Preview trailer for a new documentary called "Bartitsu: the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes".
Also, there's an interview with the fight co-ordinator for the new Sherlock Holmes movie at ww.bartitsu.org .
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Preview trailer for a new documentary called "Bartitsu: the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes".
Also, there's an interview with the fight co-ordinator for the new Sherlock Holmes movie at ww.bartitsu.org .
This comes from 'Punch', the British humor magazine, with regard to Bartitsu...
http://tiny.cc/oHbGa
Devon - Given the fine history you provide, I would predict that the cane/stick arts will be much more popular in the near future than they were in the classic era.
Movies like Sherlock Holmes may popularize the arts, but it won't bring in the serious students. Living conditions in the early 21st century will do that. I think you see more aging baby boomers using canes even now...many of them will have been active and even martial artists, they won't relish a quick transition to helpless victim and they'll know the streets are not getting any safer. Some will have used sticks as weapons in prior MAs. You may see gun control, but nobody questions a gentleman's cane or walking stick.
My doctor told me to get more active, and I'd had some foot injuries in the past. When the American Cane system offered a good work out plus use of a cane for self defense, I jumped at the chance.
All people need is the opportunity - the need already exists. I'd expect Bartitsu to enjoy a resurrection and thrive like never before.
That essay's a classic. Despite the "happy ending", it's re-printed in the second volume of the Bartitsu Compendium to illustrate the dangers of trying to learn a martial art from a book.
Maybe so, though I think that will require cane defense systems that can be customized to match individual disabilities. Bartitsu was never especially intended to be used by people who actually needed a cane to support themselves in walking; in 1900, a cane was a fashionable accessory. Some researchers believe it represented a "transitional phase" between men wearing swords, to going largely unarmed.
Personally, I quite often carry a cane; I don't have any medical need for it, but it comes in handy sometimes and I'd rather have a cane than nothing at all if I do need to defend myself.
Still, that's the beauty of "neo-Bartitsu"; it can change and adapt, as long as the adaptations are realistically tested.
I often carry a walking stick and it gets little notice, though a couple of women complimented one of them. I think we may well be transitioning back to going around armed, these being ugly times with a dysfunctional justice system.
If you have that much to burden you, will you be able to employ your karate techniques effectively?
Given the decades long dormancy of Bartitsu, I would imagine trying to revive the art from the writings left over was an enormous challenge for your society. There certainly weren't DVDs and I doubt there was a live instructor to mentor... how have you managed?
A suggestion, Bill.By dropping it, yes. The problem is not what I divest. The problem is that I can't carry much more. For example, when I leave my car to walk into work, I am toting a computer backpack or shoulder bag, my lunch bucket (Iron Man), a large travel mug of coffee, and fiddling with my security ID to get into the building through the automated revolving doors. I quite often drop my car keys as I try to transfer things from hand to hand while I am walking. A cane? I could not possibly manage it.