Systema instructors Sonny Puzikas and Maxim Franz on SpikeTV's Deadliest Warrior

I very much enjoyed this episode - I've only seen the first two episodes of
[i]Deadliest Warrior[/i], Apache vs. Gladiator and Samurai vs. Viking.
Admittedly it is a bit silly to watch CGI combat between two opponents from
vastly different periods in time and geographic location, who never would have
met in actual battle. But it is interesting to see the various weapons and
science of combat. You probably don't want to keep reading if you haven't seen
this and don't want to be spoiled.

The Green Beret vs. Spetz was the first I've seen between two modern warriors of
the same timeframe. As with the episodes featuring ancient weapons, some
comparisons were highly technical assessments of the efficacy of the weapons -
which grenade was more destructive, and the effects of the Green Beret shovel
and Spetz ballistic knife on static targets. The ballistic knife was quite
impressive. Although they did raise the point that launching the blade would
disarm its carrier, but they didn't take into account that the knife itself is a
weapon, just as the shovel is, and it need not be launched, but can simply be
used as a blade. However in a tight spot, as illustrated in the final CGI, the
ballistic knife can be fired from a distance, unlike the shovel, and it offers
the huge advantage of surprising the opponent. Also shown was a patented Russian
holster that disengages the safety and chambers a round as the gun is drawn.

Dynamic shooting at multiple targets gave Sonny and Maxim a chance to show their
impressive skill. The Green Berets were also good shooters and a tiebreaker was
necessary. The tiebreaker was night shooting at a scattering of targets - the
Spetz had to shoot the Green Berets and vice versa. The targets were marked with
stars or swords stamped on the chest. While the Green Berets were five seconds
faster, they also left two of the targets alive, leaving them in peril of return
fire, whereas Sonny eliminated all of the targets. Fast is fine, but accuracy's
forever.

The Green Berets made some derisive remarks about the dynamic movement and
rolling of the Spetz. They seemed not to understand that evasion and avoding
becoming a target yourself is also part of tactical shooting. But of course, the
comments are edited down and it's hard to know the context of what they said.

A tiny bit of Spetz H2H was shown, only a minute or two, as this is not
typically part of the live action segment, but only in the CGI recreations.
However they did show a very short clip of Maxim and the biomedical expert Geoff
Desmoulin, who is also a karate black belt. Maxim easily handled his attacks,
and casually took Geoff's hardest punches, clearly flummoxing him. I guess I
missed the Sonny v. Maxim knife fighting that Peter mentions upthread, but I'm
sure I'll be rewatching the episode.

The Green Berets are fearsome warriors, but I believe the Spetz have superior
training. The computer simulator ran 1,000 battles scenarios and ultimately
there was a difference of seven kills in favor of the Spetz. Seven kills over
the course of 1,000 battles is a fairly small margin - less than 1% and nothing
to be ashamed of on the part of the Berets. But as with all the episodes I've
seen, the 'losers' have a rather poor attitude about the outcome, which is
decided ultimately by the computer simulations. They dismissed the outcome as
the worthless opinions of technogeeks. I thought this was ungracious of them,
considering they volunteered to be part of the show. Although it's typical of
the series, and might have been edited out of the original context, I think the
derogatory remarks and confrontational attitude reflects poorly upon them.
Sonny, in contrast, maintained friendly competition without being derogatory.
Even as he said that the Spetz training was far more rigourous, he also
mentioned that the Green Berets were nice guys who told some great stories,
wished them best of luck in the shooting match, and in the end said that he has
respect for the Berets, but that you can kill someone and still respect them. I
wish more of the warriors featured on this show were as respectful.

Congratulations to Sonny and Maxim for presenting such fascinating insight into
Spetz training and tactics. If you missed the episode, I think you can watch it
at the SpikeTV Web site.

*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel