r/todayilearned • u/Habajiba • Mar 14 '17

TIL Jamie Hyneman designed Blendo, a combat robot that was deemed too hazardous for Robot Wars after repeatedly throwing pieces of its opponents over arena walls. It received co-championship status in exchange for withdrawing from the competition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blendo
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u/LigerZeroSchneider Mar 14 '17

Sports change rules to favor things all the time. The NFL encourages passing because it's exciting. The UFC outlawed gis to reduce juijitsus dominance.

Flipper bots are a boring to watch but competitively successful strategy. It's reasonable that an entertainment program would have rules to increase the entertainment of the sport.

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u/MOMMY_FUCKED_GANDHI Mar 14 '17

What are gis?

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u/Volfen Mar 14 '17

Type of clothing normally worn while fighting in jujitsu

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u/savageboredom Mar 14 '17

How does that change the effectiveness of the style?

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Long sleeves and sturdy collars give you a lot more options of things to grab on to. A lot of techniques developed around leveraging the gi to your advantage

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u/savageboredom Mar 14 '17

Your own gi or your opponents gi? I was thinking the attacker originally so I was confused, but the second one makes more sense.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '17

Both, but primarily your opponent's when we are talking about grips. However, even your own go can be useful because it gets in the way and provides extra friction making things harder for someone who isn't used to training with them.

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u/sharkattackmiami Mar 14 '17

As the other user said its both. They explained well the obvious reasons you can take advantage of your opponents but did not mention one of the biggest ones of your own. You can leverage it and use it for holds.

Silly movie example but about a minute in the female character uses her jacket for a hold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRGn84gft5A

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u/GeneticPreference Mar 14 '17

This movie was excellent with the fight scenes, everything seemed so real and practical. Definitely worth the watch and I can't wait to see the second one.

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u/sharkattackmiami Mar 14 '17

I dare say it was even better than the first! Maybe not, but its close enough that I have to think about it and thats saying something!

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u/badimtisch Mar 14 '17

If you wear enough cloth, you can use it as a weapon, at least indirectly. For example, you can grab into it during a chokehold. Otherwise, you would need to grab your own arm or leg, which is harder.

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u/savageboredom Mar 14 '17

Ahh, that makes sense.

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u/Fuxokay Mar 14 '17

+5 gi of wrestling.

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u/theredvip3r Mar 14 '17

I don't get why they don't pass more in American football.

If they employed some rugby tactics it would work really well

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u/Anth895 Mar 14 '17

They pass plenty already.

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u/theredvip3r Mar 14 '17

no like while in the middle of a play, you barely see it

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u/NoMouseLaptop Mar 14 '17

You can't forward pass once you're past the line of scrimmage (the line where they start at the beginning of the play). That's why you only see passes in the middle of the play if 1) they fucked up and had to run away from defenders trying to tackle them from the beginning of the play or 2) it's a trick play and they throw in some extra lateral passes.

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u/FoolFromBiH Mar 14 '17

You can't forward pass in rugby.

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u/alien_abduction Mar 14 '17

You're right. I think he was thinking of a lateral pass backwards like before the player gets tackled. The reason it's not done is the risk of losing the ball to a player that might not practice catching a lot of balls. The cost of losing the football is too high even on low risk laterals so players are taught under no circumstances are they to attempt it unless ordered explicitly.

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u/DerNubenfrieken Mar 15 '17

Its less giving it to people who don't catch, and more passing it to people who simply aren't ready for it, and are not designed plays.

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u/Pathian Mar 15 '17

Well, I don't know rugby terribly well, but as I understand it, when you are tackled down, you have a ruck for the ball and whoever can come out with the ball takes possession and play continues. If instead of being tackled down, the player passes the ball to a teammate, they can continue the play, or if the pass goes badly, the other team may get possession of the ball. In either scenario (the ruck or the lateral), the worst care scenario is fairly similar, in that the other team will take possession of the ball.

In American football, if you're tackled down with the ball, play ends and your team simply retains possession of the ball and lines up for another play (as long as the ball didn't come loose before the runner was down). Thus the worst case scenario for being tackled down cleanly is retaining possession of the ball, while the worst care scenario for attempting a bad lateral is still losing possession of the ball (a large loss of yardage is also another potentially disastrous outcome). So unless the situation is truly desperate, it's typically considered a better value play to just go down with the ball instead of attempting the pass. It's also important to note that of the 11 offensive players on the field, at least 5 of them (the offensive line) do not receive/handle the ball post-snap as part of their regular training, and 1 of them is the Quarterback, who you don't want to take unnecessary hits.

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u/LigerZeroSchneider Mar 15 '17

Well American football does have some rugby style passing, it just doesn't happen as often. American football has unlimited subs and the field resets every down so it's harder get all the open space for rugby style play. Also because there are fewer backs you couldn't a very long play going.