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!

Posted in Editorial | Comments Off on A User’s Guide to the Bartitsu Society Website 2.0

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

Posted in Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on “Bartitsu Basics – How to thrust with a cane & the hand guard”

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.

Posted in Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on Experimental Vigny/Bartitsu stick sparring

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.

Posted in Canonical Bartitsu, Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on Bartitsu with Team TE-MA Combat

“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.

Posted in Canonical Bartitsu, Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on “Parry and Fight Back” in the Vigny style with Oliver Janseps

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

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

Posted in Canonical Bartitsu, Instruction, Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on “How to start Bartitsu – la canne Vigny” with Oliver Janseps

“Fight Like Sherlock Holmes” in Germany

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

Posted in Boxing, Canonical Bartitsu, Savate, Seminars, Sherlock Holmes, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on “Fight Like Sherlock Holmes” in Germany

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.

Posted in Canonical Bartitsu, Instruction, Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on Guards by Distance with Oliver Janseps

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.

Posted in Antagonistics, Canonical Bartitsu, Instruction, Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on Vigny Cane Basics with Alex Kiermayer

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:

Posted in Antagonistics, Sparring, Video, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on Irish stick sparring/Bartitsu stick sparring comparison

“Les Apaches: the Gangster Chic of Belle Époque Paris”

An early heads-up that Tony Wolf will be giving a live Zoom lecture on the “Apache chic” craze of the early 20th century:

At the turn of the 20th century, the exploits and styles of Parisian Apache (pronounced Ah-pahsh) street gangsters fascinated the international bourgeoisie. Readers breathlessly followed the criminal exploits of “the Terror”, “Golden Helmet” and other infamous Apaches via tabloid newspapers; nightclubbers thrilled to the danse d’Apache, which acrobatically mimicked a violent encounter between an Apache pimp and a prostitute; slumming society ladies took classes in la langue verte (“the green language”), the secret slang of Montmartre brothels and back-alleys. Apache fashions, weapons and even their ingenious pickpocketing and mugging tricks became the subjects of high society discourse, and their lore was quickly absorbed into popular culture via pulp novels, Grand Guignol plays and silent film serials.

This lavishly illustrated presentation explores the extraordinary demimonde mystique of the Apache subculture during la Belle Époque and ponders its pop-culture legacy unto the present day.

The presentation will take place at 7.00 p.m. (Eastern US time) on Monday, April 29th and bookings can be made via this site.

Posted in Academia, Antagonistics, Edwardiana, Hooliganism | Comments Off on “Les Apaches: the Gangster Chic of Belle Époque Paris”