- Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 12th August 2016
It is interesting to notice that the Bartitsu system of physical culture, which we mentioned with approval in these columns some time since, has attracted sufficient attention to justify the formation a Bartitsu Club.
Bartitsu, it may be stated for the benfit of the uninitiated, is real self defence, comprising walking-stick play, boxing, la savate (not French savate), and a secret style of wrestling, with innumerable tricks and counters. It is a curious name, and its methods are curious also.
But the Bartitsu school does not limit itself to the instruction of self-defence. Not all of us are liable, or we hope, to the aggression of the Hooligan; but there are many of who are interested in the healthy development of physical functions. The Bartitsu Club has opened an Academy of Arms at Piccadilly-circus-mansions, and here instruction may be obtained, in fencing, sabre-play, gymnastics of all sorts, and in Behuke’s (sic – “Behnke’s”) system of midriff breathing. Behuke is a name well known; and instruction in his method for children as well as men a matter worth the consideration of parents.
We have examined the possibilities of the Bartitsu programme, and feel assured, alter reading the description of walking-stick play (which is a serious matter when it comes to knuckles), foot-boxing and other rare forms of amusement, that the prospectus is justified in stating that most of the subjects taught cannot learned elsewhere. And most of them are worth learning.