England--- Home of Jujutsu
There's nothing like learning jujutsu from a chirrupy-voiced upperclass English lady, as seen in this classic video from 1931.
I doubt that her partner's groans are at all feigned, as he doesn't seem very good at falling down.
I doubt that her partner's groans are at all feigned, as he doesn't seem very good at falling down.
posted by dubjay at 6:32 PM
9 Comments:
She's actually pretty good!
It's not quite an upper-class accent, though. Middle-middle with pretensions to gentility. It doesn't have quite the braying quality that real upper-class Britspeak of the time did.
Hard floor. Nice legs. I get the impression the guy was having quite a bit of fun.
:)
I love their measurements.
"Slow motion demonstrates exactly how 7 stone odd, scientifically applied can defeat 14 stone."
On one of the slo-mo bits the Uke ( the Guy receiving the technique)looks to be almost positioning his arms for a classic breakfall, but then just lands on the ground like a bag of hammers.
Ouch
That's awesome! And you're right--the guy doesn't know how to fall very well at all. :)
Oh, that's great! And yeah, unlike some of the other women in vintage self-defense footage, she actually looks like she knows what she's doing, rather than someone following a rehearsed routine. Very cute, too.
Someone should write a book on martial arts in England and America from the Victorian era to the 1930s, starting with people like Teddy Roosevelt's sensei and the judokas who toured British music halls challenging wrestlers and boxers. And, of course, E. W. Barton-Wright's Bartitsu (which Doyle misspelled as "Baritsu").
http://ejmas.com/jmanly/articles/2002/jmanlyart_Barton-Wrighta_1202.htm
Btw, a couple of traditional Japanese arts made an unexpectedly strong showing in the UFC a couple of weeks ago. Media attention, understandably enough, was on the dapper Canuck powerhouse George St. Pierre (the only fighter I've ever seen arrive at the UFC in a suit and tie) and his destruction of wrestler B. J. Penn (for a man who began as a pure striker, St. Pierre has somehow become one of the best grapplers in the world), but there was some interesting stuff in the undercards, too.
Karo Parisyan fought Dong Hyun Kim in what was pretty much a pure judo match. Parisyan won by split decision (I would have given it to Kim). Some commentators called the match "boring" and example of a poor match-up, saying their skills stalemated each other, but I thought it was fascinating, with a couple of beautiful throws.
And Lyota Machida knocked out Thiago Silva at the end of the first round of their fight. Two Brazilians going at it isn't exactly news in the UFC, but what's interesting is that only the loser was a Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist. Machida is the son of a Brazilian-Japanese shotokan master, Shozizo Machida, and he's the rare MMA champion to fight in a traditional Shotokan stance. The combination that took out Silva was straight out of kata.
The uke is actually quite good -- he's working diligently at appearing to impact with a lot of force, but look at the first attack -- when she throws him, his right arm guides the motion, and he does a very clean breakfall slap. I'm impressed that the arm doesn't come up, as is the more common response I've seen.
Same with him falling after the kick -- arm up to protect the face, slaps the floor to absorb some of the force, and then bounces up.
The guy is doing a certain amount of mugging for the camera. He knew what he was doing, though.
Note that for the larger throws, he's taking the initial impact on his feet before his body touches the floor. Discrete slaps, too, as someone else noted.
I'd bet money that he was her teacher.
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