Fighting Styles

It turns out there are at least 10 good ways to take someone down. These are the martial arts explored on "Fight Quest."

  • Sanda - This full-contact martial art was originally developed by the Chinese military. Striking, kicking, sweeps, takedowns and throws are all employed in sanda.

  • Kali - A weapons-based art, kali uses knives, swords and escrima fighting sticks as striking instruments. Escrima sticks are made of lightweight rattan and used to inflict maximum damage on your opponent.

  • Kyokushin karate - Another full-contact martial art, a common technique in Kyokushin is to take the opponent off his or her feet. Kyokushin involves kumites, fights against multiple opponents, to build endurance.

    Jimmy and training partners.
    Discovery Channel
    Jimmy Smith with his Japanese training partners.

  • Boxing - Opponents face each other in an enclosed ring for a determined number of rounds. Punching with heavy, padded gloves is the only method of attack. The final decision is determined by a knock-out or can be made by judges that score the fight.

  • Pencak Silat - An Indonesian art that originally used striking weapons. Now, in addition to weapons, fighters use a variety of kicks and punches.

  • Savate - Also known as French kickboxing, this art uses hand strikes and a host of kicks to subdue an opponent.

  • Hapkido - Merging techniques from karate, judo and aikido, hapkido is best known for impressive body throws and painful wrist locks used to disable attackers.

  • Jiujitsu - Perhaps the most versatile martial art, jiujitsu uses many different strikes, kicks, throws, choke holds and locks. Almost every martial art has had an influence on this fighting style.

  • Krav maga - The Israeli army invented this fighting style as a practical technique for use in a variety of street style situations. Jiujitsu, traditional boxing and judo all lend some techniques to krav maga. Weapons such as knives and sticks are also used.

  • Kajukenbo - Another hybrid art, kajukenbo is an exciting technique that uses take downs, throws and hard striking. Limb breaking is a common method of this brutal fighting style.

Q&A with Doug Anderson

Q: Was there any fighting style that made you nervous?

A: I'm down for whatever. There were definitely a few styles that I was a little bit intimidated by going into, but I'm always down for anything. The way I feel about everything in life is that if another human being can do it, then there's no reason why I can't do it, too.

Q: Which styles are you interested in learning more about?

A: I loved stick fighting [kali], it was super intense. The insanity of it, it's so crazy. I loved kajukenbo for the technical aspects of it. It'll be useful to me as a cage fighter. It's got a good blend of different techniques.

Q: How would sum up your overall experience on "Fight Quest"?

A: Sometimes I would look around and say, "what am I doing here? This is the dumbest thing I've every done." But at the end of the day, I'd look back on it and say, "You know what, I made it through, no matter how tough it was. And now I have a pretty cool story to tell."

Q: Are you up for a second season?

­A: Absolutely, man. Absolutely. That would be the ideal situation. If I could spend another year traveling around the world and getting punched in the face. It doesn't get much better than that, man.

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In the next section, we'll look at the cultural experience Smith and Anderson enjoyed -- from Buddhist temples to the Israeli army.