XMA on discovery channel

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by chrispy, Jun 20, 2005.

  1. chrispy

    chrispy The Hunter

    So this show XMA was on last night and I watched it. Wow great opener eh?

    It was centered around a guy named Mat Mullins (sp?) and how he was a 5 time world champ, been out of competing for 2 years and was tring to reclaim the top spot. and the event they showed 'performances' from was the US open.

    Some of the show was really cool, mini demos of a lot of weapons, rope dart, katana, bo, spinning spikes, spear etc... I would love to be able to learn something like a rope dart (or Jackie Chans horseshoe on a rope form Shanghai Noon)

    Some of the show was very interesting, like measuring the impact power of kicks and punches, Mat's round kick was over 2000 PSI and Mike Chat (apparently a pretty famous guy) his kick (that tore the reader) was recorded at 1800 PSI I don't remember the numbers for the punches. They made a big deal at the start of the show how they were doing all this scientific measuring stuff, and then that was about it which was kind of disapointing.

    The actual competition is something I kind of have mixed feelings about after watching it. The forms and all that were so fast and with kai's every second move. It was weird, the moves you could actually make out were actual kicks or punches, but then there was all these flips and stuff in there too and it just seemed like a heck of a lot of flash! Now it's clear that this guy knew what he was doing on a basic AND advanced level BUT all this WOW factor stuff did squat for him in sparring where he lost 5-3 - not that i'm surprised stuff meant to wow judges was of no aide to him in the sparring ring.

    When you study any MA, in this case it was Karate (i recognised the actual style when he said it but can't remember), mainly to compete in a tournament is the main focus purely on *flash* and you hope your basics and the hours in the dojo help you with sparring by osmosis?

    What I mean by the last two paragraphs is that the type of forms they were doing were, made up with flash in mind and not a fight or SD. They were more like dance than any form i've ever done! AND if they were asked to bunkai (sp?) the part where they did 3 flips and landed in the splits how do you even attempt to justify that? or in competition forms is doing stuff just because it looks cool acceptable?

    It seemed to me that the "forms karate" he knew and the "sparring karate" he knew were compeltly different animals.

    Anyway, that was long.. did anyone else see the show? thoughts?
     
  2. KickChick

    KickChick Valued Member

    Look at Similar Threads below

    ... that XMA show is a repeat :)
     
  3. Davey Bones

    Davey Bones New Member

    Are they still rerunning that travesty?!?
     
  4. bassai

    bassai onwards and upwards ! Moderator Supporter

    It runs every couple of months,xma were over here for seni and you could hardly get near their demo,whatever you feel about what they do(for the record i think that the "forms" are more like a gymnastic display than any martial art ive seen) they know how to please a crowd.
     
  5. Jesh

    Jesh Dutch Side Of The Force

    They've shown that show over here like 10 times... the CG looks great, and overall it looks good, but it gets old real quick...

    :p
     
  6. Peter Bradbury

    Peter Bradbury Valued Member

    Ah yes the XMA stuff, very fancy, i saw it at seni... not at all practicle. But that doesnt suprise me when i saw an advertisment for a class in it, i cant rember what it said but the general jist was lots of gymnastics and flash moves and a good workout. So not really martial arts in my opinion.

    Peter
     
  7. AZeitung

    AZeitung The power of Grayskull

    Just wanted to point out, he's at the school I'm training Shorei Ryu in right now. :)

    We also have a new guy who studied with the green ranger in Texas (from power rangers, not some kind of Texas ranger). Wierd.

    The actual competitions suck. At my Kuk Sool school in Champaign our instructor and some other people started talking about generic "karate" tournaments like that one after it aired for the first time. From what I've heard, they sound unorganized, sloppy, and not very meaningful.

    Exactly. And this is why I get annoyed when people at the school I'm going to keep talking about how awsome he is. Not that I have any problem with XMA, but I would say a majority of the people there don't understand that fancy flips and dancing don't translate into fighting ability.

    Ok, to be fair, the school has two separate programs - one is traditional Shorei Ryu karate. The other is "XMA" which is supposed to look like the stuff you see in Jackie Chan movies. It's not really meant to help you fight, and they explicitly state that.

    I saw it over a year ago, and I had basically the same impression at the time. The actual dojo is ok, though, albiet a bit over priced.
     
  8. Davey Bones

    Davey Bones New Member

    I'd be curious to see if the price has gone up since the airing of the show and the new line of XMA Gear made possible by Century Martial Arts.
     
  9. pulp fiction

    pulp fiction TKD fighter

    I bought that docummentary (13 USD). The beginning is cool but at the end I hated it, specially sparring. I mean for a black belt he is kind of lame. He can kick 2000 PSI but he can't connect a single round kick in sparring.

    I would have liked that they focused more on scientific measures and stuff like that.

    I also didn't like the way that they managed weapons in that contest. The katana guy who apparently is so good, doesn't have the minimum respect for a weapon like that.

    The only thing that I hope is that people don't think that all MA are like that.
     
  10. JinkokMike

    JinkokMike New Member

    He studies shorin ryu not that it matters.

    Anyways I seen it last year so it was a repeat.About your views on the program I think are quite right.He couldn't use all that flashy stuff in the tournament.But the scientific technology instruments are cool :D
     
  11. Ikken Hisatsu

    Ikken Hisatsu New Member

    id like to see them get Samkor and measure how powerful his kick is.
     
  12. JinkokMike

    JinkokMike New Member

    Same here!
     
  13. AL1

    AL1 Valued Member

    Yea, I've seen the show as well,

    I switched the channel right after the guy said (paraphrase): "I really dont like the sparring aspect - I hate getting punched in the face, and I always get punched in the face" This guy is a black belt???????
     
  14. chrispy

    chrispy The Hunter

    Yeah I thought that was odd.... I love sparring, i'd do it every day and twice on sunday if i could
     
  15. Davey Bones

    Davey Bones New Member

    yes, but then much like Michelle Krasnoo, he wouldn't be able to plaster his pretty face all over the place and be a model instead of a martial artist!
     
  16. AZeitung

    AZeitung The power of Grayskull

    On the one hand, I think you're all being a little bit too hard on him, but on the other, I wish that a few of the people at the dojo would read this thread, so they'd stop saying what an awsome martial artist he is (only a few). Keep in mind, most of what he was doing wasn't part of Shorei Ryu. It's purely for show, and I would imagine the "XTreme martial arts" aspect is what he trains more than the Shorei Ryu part. But really, give him a break - I see nothing wrong with what he does. I don't think *he* claims to be some awsome fighter. I mean, I don't see people making fun of Jackie Chan here. Seriously, why all the hate? I know I'd personally love to be able to do everything he did on that show, regardless of whether or not it made me a better fighter.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2005
  17. chrispy

    chrispy The Hunter

    the coolest thing on the whoel show I thought was there was a girl doing a bo form and she like spun it - let go - and seemed to have it spinning in place in the air for a second or two - then grabbed it and finished. I thought that was nifty.
     
  18. AL1

    AL1 Valued Member

    I understand what you are saying. And although he does not claim to be a "fighter" he does claim that he is a Martial Artist which to me implies some sort of fighting ability, and when someone is not comfortable point sparring and taking light shots to the head/face well... XMA may be quite entertaining to watch for some, but it has nothing to do with any sort of Martial ability, just like gymnastics. My 2 cents.
     

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