A User’s Guide to the Bartitsu Society Website 2.0

The original Bartitsu Society website – www.bartitsu.org – was established by James Marwood in October of 2008, and that site served as the premiere online resource for the contemporary Bartitsu revival until it suffered a catastrophic technical failure in April of 2019.

The recovery, restoration and reconstruction process was a laborious task, but by January of 2021 the great majority of the items posted on Bartitsu.org between 2008-2019, including all of the significant technical and historical articles, had been reconstituted at www.bartitsusociety.com.

During the reconstruction the archived posts unavoidably became chronologically disordered and most of them now begin with a note recording the date when they were originally posted.

This event highlighted the fragility of electronic media and inspired the production of a third volume of the Bartitsu Compendium, in order to further preserve the best of the research presented here since the publication of the second volume in 2008. The Bartitsu Compendium, Volume III was published in December of 2022.

We hope you enjoy the Bartitsu Society website 2.0!

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“The Suffragette That Knew Jiu Jitsu”

A fairly well-researched presentation on Edith Garrud’s role in the jujutsu training of the WSPU Bodyguard unit, contextualised with some background on Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu.

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“Bartitsu Basics – How to thrust with a cane & the hand guard”

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Experimental Vigny/Bartitsu stick sparring

Nice to see these fighters experimenting with a variety of tactical guard positions throughout and with some grappling/disarm options towards the end of their bout.

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Bartitsu with Team TE-MA Combat

Experimental Vigny/Bartitsu stick sparring from Team TE-MA Combat, with an active group class shown below. Nice to see a variety of guard positions (front, back and double-handed variations) as well as ambidextrous attacks being employed.

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“Parry and Fight Back” in the Vigny style with Oliver Janseps

Another useful video tutorial in the fundamentals of Vigny cane fighting from instructor Oliver Janseps, this one detailing the parry/riposte dynamic against high and outside/inside body line attacks.

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“How to start Bartitsu – la canne Vigny” with Oliver Janseps

This new video tutorial focusses on basic moulinet strikes in the Vigny style.

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“Fight Like Sherlock Holmes” in Germany

Images from a recent seminar by Alex Kiermayer and Christoph “Bear-Knuckle” Reinberger.

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Guards by Distance with Oliver Janseps

German HEMA instructor Oliver Janseps offers a clear explication of Guard by Distance tactics and dynamics in this video, which is part of an occasional series.

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Vigny Cane Basics with Alex Kiermayer

Veteran instructor Alex Kiermayer offers a tutorial in the fundamentals of warming up, striking and parrying with a cane in the classic Vigny style.

If you’d like much more in the same vein, Alex’s comprehensive, multi-part instructional series Bartitsu: Historical Self-Defence with a Walking Stick According to Pierre Vigny is available in English via Vimeo.

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Irish stick sparring/Bartitsu stick sparring comparison

The ancient art of Bataireacht (Irish stick fighting) has undergone a modern revival closely paralleling that of Bartitsu, and this sparring clip demonstrates the close technical parallels as well. Similar to Vigny stick fighting, Bataireacht emphasizes high guard positions and includes the double-handed guard, and comparable to Bartitsu as a holistic style, the Irish system also features unarmed striking and grappling.

Here’s a compilation of Bartitsu sparring clips for comparison:

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