There’s no martial arts like the kinds you can just make up, and it looks very freeing to see that in an adult.
Welcome back, kids. Hope you were in the mood for weird, because weird is on the menu.
I prefer to start things off with vids from Fight Commentary Breakdowns to set the pace and tone for things, and the pace and tone for today is absolutely bonkers. We’re going to raid the vault here, with some vids released a few years ago but definitely worth the dive. Here’s a breakdown of an “grandmaster” of a “Hebrew Martial Art“.
Lest you think the use of the term “Hebrew” is out of place here, I’m happy to inform you that it’s not. The style is predicated on actual Hebrew characters, among other things. I can’t quite put my finger on what I personally find most egregious here, whether it’s the rock lifting or the poses or general weirdness of it all. And that’s before we get to the sparring footage.
From starting in a squat position to punch each other to wild and aimless swings for striking, it’s got a whole lot that’s plainly not practical. This is as polite as I can be about it.
Oh, but wait until you get to see the grandmaster doing forms on a hill. Not going to harp on this any longer, but wow. This is something else and maybe a point or two can be given for creativity. Or not. Your mileage (and patience) may vary.
We’ve also got some Russian Kung Fu with some background music, presented without comment:
I’d have gone with these guys, even though they’re from Belarus.
As an aside, Jerry was kind enough to have me on his other channel last week to discuss martial arts of both the mixed and traditional variety. It’s longish, but a hell of a lot of fun and I managed to cobble together a thread of things that I either missed or wanted to add a bit of context to. Much thanks to him for having me on and talking punchyface and backflips.
Yes, drank all three things. I also have the bladder of a camel.
Next up, an offering from Dambe Warriors that has a bit of everything. Lots of tension, blistering action, and even a strategy break. These guys went pretty hard.
You know where we’re going next. That’s right, it’s STRELKA. I don’t speak Russian and can barely read it, but whatever this says, it ain’t good. A reasonably fit dude faces a skinny guy that looks like he was fished out of a local river and it’s just straight bullying. Not even something you can giggle at, just a horrid mismatch.
Sure, we can surmise by now from their content that there’s very minimal vetting going on here. And yes, the purpose of this is chaos. This isn’t professional grade combat by any means. But they really must’ve run out of dudes willing to scrap over a Viewsonic monitor and a bowl of soup. It is what it is.
This was a little better, but also just ugly. Spoiler alert, it’s more ugly striking with ugly hugging and ugly grappling that ends with a pretty nifty guillotine choke. Funny how that works more here than it ever did when Super Fight League was around. And no, I refuse to link to or post their theme song. You’ll have to settle for the IFL rap instead.
Karate Combat has a new season around the corner, and they’ve got another collection of some of their most bonkers knockouts to whet your appetites between now and April.
It’s pretty great. It’s like they’ve really hit their stride as of late.
Here’s a pretty brutal Lethwei match from Myanmar that really, really gets hard to watch as it goes on:
Much respect to both participants involved, though. Just admirable determination.
Another one from the vault, courtesy of SAMBOFIAS. Here’s a great match from the 2020 Belarus tournament:
We’ll end things with some vids from Chris Sumo, who has a delightful channel and a true love for the art. Here he spotlights Ura and Tochinoshin and some of their beautiful recent performances.
Here’s Ura:
And Tochinoshin:
That’s what we got for this week, kids. Remember that real carbonara is made without cream. Don’t be a pleb. Also, you might think you can fight, but there are many guys like you all over the world.