Fight Quest
Fight Quest on the Discovery Channel is an amazing show. Two young American mixed martial artists travel from country to country, studying each region’s traditional martial arts style with its masters, and then fight an exhibition match in the style. Each episode is like a mini-documentary on a different martial art, highlighting its uniqueness and philosophy. You get to see exactly how Savate differs from western kickboxing, or how Aikido is different from Judo.
My favorite so far is Korean Hapkido, which I had never even heard of, which is apparently exactly as I imagined my fictional Krasian martial art, Sharusahk, to be; throws and holds designed to quickly cripple or kill your opponent by turning their own force against them. Good for fighting demons, too, since they are much stronger than humans.
I think a show like this is a must for anyone interested in writing good hand-to-hand combat scenes, because it opens up a wealth of ideas, and really helps generate an understanding of the mechanics of combat. Shit like this fascinates me, because you can tell when a writer understands this stuff or not, and I think it is crucial to writing tense, engaging action.
If you don’t have cable, you can watch clips here. I think you can also watch whole episodes free on the internet if you download the proprietary movie player on the Discovery channel site. Just click the “video” tab. I can’t imagine downloading the player could be harmful to your computer. I mean, come on! It’s the Discovery Channel!
Now, if you’re more interested in writing about things blowing up, I recommend Mythbusters.
Remember the olden days, when writers had to go to the library to do research? Chumps.
You have to check out Modern Army Combatives (MAC). It’s the army’s official hand-to-hand combat system and was developed largely off of the Gracey family style of Brazilian Jujitsu. Much of it incorporates the weapons a soldier can expect to employ as bludgeons during an HTH struggle, such as his sidearm, carbine or knife.
Honestly, as my imagination recreated the fight scenes in my head as I read, I imagined it to be more akin to Shastarvidya; the martial art system of ancient Hindus/Sikhs of the Northern region of India.
There is a channel on Youtube about it, and it’s very reminiscent of Sharusahk..well, to me at least hehe