question about a type of martial art?

I've seen it too, don't think it is a special specific art some kind of Karate, but they somehow think they've learned to absorb incredible punishment with minimal to no damage, they look like a bunch of crazies to me, I definitely think it's real, but stupid.

Shooters has a very good answer. I teach Shorin Ryu. it is considered to be a hard style. Our blocks are not just blocks. They are strikes. We have to condition our bodies to handle this. But on the other hand they is a style called sanchin. I may have misspelled it. It is considered to be a soft style. They use soft blocks, etc. Yet they have a strong conditioning program. I had the opportunity to participate in their class. I didn't like their katas, but after learning what was being done in the kata ( the conditioning) I have a greater respect for them. These guys take boards and break them all over their bodies. Well they prepare themselves to be hit by a board until the board is broken. Their body is conditions as well as their mind. But if they were to take those same strikes unaware they would be hurt by it. It is just like when we trade round house kicks to the stomach it is easy to take. But if you take a body shot unexpectedly it will hurt.

You can make yourself ready to recieve a lot of blows if you know where the blow is going to land beforehand. HOUDINI's favorite stunt was to let boxers and strong men punch him as hard as they could in the stomach and he would walk away smiling.The last time the hitter didn't wait for him to get ready and dropped him to the floor and he died later from a ruptured spleen. Saw a demo where a kung fu guy placed some sharp spear points against his stomach and broke the spear shafts by leaning forward causing them to bend until they broke.Later in a sparring demo the same guy got dropped by a front kick to the stomach .Kind of embarrasing. There are all kinds of demos that seek to prove a point .The one you saw was attempting to prove you can condition the body to recieve blows in risky places throat groin etc. Sarchanowski used to take full power kicks to the groin to prove you could take such punishment and you can if you are physically and mentally prepared but there is nothing in real fighting that is predictable enough that you can prepare for.

If it was a movie then it was all staged and therefore FAKE. I was watching some Jet Li movie and the fight scenes were almost comedic. People flying through the air like birds, walking up walls, smashing through walls like Superman. People getting hit with boards, bricks,etc. and getting up again without a scratch on them. Kicking an arrow and have it travel 1000 yards and kill the bad guy. It was ridiculous.

I've seen video of that as well. It was on some History or Discovery channel show about martial arts. They claim they create a "force field" of ki around themselves. Is it real or is it bunk? I cannot say for certain.

hahahahahah, F A K E , there is many F A K E MASTERS . You can watch them on www.youtube.com Many years ago I have seen few of them on web , it was very interesting experience . Most funny part is some people really believe them and pay for classes a lot of money .

If its real, its will power. This is not a type of martial art but an ingredient in all effective martial arts.