from Hacker News

Australian-made high tech armour could reinvent Mixed Martial Arts

by carpdiem on 2/26/14, 5:31 AM with 32 comments

• by roel_v on 2/26/14, 9:06 AM

  "UWM’s vision is to create a large-scale sport and entertainment experience where martial artists can compete against each other with real weapons, with an objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation"

  Well the one with the gun would have won in a 'real' combat situation (what does that mean, anyway?) How is he going to score an icepick to the eye vs a baseball bat swing to the shoulder? While the latter is painful, it's a lot less debilitating than the former.

  While I think there are many legitimate uses for an armor like this, and I'd love one to integrate into our training, building a spectator sport out of this isn't going to be one of them. What people like about the UFC is the same thing some people like about cycling over car races - it's not about getting from point A to B, but doing so purely using unleveraged physical abilities.

  Still, cool tech.

• by iamwithnail on 2/26/14, 11:16 AM

  Something something outfit for going out drinking in Australia.

• by joe_the_user on 2/26/14, 6:29 AM

  It sounds like a lot of fun.

  I'm not sure MMA would be where it would come out but maybe.

  The one thing is I think you can concentrate an lot more force by stabbing directly forward with a stick, putting your weight behind the blow, rather than the sideways swing the demonstrator did. I'd like to see what the armor would do against a blow strong enough to knock someone over.

• by pseut on 2/26/14, 7:46 AM

  The last paragraph was fun:

  "“UWM’s vision is to create a large-scale sport and entertainment experience where martial artists can compete against each other with real weapons, with an objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation” UWM CEO David Pysden said."

• by noonespecial on 2/26/14, 9:25 AM

  Every time I see something like this, I become more sure: The empire will have stormtroopers.

• by grovulent on 2/26/14, 6:37 AM

  Am I not the only one seeing this deployed as riot gear in the Ukraine and else where?

• by frozenport on 2/26/14, 8:18 AM

  This will damage the weapon, very much dissimilar to human flesh.

• by EGreg on 2/26/14, 8:00 AM

  "with an objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation"

  In a real combat situation, the people being struck would experience shock and degradation of fighting ability, which would have affected the points they'd go on to score. I would say this is more about who would have scored the most points in exactly this setting.

• by ripberge on 2/26/14, 8:59 AM

  What does this have to do with MMA? The great thing about MMA is that you don't need a bunch of protective gear and tech to get an "objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation". Very often the loser gets submitted or knocked out. That's the only truly definitive answer to who won the fight.

• by mercurial on 2/26/14, 8:14 AM

  Where are the specs? How heavy is this thing?

  I also don't really see what this has to do with MMA, which is AFAIK a mix of Muay Thai and Brazilian Jijitsu. On the other, you have plenty of traditional MA which either use weapons as part of training (eg, some kung fu schools) or are completely weapon-based (eg, kendo).

• by sonicjohnson on 2/26/14, 7:46 AM

  If weapons don't do any damage then strikes certainly won't. So it will just become really clumsy wrestling and jiu-jitsu. It will be fun to watch the first event when they realize this though.

• by matthiasb on 2/26/14, 7:46 AM

  What's up with the "Hook Player" required to watch the video??

• by froo on 2/26/14, 12:47 PM

  High Tech LARPing in 3...2.....1....