OF FLYING GUILLOTINES AND DEATH PUNCHES

I was channel surfing one night, eager to reach the CNN channel, when I accidentally "surfed by" The National Geographic Channel.

The channel has this Martial Arts Week, and was featuring this show, "Fight Science." For the uninitiated in the martial arts scene, I highly recommend this show.

"Fight Science" examines the different kinds of martial arts, its warriors and their weapons, and the truth about certain myths as "proved" by science. Armed with high tech gadgets that can measure force, acceleration, etc. and motion capture cameras, it effectively demonstrated how much damage a punch of a boxer, a kick from Muay Thai champion, or a death punch from a ninja can actually do.

The scientists who were studying it paralleled their data with their "crash test dummy studies." I was amazed when one hard-body athlete was able to break 13 3-inch hollow blocks producing a thousand G's of force. It's like wow, I don't want to mess with this guy (well, I think he's a nice guy and doesn't hit girls in the first place). Then there's this Muay Thai boxer Melchor Menor, who can seriously kick someone's butt with his 56.3-kilometer-an hour knee kick. Now, I understand why on earth the sport is illegal in some places. Talk about one car crash waiting to happen. Then there's 3-time gold medalist, Alex Huynh's kung fu (wu-shu) punch beating a serpent strike (which was measurred by this device called an accelorometer). So Bruce Lee's and even Jackie Chan's moves can be that fast (I always thought, those moves are just like camera tricks in speed, it's nice to know it can be that real?). Interestingly, he also showed some fancy drunken boxing moves, which I find cool. There were boxers, grapplers, tae kwondo martial artists, but I was particularly impressed with this ninjitsu expert, Glenn Levy. He came to the dojo (or Fight Lab as the scientists called it) to prove if there is any truth about the ninja's cat-like balance. This was done by ascending a series of poles (plum poles) and it measures "sway." It looks deceptively easy, but it's not. The more one ascends to the higher pole, the more likely it will throw you off. The ninjitsu expert has zero sway and ascended quite quickly (and casually ... like he was walking in the park). Then there's what they call the "killer" death punch (as I have learned throughout the show, ninjas study the best moves of all martial arts plus pressure points, and uses these knowledge to, well, kill the enemy). Against the dummy, Mr. Levy's punch on the sternum looked mighty innocent, but as data and CG animation demonstrated, it is destructively heart-stopping.

Aside from that, they also suggested what could be the "ultimate" weapon for martial artists. Kali sticks, staffs, nunchuks, spears, bows, shurikens, swords ... it was interesting how they presented on how to handle these weapons and what are the pros and cons of these with regards to impact, control and range. Of course, in the end they said that it is the Japanese KATANA that is the ultimate weapon as it also "harmonizes" with the warrior's spirit. (Well, I totally agree ... just look at Uma Thurman's The Bride in Kill Bill and every single Japanese samurai anime. Hehehe. It harmonizes so much, it's so destructive. Maybe, that's the reason for the hara-kiri, to die by one's own sword in order to be one with it in the end? But then I could be wrong. Anyway, I find the weapon really cool. ;-). There is some sort of dignity that a samurai sword carries.)

Now, after watching this. The next few days I flipped my remote on the NG Channel again.
This time I watched the top 10 destructive Chinese weapons ever invented.

I guess after all the crap I've been having for the last few years, the violent side of me resurfaces, thanks to these kind of shows. Hehehe. My neighbors should thank God though that I'm a klutz, and my balance is certainly just limited to walking (I do trip often though.) And the weapon I can handle is just the pen. ;-)

Going back, they featured several chinese killer inventions from an innocent looking fan, or a regular chopstick to this fabled flying guillotine.

The flying guillotine was ranked as number one, yet no one has seen it. The story about this weapon is that it can be thrown from a distance, and by a pull of a link chain by the assasin, it decapitates the victim. One chinese antiques collector made a blue print and had his own version of the flying guillotine done. In the hands of a martial artist, the thing actually worked. FASCINATING. (Well, if I were THAT evil, I CAN imagine the uses! I'm just quasi evil as pops Dr. Evil once said. )

Who says that you can't learn anything from TV these days? (Unfortunately, this stuff should be handled by slightly mature audiences, as impressionable adolescents tend to go overboard when they do get ideas).