Noted Bartitsu historian Emelyne Godfrey has written an article for History Today. It can be read in their online edition here. She will also be giving a talk at the upcoming conference ‘Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes: Their Cultural Afterlives’ at the University of Hull on the 4th of July 2009.
Although E.W. Barton-Wright’s martial arts school was only open for a few years, it attracted some notable members and students.
Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon was a keen fencer who also studied Swiss wrestling at the Club, under the tutelage of Armand Cherpillod. Gordon later achieved notoriety as one of the few adult male survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic; he was charged with having bribed the lifeboat crew members not to rescue others from the water, though his defence was that he was grateful to them and was trying to reward their courage.
Captain Alfred Hutton taught historical fencing classes at the Bartitsu Club and also appears to have studied jiujitsu there. Along with his colleague, the novelist Egerton Castle, Hutton was largely responsible for reviving the practice of competitive fencing in England during the late 19th century, and their studies of “ancient swordplay” – the use of the rapier and dagger, two-handed sword, etc. – presaged the modern Historical European Martial Arts movement by the best part of a century.
Captain (later Sir) Ernest George Stenson Cooke and Captain Frank Herbert Whittow were members of both the Bartitsu Club and of Hutton’s training group at the London Rifle Brigade’s School of Arms. They participated in numerous martial arts exhibitions, including several that combined Bartitsu with historical fencing, at the turn of the 20th century.
Captain F.C. Laing was a keen Bartitsu student who cross-trained in jiujitsu and Vigny stick fighting while on leave from the Army. Returning to active duty in India, Laing wrote an article describing his training and detailing a number of Vigny/Bartitsu walking stick defence techniques.
William Henry Grenfell, the 1st Baron Desborough, was described by a contemporary as being “the very pattern and model of an English sporting gentleman.” A fencer, big-game hunter and mountaineer, he swam the rapids at Niagara Falls twice, climbed the Matterhorn three times, rowed across the English Channel and was the amateur punting champion of the upper Thames. Bartitsu would probably have counted amongst his milder pursuits.
“Introductory Bartitsu” is a new instructional DVD by Allen Reed of the Gallowglass Academy.
Allen begins with an accurate precis of Bartitsu history and then takes viewers through American catch-as-catch-can wrestler Farmer Burns’ warmup routine, focusing on isometric and calisthenic exercises.
The next section introduces basic jiujitsu ukemi techniques (side, front and rear breakfalls) and this is followed by an introduction to some of Barton-Wright’s atemi-waza (striking techniques) as detailed in his Pearson’s Magazine articles.
Subsequent sections take us through many of the jiujitsu techniques demonstrated in B-W’s “New Art of Self Defence” articles, with occasional neo-Bartitsu variations based on Allen’s background in Miyama-ryu jiujitsu and Paracombatives; a complementary section on throwing and counter-throwing from classic pugilism; basic boxing, drawing largely from “Boxing” by R.G. Allanson-Winn; two fundamental low kicks drawn from the savate repertoire and a thorough sampling of the Vigny/Bartitsu cane fighting techniques from B-W’s “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” articles.
The presentation is simple and straightforward, as a progression of individual techniques demonstrated from both sides, often several times. Allen explains the techniques as they are being demonstrated by himself and his assistant Chris Vail. The video and sound quality is clear.
In sum, this 1 hour, 33 minute DVD from Gallowglass is a concise, no-frills introduction to largely canonical Bartitsu techniques. It should be of particular use to beginners, especially those working from volume I of the Bartitsu Compendium.
According to USA Today:
“It’s a kind of Japanese street fighting,” explains director Guy Ritchie. “It uses walking sticks, bowler hats, choke holds to put people to sleep – any means possible.” The form of martial arts was invented in England in the late 1800s and was mentioned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (he used the term “baritsu”) in one of his stories.
A quick report on the Bartitsu intensive at the tenth International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention, held at the Detroit Westin hotel between May 21-25, 2009.
The Bartitsu course was divided into two three-hour classes held on days 2 and 3 of the conference, and was well attended on both days (14 participants.)
We started with a precis discussion of E.W. Barton-Wright, the Bartitsu Club era and the Sherlock Holmes connection. The participants then proceeded into a fairly quick study of the three themes of alignment control, initiative control and adaptability, using as examples the left-lead off and counters from scientific boxing, the coup de pied bas and chasse bas kicks of savate and two canonical jiujitsu defence sequences. The rest of this session covered a representative sample of canonical Bartitsu walking cane defence sequences, focusing on the straight or ball-handled cane.
Day 2 began with a discussion of Edith Garrud and the “Jiujitsuffragettes”,
progressed into a selection of crook-handled cane defences and then into the “twist” and “segue” exercises, as detailed in Volume II of the Bartitsu Compendium, applied to many of the canonical sequences that had ben practiced up til then. The “defenders” were challenged to spontaneously adapt their set-play defences in response to their first intention being defeated by the “attacker”, leading towards controlled, self defence oriented sparring scenarios.
During this class I was honoured to be joined by Mark Donnelly who has been teaching Bartitsu in England for a number of years. Mark and I had never worked together before, and I am very happy to report that he is a great asset to the international Bartitsu community; an excellent instructor and martial artist. He has recently moved to the US and I’m looking forward to more collaborations with him in the future.
A new video re-animation of all of the “cinematographic” photograph sequences from Sadakazu Uyenishi’s Textbook of Ju-jutsu, originally published in 1905. The techniques include both basic ukemi waza (falling) and nage waza (throwing) skills, as demonstrated by a Bartitsu Club instructor.
No-one is sure whether Marcus Tindal’s 1901 article, “Self-protection on a Cycle”, was ever intended to be taken seriously. It may well have been a direct parody of E.W. Barton-Wright’s articles on “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” for Pearson’s Magazine.
Nevertheless, participants at May’s International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Conference in Detroit, Michigan, were given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put some of Mr. Tindal’s lessons into practice.
With special thanks to Bartitsu Society member Tom Badillo, who volunteered the use of his FIST impact suit for this class, and to the Art of Combat volunteer who wore it …
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 13th August 2009
A reminder that Tony Wolf will be teaching a series of intensive Bartitsu seminars in Rome (August 28-30) and Cosenza (Calabria – September 2-4). These seminars will cover both canonical and neo-forms of Bartitsu, focusing on:
* combat body mechanics and tactics based on E.W. Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu precepts
* improvisation and the ability to spontaneously blend boxing, savate, jiujitsu and stick fighting
* the cultural history of Bartitsu as the first “fusion” martial art combining Asian and European fighting styles
