Posts about martial arts history and concepts.
Taro Miyake originally came to prominence as a jiu jitsu expert fighting legitimate mixed styles contests with professional boxers and wrestlers. Miyake used the legitimate contests, most of which he won, to generate interest in jiu jitsu. Like many judo and jiu jitsu instructors, Miyake discovered how hard it was to make a sustainable income from martial arts instruction. Taro […]
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An ad was printed in the January 16, 1921 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch advertising a mail order course on Jujitsu from Capt. Allan Smith. Capt. Smith was originally born in Scotland but was fascinated with demonstrations of Japanese Jujitsu (actually Judo) he saw in England. Smith traveled to Japan with a company and learned Judo reaching 1st degree […]
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In January 2020, Grandmaster Pat Weseman promoted me to 4th degree black belt in Taekwondo. I almost did not make it to this milestone. In May 2014, I was running my own school plus teaching at Willow Martial Arts, the TKD school I attended since July 2000, and for a year, 1996-1997. While I did not realize it at the […]
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On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1905, St. Louis sports fans were treated to a special match between local professional wrestler George Baptiste and traveling Japanese jujitsu practitioner Arata Suzuki. Baptiste delighted local fans by quickly defeating Suzuki in two straight falls. George Baptiste was a professional wrestler and all-around athlete, whose powerful swimming saved many St. Louisans from drowning […]
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Yukio Tani arrived in England at the turn of the 20th Century. Tani spread ju-jitsu by taking part in challenge matches against professional wrestlers. As part of these challenge matches, Tani demonstrated ju-jitsu. Through the success of these challenges and demonstrations, Tani saw many students sign up to train with him. One of Tani’s best English students used the stage […]
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With Choque, Vol. 2 (Amazon affiliate link), Roberto Pedreira picks up the story of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in what he considers its heyday in Brazil, 1950 – 1960. Besides Carlos and Helio Gracie, several other academies, such as Oswaldo Fadda’s, were also thriving. Judo was gaining in popularity but had not overcome Jiu-Jitsu in popularity. Vale Tudo matches were at the height […]
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I recently read Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, Volume 1 by Roberto Pedreira (Amazon affiliate link), which tells an alternate story of BJJ’s beginnings than we have been told by in various interviews with members of the Gracie Family. “Choque” translates to “shocking” in Brazilian Portuguese. While Pedreira exhaustively researches and cites primary sources, mostly Brazilian newspapers, […]
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Ad Santel gained his reputation as a dangerous catch wrestler from his frequent bouts with judoka from Japan during the 1910s and a story from the second George Hackenschmidt training camp for the Frank Gotch rematch. According to legend, Frank Gotch paid Santel, a skilled submission wrestler, $5,000.00 to injure Hackenschmidt’s knee in training. While this story may or may […]
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In the distant past, one of the new holders of a teacher’s certificate in a traditional martial art brought a wheelbarrow with round wheels for approval to the head of the style and his top two instructors. Previously, the wheelbarrow had square tires and was referred to as a square barrow. The student waited with expectation as the head of […]
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One of the things that impressed me about the Gracies is how they were able to turn out generation after generation of top-notch instructors. After reading articles about their original belt system, etc., I started to adapt their methods with our own students. Once the student reaches Green Belt, we allow them to start helping occasionally. They usually achieve this […]
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