VIDEO: Krav Maga on Fight Quest
Fight Quest was a program on Discovery Channel (currently no longer on air). The series followed seasoned mixed martial arts fighter Jimmy Smith and 25-year-old rookie Doug Anderson as they travelled the globe, adding fight styles from Kali to kickboxing to their repertoire.
In each episode, Jimmy and Doug explored a new location identified with a style of fighting, such as kung fu in Dengfeng, China, Krav Maga in Israel. Each train with an instructor and are drilled to exhaustion. At the end they will face off against a grand master to show what they’ve learned!
The fighting is real. The injuries are real. In the end, only the best will win. (Originally aired on february 22, 2008).
Note: This episode gives you an indication of what Krav Maga is like when you’re trained for actual life and death situations. Jimmy and Doug train with military instructors in Israel, a place where knowing this stuff means staying alive. Therefore, a lot of the brutal moves you see in this video is not indicative of what Krav Maga training for civilians is like.
One of the Israeli Krav International instructors wrote a fascinating post with a short analysis of Fight Quest and the Human Weapon. Here is an excerpt, but I urge you to read the entire article.
“It seems that these two TV shows, Human Weapon and Fight Quest, introduced a lot of people to Krav Maga, either for the first time, or, in a way they never saw it before; the raw Israeli way. What I am glad about is it gave many people a glimpse into our lives here in Israel, the harsh reality we are forced to live with. This is a point I try to bring out during my American seminars; Krav Maga is a reflection of Israeli society. If you don’t understand our lives here – you can’t understand Krav Maga.
Life here is unpredictable, and as such, Krav Maga must be trained in a way that deals with the unpredictability of a real fight. “
– Israeli Krav International Blog.
Read what else they had to say on the subject of this episode.
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Krav Chicks: The reality of Krav Maga 
Ye they published some great video’s of the serie on Fight Quest about Krav Maga. Maybe you could put the whole serie here on your blog.
Yeah, I might do that later on, when I can’t think of any more content. XD Haha. Thanks for your comment!
I have very mixed feelings about Human Weapon and especially Fight Quest. On the one hand, I found Human Weapon entertaining for what it was, though often a bit sensational (a Muay Thai kick packs as much punch as a 44-ton wrecking ball wrapped in C4 explosive!!). I am indebted to the show because, like many others, it’s where I first heard about Krav Maga a few years ago and peaked my interest, eventually leading me into classes last month.
On the other hand, both shows are guilty of trying to get the viewer to believe that something worthwhile can be accomplished in any style of martial arts in a day or two — to the point where the hosts can take on one master (or sometimes an army of experts) single-handedly in combat, often emerging victorious.
Fight Quest, in particular, is worse in that regard. I saw their episode on Krav Maga and was stunned at the complete lack of training and demonstrations in the show. One guy was literally beat senseless — savagely — by a group of sadistic students for several sessions without any prior instruction or explanation of Krav Maga technique. He was simply thrown to the fighters and beaten and kicked into a bloody pulp. The best they could do was tell you how brutal the style was and demonstrate the point by abusing this poor sap in the dojo, in the park, and at the beach. Once they were bored with humiliating him for the audience (after two days, I think) they put him in a ring and he went toe to toe with a real practitioner. I don’t recall how he did but I think he won, or at least did pretty well. Total bullpuckey. I think Krave Maga and other styles deserve more respect and shouldn’t be reality TV fodder for the masses. But, then again, like I said, the couch potato in me thinks it was kind of entertaining for what it was.