kickers fight each other than grapplers fighting each other or one from each style fighting?

Thoughts anyone?

 

Now that sounds cool! Where can I view this in the states and how do you get to be a contestant?

 

people dont want to see grappling because lets face it, joe public finds it boring.

 

Yes my girlfriend said that she saw it (she doesn't consider herself to be a Martial Artist) and she said that it was absolutely hysterical for all the wrong reasons and that the 'Fighting' was pathetic and that no wonder people (non martialheads) think that Martial Arts are ridiculous.

Needless to say she didn't bother watching any further episodes.

 

I watched about half an hour of one episode the last time sky put it on. It pretty much consisted of a girl crying because she lost a fight. I also thought the challenges were stupid. They were dodging deadly bean bags. Coloured ones too.

I would personally like to see a decent program about martial arts on tv. However grappling is unlikely to make the mix since it normally ends up looking like two people cuddling and rolling around together. That's more Bravo or Men&Motors style I think.

 

back to UFC for me... damn, you'd think with all the McDojo's out there, some rich guy would make a show with a billion dollar budget that sucked so bad that all crappy MA movies would finally take a hint.

 

The grand master was very much done up for the TV. He said "I will make the decision using my wisdom..."
What kind of wise man says that? I'm not flaming his martial arts skills, but seriously...

 

What Aegis said. It was pants.

You couldn't even watch the fights properly cos of the way they cut it. It's just anpther big brother wannabe, really. They were more interested in the little bitchy arguments between people than any MA stuff.

Oh yeah, and is it me or are they nearly all kickboxers?

 

The grandmaster was Simon Lau. Don't know who the other shifus were...

And funnily enough, I saw my first episode last night, and noticed that the karate girl with blonde hair teaches in the hall before I teach my class!

She seems of a very good standard though and from what I see, she really motivates her class when ever I see her teach, (be it for the five minutes at the end!). I just think its not very good TV, and the standard of the artists should not be at all judged.(Selective editing, background, etc)

The cliched shifu thing was terrible. The grandmaster seemed to be enjoying it though...

 

This is actually a repeat, it was first on Channel 5 ( i think ) last year. A friend of mine was asked if he was willing to go from a scout and he said no, because it sounded like the Crystal Maze.
Don is the younger brother of Myleene Klass from (former band) Hear'say, he also trained with a friend of mine.

There was another UK martial arts show which was terrible, I cant remember what it was called but it had Gail Porter as the presenter and the Grand Monk in Shaolin Wheel of Life as the role of Grand master.
It was very bad.
One of the teams was taken from a class i know and they told me that they had to do re-takes during sparring because it didnt look flashy enough and it was deemed boring for the UK audience to watch. Thats why grappling was at a minimum and the only team that used grappling was the JKD team.

 

Unless it's Fight School 2, it's a repeat of a repeat, I saw it on Sky 1 in 2002. Only really watched the end of it, didnt grab me much.....

 

its a repeat, they are thinking of doing a second show,last years show was masters of combat, lau gar bristol death squad won it. :woo:

 

Dave,

Its geared up specifically for strikers, grapplers would be DQed within the first 3 seconds. The thing that miffs me off about it is that Clive Elliot and the other Sifu guy don't seem to demonstrate any of the stuff they ask the contestants to do.

Hmm.

Col

 

Don't get exited - it's ok, but not as the title suggests. The contest at the end of each prog' is semi contact. The challenges are pants - any athlete could do most of them.

 

I think that we should petition Sky 1 or the like to put together a programme that takes a serious look at the matial arts; the different arts and their histories; the way they have developed and spread; the growth of MMAs etc. It would be better than what they have on offer.

 

Sky One are only repeating it as the new serise is about to start. I think it was ment to be shown last year, but was prosponed because of that virus in China.

I liked it when it was first on, but having started martial arts since then its no wonder people see martial arts as a joke.

 

thank the lord I wasnt the only one to think that however the guy should have used his kicking (which he was obviousley best at) to keep her at bay more. The woman was in my humble opinion no better than some of the bimbo's you see pretending to box while topless on some of the more seedier channels (not that I look of course )

 

*starts scanning for BBC satellite coordinates*

Tell you what, get me on one of those seedier shows and you'll see some grappling.

 

In fairness it is a let down.For the amount of tv time MA gets youd think something better would be on.
The idea and thinking is good though,should stick with that and make it more realistic(no angle cuts etc)
What is the deal with the grandmaster???what is his background?