Here is the link for those of you who have not seen the episode on the FMA featured on the Fight Quest Series. It's about 45 minutes long and you will need to down load DivX software to veiw it which only takes a few seconds on Broadband. Enjoy. http://www.stage6.com/user/cronotn/video/2...i---Philippines What do you think? Best regards Pat
Five days of training to prepare for stick, knife, and empty hand sparring? From scratch? I think that was quite a tall order. I guess that's why the hosts were not able to talk about the concepts/strategies involved in FMA, and just went on about how hard and painful their training were. This, as opposed to say how they were able to talk at length about the unique qualities of Sanda, like how they had quick, long range kicks (ie their side kick) and how their takedowns were all from standing position (no sacrifice throws, kneeling, et cetera). All in all, I liked the show. I liked it how the hosts talked about the fighting spirit and culture that they felt when they were here in the Philippines. Nice showcase of FMA conditioning drills. Visuals and overall presentation were designed to impress while still staying relatively down to earth and not overly hyping up the styles/masters that they presented.
It was fun to reminisce certain traditional things/beliefs like having chicken blood involved with ceremonies. I still remember childhood birthdays where you get a "bendicion/oracion" with whatever animal gets killed for the party. And, i guess, some older filipinos like me have experienced those military-oriented training in the Philippines, not necessarily for Kali, but for survival skills. It was interesting.
Good show. I felt sorry for Doug though, I think he got the raw end of the deal training wise. Loads of hard work but not much that was really applicable to his fight. All in all a great showcase for Filipino culture and martial tradition.
Basics and foundations are very important especially that he had no prior exposure to Kali...and releasing the "warrior in you" which means releasing the brutality in you so you will learn how to control, regulate it, and use it to your advantage. It is not child's play.
That might be something he needed if he wasn't already in the military and an amateur fighter. Learning technique and sparring would have been more important at the point he was at.
Understood, but he basically had 5 days to prepare for a fight. Plus he's been in the army and is an amateur fighter anyway, so he'd already be familiar with those concepts. As I said, it was a good showcase for the martial culture, but not nessecarily the best way to prepare for the fight. I'd say that basics and foundations for the system would be basic strikes, footwork and angles (like what Jimmy was taught), not crawling around in mud. It was pretty telling how Jimmy did alot better than Doug in the end fight.
I definately agree in that I felt for what was coming up, ie. the fight that Jimmy received better instruction. Still having said that they both did pretty well and seemed to enjoy themselves. I really enjoyed this episode as it was probably the best so far.
Yeah, definitely a good episode. It was interesting, because I think FMA really took them out of their comfort zone, it was unlike anything they were used to, and most importantly, the fight reflected this. Alot better than the disappointing China episode, where they basically did some faux-kung fu, broke a couple of bricks and had a kickboxing fight at the end. A real missed opportunity. The best part of that was Dougs Sanda teacher, he was a beast, and made some wicked Bruce Lee-esque cat sounds when him and Doug were sparring. But I digress, FMA episode FTW so far.
OK as usual the UK audiance is a little behind the times but good news, Fight Quest starts on Discovery Channel this comming Friday at 10pm, so set your recorders as the first Episode starts off with FMA. Best regards Pat
