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JasonStewart
JasonStewart's picture
Parallel Technique in Victorian Era Self Defense

Saw this today and thought it was interesting.  It's an article on the book "Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies," written in the 19th century and I noticed it had many parallels to the self defence taught in the katas. Note the limb control:

I also like this bit where, in the 1800s, people in europe were already bemoaning the lack of self defence that resulted from making boxing into a "gloved sport."

Veteran Boxer William Madden, on sport vs self defence 1893: "You cannot compare the fighter of the past with those of today…Today glove-fighting is like sandbagging. You hit a man in the right place and he drops dizzy and unconscious…[in the past] it was the artist in those days that gave the straight punches, and it was the artist that won the fight.”

Seems like the West and the East were not all that different in terms of fighting styles.  There are only so many effective ways to hit someone.

The entire article is here:  https://outofthiscentury.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/the-victorian-gentlema...

Just thought that was cool!

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Nice post! I have that book and I also wrote a post about it a few months ago. In my case, it was the parallels on pre-emptive striking that we find between the book and what the past masters said.  

http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/content/universal-truth-pre-emption

JasonStewart wrote:
Seems like the West and the East were not all that different in terms of fighting styles.  There are only so many effective ways to hit someone.

Absolutely! What works, works.

All the best,

Iain

Marc
Marc's picture

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that article.  

Spaniard
Spaniard's picture

I like the no-nonsense context statement akin to Motobu, “I am not writing for or teaching prize-fighters. I am teaching gentlemen how to defend themselves if assaulted by ruffians…”

I believe that book is needed for my library.