On Tonite


Can't believe that this waste of time is going to air again tonight. The first half was okay, but the half naked Australian TKD guy seems to be trying too hard to prove something. The show really went downhill fast with the appearance of the Pumphrey Brothers. Apparently hard body training takes away the ability to use contractions ("He does not know what we do!"). I always love it when people about to break a stack of boards say that the spacers make no difference but wind up using them anyway. And I guess the scientists were watching a different slow motion on the breaks because I didn't see any of the "gee-whiz" effects that they were talking about. And the point of charging shoulder first into a stationary target of ice? It looks impressive anyway. But hey, break a stack of stuff with no spacers and then I'll care. Despite the "scholarly" assurances of the Pumphreys it's kind of hard for "waves" to "reflect" back when your hand is already coming of the first couple whatvers that you broke while the subsequent boards are still breaking (just watch the slo-mo).

The Australian guy kept turning up like a bad penny. When he showed up grimacing and swinging a sword at a gelatin upper torso I started laughing. If a block of jell-o was supposed to represent bone and sinew you have to question the "science" behind this fiasco. I guess the iaido masters wouldn't have anything to do with this after their demo so they handed it off to him.

There was some good stuff early one with the balance and such.

Anyway, watch the first half but don't stay until the end. Seriously.

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Yeah , aussie TKD guy really began to sh*t me. I heard that the Iaido masters refused to cut the ballistics gel.

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Yeah, after his opening form where he's spinning around and whatnot my son noticed that he was like the only guy who was winded. The engineers bought into the hype hook, line and sinker. There's so much legitimate stuff in the martial arts and then woo woo shows like this come along.

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I agree, and besides, who ever heard of a Korean stylist using a Japanese weapon?

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I think that the ballistics gel may not be the best testing object because it doesn't take into account any bones. And, like you guys have said, the master swordsman did not participate in this. Maybe because they also thought it would not prove much.

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