- Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 16th July 2012
The Bartitsu Club of Chicago held its second Antagonisticathlon event on the morning of Sunday, July 15th 2012.
The Antagonisticathlon is a fun, challenging martial arts obstacle course in which participants represent Victorian era adventurers running a gauntlet of ruffians and assassins. The course is not timed but “style points” may be awarded at the audience’s discretion.
The obstacles (not all shown in the video clip) included:
* Shoulder barge to heavy punching bag (“knocking a ruffian out the window and into the Thames”)
* Use of overcoat to entangle and throw dagger-wielding hooligan
* Ten reps using antique wall-mounted weightlifting machine
* “Into the Alley of Death”: the adventurer is required to fend off strikes from three ruffians entering at different points of the “alley” and counter each one with a strike to the mask
* “Belabour as you see fit”: freestyle striking with cane against Steampunk standing bag
* Moving a heavy bag over a crash pad and then carrying it across a balance beam (“Rescuing Dr. Watson”)
* Cane fencing, with the object being to throw and belabour the enemy assassin
* Shoulder roll, use cane to knock off the final hooligan’s hat and then knock him unconscious