Category Archives: Antagonistics

“What To Do When A Thug Attacks You”: Still More on the Latson Method of Self-Defense

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 21st November 2016 The following article dated July 16, 1911 serves as a further explication of the curious “Latson Method of Self Defence”.  Aside from its clear parallels with Bartitsu, as a … Continue reading

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“Should an Assailant Strike at Your Wind or Heart with His Right Fist”: an Anomalous Canonical Bartitsu Technique Illustrated

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 26th November 2016 In April of 2010 the Bartitsu Society discovered a “new” entry into canonical Bartitsu unarmed combat.  This self defence kata or sequence appeared as part of a reprint of E.W. … Continue reading

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“Returning kicks with interest”: Counter-Kicks and Stop-Kicks in Bartitsu Unarmed Combat

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 22nd November 2016 Another branch of Bartitsu is that in which the feet and hands are both employed, which is an adaptation of boxing and Savate (…) The use of the feet … Continue reading

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Velo-Boxe (“Bike-Boxing”) Cartoons by Marius Rossillon

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 10th January 2019 The French painter and cartoonist Marius Rossillon (1867-1946), under the pseudonym “O’Galop”, invents a bizarre new hybrid combat sport in this 1895 sketch series, which originally appeared in Le Rire. … Continue reading

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Sherlock Holmes Wields a Deadly Scarf

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 7th February 2019 Bartitsu is particularly noted for its weaponising of gentlemanly accoutrements such as walking sticks, umbrellas and overcoats.  We’ve also previously examined the circa 1900 use of bowler hats, belts and flat caps as weapons. The use of weighted … Continue reading

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The Annotated “Bartitsu: Its Exponent Interviewed” (1901)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 31st January 2019 The following interview with Bartitsu founder E.W. Barton-Wright first appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette of 5 September 1901, during the height of the Bartitsu Club era.  It was found … Continue reading

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Revivals of Gladiatorial Combat in Belle Époque France

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 29th September 2013 Georges Dubois was something of a Renaissance man; a professional sculptor, Olympic athlete, author, theatrical fight director and fencing teacher who famously challenged Ernest Regnier (a.k.a. “Re-Nie”) to a savate … Continue reading

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Demolition Derby: A Short History of the Weaponised Bowler Hat

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 26th September 2017 Given that we have already outlined the histories of the weaponised umbrella and hat-pin and have tested the historicity and practicality of the razor-blade cap, it seems fitting to now consider the bowler hat-as-weapon … Continue reading

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“How to Defend Yourself” (Popular Mechanics, November 1926)

During the late 19th century, newspaper and magazine articles tended to skirt the subject of practical self-defence. The popularity of feature articles on that subject was spurred by Edward Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu series for Pearson’s Magazine in 1898-99 and continued through … Continue reading

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“Gouged Eyes and Chawed Ears” – the History and Folklore of Rough-and-Tumble Fighting via the Works of Robert E. Howard

The once-celebrated and now little-known “manly art” of rough-and-tumble fighting, a.k.a. “gouge fighting”, is explained in this video by pulp fiction scholar Jeffrey Shanks. If you’re intrigued to learn more about rough-and-tumble, in purported fact as well as fiction, be … Continue reading

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