Fight Science
I caught a couple of episodes of the show Fight Science this weekend. A lot of it is sort of hokey stuff that’s kind of a waste. For instance, the guy channeling his Chi. See, he channeled his Chi to give him an “iron shirt”. Then he placed a spear to his throat, leaned into it, and some other dude broke a stick on his back. Neat trick, I guess. And it is a trick. After all, if you had an “iron shirt”, why not just let someone stab you with the spear instead of the dramatic set up? And an episode on comparing the foot pounds of different kicks from different martial arts. Meh.
But one episode was called Human Weapons and it talked about self-defense. It was pretty clear that the experts on the show dictated the theme and not the scientists. The experts discussed situational awareness and various techniques to break attacks, with the theme being avoidance first and running the hell away if that fails. It was actually pretty good for TV.
The other cool episode was the sniper. The hooked him up to a machine to see if, as snipers claim, they really do shoot between heartbeats. And this guy did. Also, they put him in a box that was 130 degrees to see if he could make the shot. Then they buried him in ice to see if he could make it. He timed his shot between shivers. Then, they put him in a box with over 5,000 assorted spiders, worms and bugs.
And one episode showed a guy break free of a taser.
November 30th, 2010 at 10:31 am
I saw the taser one…. It goes to show the strength of the human mind/spirit….. The guy was a really huge dude, and I bet some of that played a part in it, but it was more so him mentally preparing himself ahead of time to take the jolt and overcome it.
November 30th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Regarding the shooting between heartbeats, yeah, it pretty much happens automatically. When practicing any of the sling-supported positions (especially prone) with a SCATT trainer (electronic trainer that shows the approach, hold, and shot break, among other things), the shot breaks almost exactly in between heartbeats naturally. There really isn’t any technique, it just happens that way. Once your hold gets small enough that you can actually see the pulse beat, you shoot between them even without thinking about it. Pretty cool, actually.
November 30th, 2010 at 11:08 am
The endurance tests on the SEAL and on the Israeli commando were unbelievable. I was cold just watching that SEAL in the tub of ice and had to go get a beer watching the commando deal with heat.
November 30th, 2010 at 11:43 am
FYI, the guy the “broke free” of the taser was only hit with 1 probe… so, kinda a bad test
November 30th, 2010 at 11:48 am
“After all, if you had an “iron shirt”, why not just let someone stab you with the spear instead of the dramatic set up?”
Because you cannot focus.
Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming used to tell us that the secret to the iron skin is to not get kicked in the nuts while doing it.
November 30th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
You didn’t report what the sniper did to the folks who put him in with the spiders snakes and bugs. Was it slow and horrible, or was he quick and painless in killing the producers who did that to him?