• Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 22nd March 2010

Tony Wolf’s Portland area Bartitsu seminar was held over the weekend of March 20-21, hosted by Jeff Richardson of the Academia Duellatoria historical fencing school. Class sessions covered elements of all of the Bartitsu “base arts” including fisticuffs, low kicking, canonical jiujitsu kata and walking stick defence sequences, then segued into neo-Bartitsu applications based on those sequences.

Here’s a report from Jeff:

The seminar was awesome. I suspect that many won’t realize just how much they absorbed in the two days of the seminar.

For the warmups… I don’t think people actually realised that they were learning falling techniques. I will certainly be taking a new look at how I teach these skills. To the credit of things much of the class was falling in good form by the end of the first day.

Pugilism… what can I say other than it has always held interest, but I have had very little exposure to traditional historic pugilism (though I’m a great fan of modern boxing). Tony’s explanation of stance and the basic punches and guards was clear and concise, providing ample information on the structure of the techniques.

JiuJitsu – well this I have some limited experience in. I enjoyed being thrown around in the demonstrations. The historical take on things was appreciated as well as the emphasis on practicality and unbalancing.

The low kicks likewise had an air of familiarity to them, though in my case from my eastern martial arts background. The pivoting side kick definately has it’s own unique flare to it however.

The cane work was great! I think many would have liked to have seen more of this taught, but much of the other material clearly set up the work with the cane. We had a great time with this material, but the real fun came when we began to mix it all together.

The progression from stick fighting, to punching and unbalancing and grappling was a great time had by all. Tony let things progress from strict practice of techniques to exercises allowed to develop into improvisational free form allowing the students to explore possibilities.

The class was brilliant. Much thanks to Tony for coming out.

And thanks to Jeff for hosting the event.

• Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 8th March 2010

The first of the Pacific Northwest Bartitsu seminars was held over the past weekend in Seattle, Washington. The venue was the SANCA school of circus arts and the seminars attracted an enthusiastic group of fencers, boxers, martial artists and interested bystanders.

Led by Tony Wolf, day one included a three hour introductory class covering each of the core skills of the Bartitsu repertoire and day two followed that theme into the “Bartitsu blend” process of spontaneously combining jiujitsu, low kicking, fisticuffs and walking stick fighting.

Photographs courtesy of Kathrynne Wolf.

• Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 8th March 2010

Some pictures from Ran Braun‘s recent Bartitsu workshop at the Ludosport Combat Academy in Milan, Italy. Forty participants signed up and there was only room for twenty, so there are plans to repeat the seminar for those who missed out!

The next seminar in Milan will be in collaboration with a savate instructor.

Thanks to Ran and to photographer Ugo Cesare Tonelli for these images.

• Originally published on the Bartitsu-org site on Tuesday, 2nd March 2010 

Instructor Chris Amendola will be offering a Bartitsu class at the upcoming Western Martial Arts Coalition Gathering in Houston, Texas between March 19-21.

BARTITSU: THE NEW ART OF DEFENCE IN 1898

A blend of the “Antagonistics” of Europe (Boxing, Savate and Walking Stick Fighting) with the JiuJitsu of Japan, Edward William Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu was a surprisingly modern approach to personal protection created in 1898. For today’s mainstream martial artist, the idea of being functional at all ranges and cross-training in different systems may seem like “old news”. However, these ideas are old – much older than commonly thought today and Barton Wright’s system provides great insight into just how old.

In this section we will explore the rudiments of unarmed striking from period Boxing (and possibly Savate) and basic techniques of JiuJitsu from the Bartitsu Club (1899-1902), with an eye towards integrating these systems based on underlying mechanical concepts of movement/body-mechanics. “Translations” of these techniques will also be presented for use with the walking-stick or cane. The emphasis in this section will be on Bartitsu as a personal protection system, as opposed to other sportive/recreational applications.

Equipment: Mask, 36″ training dowel, cane, or walking-stick.

• Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 17th February 2010

The Botta Secreta historical martial arts school will be hosting a Bartitsu seminar in San Francisco from 6:30 PM to 9:30PM on Thursday, March 18, 2010. The venue will be at Lowell High School.

This seminar, taught by Tony Wolf, is open to both beginners and advanced martial artists and will introduce the study of both canonical and neo-Bartitsu. The canonical material is based on E.W. Barton-Wright’s classic c1900 articles, “The New Art of Self Defence” and “Self Defence with a Walking Stick”. These sequences provide a platform for training in neo-Bartitsu, continuing Barton-Wright’s experiments in cross-training between jiujitsu, fisticuffs, low kicking and the Vigny system of walking stick fighting.

Equipment: Please bring suitable exercise clothing, including shoes, and a sturdy cane (crook handle preferred), or strong, smooth dowel approx. 36″ long.

Fencing masks, boxing gloves and judogi jackets are useful, but are
not required.

Please contact bottasecretaproductions@yahoo.com for all other details.