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Fight School was aired in Australia in the early hours of the morning - 1am, 2am etc. mid 2005.

In this reality television show, Fight School breaks barriers. Here they have ten amateur martial artists from England ­ five men and five women, go through "Fight School" in a dojo in china - possibly based somewhere near Beijing. At that School they train together and undertake tasks - undergoing mental and physical challenges. These ten pupils are all established champions in their field of martial arts.

Towards the end of the episode - after the challenges have taken place, the strongest performer is chosen by the sifu (the teacher) and the weakest performer is also chosen. From there, the strongest chooses another pupil to compete against the weakest. The weakest and the one chosen then competes in a tournament style match. These fights are not judged on force but on skill alone. The loser immediately leaves and the winner stays.

There is one main sifu - some chinese guy and three sub sifu's whose names were:
Sifu Becky, Clive and Nathan the Megatron

The final three were:
Paul - specialty: kickboxing
Toby - specialty: Tae Kwon Do
Emma - specialty: Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Wu Shu

The champion was Paul an experienced kickboxer. One memorable move he executed when he was fighting Emma in the final fight was when he did a one hand plant while kicking up his legs targetting Emma's head. The impact was comparable to a boxer hitting a KO - the head instantly boucing off the hand from the impact.

Some interesting challenges were:

"The rope game"
Two opponents in a ring, about 2.5m diameter. Step out of the ring and you are out. The game is quick and starts when the referee shouts "go".

The two players are facing each other in a ready stance, both have a "tag" or a length of some material like rope sticking out the back of their pants.

The goal is to quickly snatch this length of rope out from your opponents backside.

The technique is in quick-sharp rapid movements and blocking your opponent when they go for the material in your backside.

Quite an interesting game.

Balance bridge

This was a game with a small flimsy rope bridge setup. Just like in the Indiana Jones' movies, but on a smaller scale.

There are two opponents on opposite sides of the middle of the bridge. The goal is to stay on the bridge the longest while trying to bounce the bridge and pushing and shoving the opponent off.

Shaolin Poles

The Shaolin poles are basically an individual challenge where you would navigate the course of poles of different heights from one side to another, stepping on top of these poles.

The difficulty lies in the other tasks you need to perform while moving from a high pole to a short pole - without touching the ground and losing balance.

For example, in one challenge they would start off from a short pole then moving to a higher pole. And while doing this they need to hit targets high and low with various kicking styles, while balancing on one leg.

Nunchakas

Another interesting individual challenge.

The individual is presented with Nunchakas and the goal is to hit the metallic target discs that are suspended at different heights.

These targets are suspended using a rope system, but they are inanimate.

The sifu would use a candle with a mirror at the back (well they were trying to be traditional - you could use a laser or a flashlight) to focus light on the target that he wanted you to hit.

Balance bridge

In my opinion, this challenge is the most challenging of all challenges in Fight school. In this setup they had a rig, imagine a double storey bed made of wood. You know how a wooden type bed structure has slats that hold up the mattress? Well imagine this at a bigger scale - there is no lower storey bed - no mattresses. Just a big top storey bunk with removable slats and no mattress. These slats are rounded.

It is an individual task and the individual is set to climb the structure and then brace themselves on two slats, facing down - imagine doing push ups on two rounded slats - two of your legs are on one end and both your hands would be resting on the other slats, above your head - your body would not be touching any of the other slats.

The secret is in technique.

The slats are removed one by one and you only have the slats that are supporting your hands and legs remaining.

The person who stays up the longest without falling through wins!

Drills - side kick

This task is based on endurance.

Basiclaly you are carrying weights around your shoulders while sidekicking up a length of matting and upon reaching the end - starting again and doing the same again until you run out of steam

The person who does the most runs wins!

Fight School has fancy names for these challenges - I've forgotten them but heres one from the final episode -
"Journey to the pearl clouds"

This is an individual challenge and it requires upper body strength courage and determination.

There is a totem pole - or just imaging a power pole with holes for two pegs running all the way up it's length.

You are given the two pegs and you need to hoist yourself up - all the way up the pole! Your legs would be hugging the pole but not necessarily taking any of the weight...

Shaolin Poles (again)
They used shaolin poles a few times in the series but in the final episode they created another version of it with a twist.

The Shaolin Poles is still that field of different poles about 4 metres wide, 15 metres long with evenly spaced poles - but poles of different heights that you use like stepping stones.

The twist here is that theres Fight School pupils have to navigate the course blindfolded.

The only way they can "see" is through use of a staff to guide them.

They are also racing against a Chinese Water timer - which is simply a measured bucket of water with a hole - once the water runs out - your time runs out.

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All in all "Fight School" was an entertaining series. The fights were interesting to watch and the challenges were intriguing.

Channel 7 aired the finale on 9th of September 2005 at 12.20am.

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One main thing to remember when in a fight is to "Keep your hands up" to protect your head.

Thanks to kaykays

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