The method was mentioned in several British magazines, and featured as "Baritsu" in Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Empty House."







Techniques









As it combines stand up fighting clinch work and take down techniques Bartitsu can accommodate any type of attack.





Not much is known about the boxing style incorporated into Bartitsu. What is sure is that it was modified to better suit the purpose of self defense. It may have been a sort of Queensbury style modified with movements similar to London Prize Ring pugilism, or taken from a much older boxing style, known as Scientific Boxing, which incorporated defensive techniques such as side-stepping, ducking and blocking.



The main difference between the street-oriented Vigny style and cane or canne fighting is that French stick fighting lacks a hand guard. The Vigny style took that into account and included a range of guards in which position and distance from the opponent protected the weapon wielding hand. The stick is manipulated with the wrist - and not with the fingers as in sword-play - and the blows are given by swinging the body on the hips - and not merely by flips from the elbow. The practitioner should be able to handle the stick single-handed as well as double-handed. The Vigny system is also ambidextrous meaning that the practitioner can and should swap hands, so that his opponent can never precisely tell which hand will deliver the attack.



It incorporates a wide range of strikes, thrusts and disarming techniques from Vigny style stick fighting, joint locks from jiu jitsu, grappling techniques from kodokan judo, and throwing and takedown techniques from both. Movements and foot work came from savate (also known as chausson ) and boxing. However, the guards are much more numerous and done in a slightly different style from boxing.Not much is known about the boxing style incorporated into Bartitsu. What is sure is that it was modified to better suit the purpose of self defense. It may have been a sort of Queensbury style modified with movements similar to London Prize Ring pugilism, or taken from a much older boxing style, known as Scientific Boxing, which incorporated defensive techniques such as side-stepping, ducking and blocking.The main difference between the street-oriented Vigny style and cane or canne fighting is that French stick fighting lacks a hand guard. The Vigny style took that into account and included a range of guards in which position and distance from the opponent protected the weapon wielding hand. The stick is manipulated with the wrist - and not with the fingers as in sword-play - and the blows are given by swinging the body on the hips - and not merely by flips from the elbow. The practitioner should be able to handle the stick single-handed as well as double-handed. The Vigny system is also ambidextrous meaning that the practitioner can and should swap hands, so that his opponent can never precisely tell which hand will deliver the attack.





Some specific techniques such as the Overcoat Trick, a self defence technique making use of an overcoat as a defensive weapon, seems related to the Metsubushi





Most of the throwing techniques included either tripping the opponent, twisting his head and neck or manipulating his elbow joint; without resorting to the variety of hip and shoulder throws typical of modern judo.Some specific techniques such as the Overcoat Trick, a self defence technique making use of an overcoat as a defensive weapon, seems related to thetechniques which were used by the mercenaries of feudal Japan in order to blind and distract their opponents. The fact of turning everyday objects such as walking sticks or umbrellas into weapons (a technique known as (' shadow weapons ') may have had the same origin.

Modern Bartitsu (Bartitsu Today)





There was probably more to the art of Bartitsu than Barton-Wright put forth in his lectures, demonstrations and articles. Therefore, the term neo-Bartitsu refers to both "Bartitsu as it might have been" and "Bartitsu as it can be today". It is based on the canonical material produced by Barton-Wright and his collaborators, but also includes the full range of boxing, jiujitsu and walking stick defence techniques recorded by former Bartitsu Club members and their students between about 1903 and 1923. The term Canonical Bartitsu, on the contrary, is somtimes used to refer to Bartitsu "as we know it was" based on the writings and self-defense sequences presented by Barton Wright and his colleagues from 1898 to 1901. Thus, Canonical Bartitsu just intends to preserve what was, while Neo-Bartitsu also extends and develops beyond the fundamental canon or principles.



