DAMNNNNN!!!!
I totally agree about the lack of real fighting skills in these displays. However i must say it appears to be a great way to make money out of something you love doing. I am very much into the reality of fighting, however it must be great fun to get paid to do the things they do. afterall what they do is also what is done in most martial arts movies... lots of things/moves that just don't work. So in short, the sad truth is you can't make much money out of real fighting skills...good on them for being able to find a way to make money doing the thing they love.
with regards toyour comparison to movies, you will find that the likes of Jet Li, Mark Dacascos, Tony Jaa etc all have proved themselves in a traditonal Martial Art first, usually competing at the highest level. They then chose to go into movies. That is fine, what I object to is kids who learn a few flips and aerial kicks that are similar to Wushu and Taekwondo and then call themselves martial artist. A true martial artsist is someone who is skilled in techniques used for fighting. The more you move away from that, the lesser you are a martial artist.
"Polar opposite"? Both seem pretty big on self-promotion and the use of music in their performances. Yeah, this Spour guy certainly would be more dangerous in a fight than Chole Bruce, but they both are oozing with the "Check out what a badass" mentality that I hate so much.Tim... wrote: By the way, you might want to watch this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vOTwg_YXYy0
This guy is called Bob Spour (ex-SAS, Muay Tai Coach and big on Self-Protection). I've had the pleasure of meeting him a few times. The reason I put the link is that it is the polar opposite of the first video. I know which one of these two would scare me!
Real self-defense means doing brutal things to people. Things that you'd rather not do. Things that may actually cause you psychological harm (read Lt. Col David Grossman's classic On Killing if you think otherwise) to do. Making a video showing you pretending to beat people up set to aggressive rock music and telling the camera how doing these demonstrations makes you feel intense is not the right thing to do.
If you have the Weapons of Attack video made by Stadion, watch G.S.'s reaction at the end of the tape when someone asks him what happened to his last opponent. After some nervous laughter from the bystanders, G.S. just waives his hand and, with a solumn expression, says he doesn't want to talk about it. Or watch one of Tim Larkin's Target Focus Training videos. These people have actually had to use violence and they know that it's not a cool thing. They know that destroying another human being is not something that should be set to rock music.
Bob Spour may be a good person and he seems to know his stuff. But I think that video is in bad taste and is by no means the "polar opposite" of the Chloe Bruce clip. Beneath the surface, there are some troubling similarities.
-Mark