Snow in Vancouver in November? I moved to the west coast to avoid snowstorms. Oh well.

This month, I think we were all aware of our different sizes and capabilities. Adapting techniques for use against a much taller or shorter opponent was a part of many lessons because of the relative heights of our students. The takeaway: technique is more important than size.

Weekly Rundown

Week 11 (5 November, 2010): We looked at all unarmed striking techniques together: a review of Savate and new Boxing techniques. The pugilism focused on slipping to the outside while delivering a straight punch from under the assailant’s outstretched arm. Our combination concerned how to overwhelm an opponent with rapid strikes with hands and feet. During sparring, we spent time working more combos and personalizing our fighting style.

Week 12 (13 November, 2010): This Saturday we reviewed Boxing, and then explored new Jujitsu techniques to take down an adversary. We demonstrated why the slip is not only a great move for pugilism, but also a great way to start a rear choke and a sacrifice throw. It became obvious that a smaller person needs to “whittle” a taller opponent down to their level before applying a choke, and bringing them to the floor is a great way to do just that.

Week 13 (20 November, 2010): For this week, we reviewed the new jujitsu we learned the previous week: rear chokes and the rear sacrifice throw. We extended the review a little bit to talk about the canonical escapes from the rear choke and the headlock. After that, we went on to new cane techniques. The topic was horizontal strikes, and we examined them from various positions, and passing from hand to hand. Then, we found our way back to rear chokes aided by the walking stick.

Umbrella Workshop: We ran another Umbrella Self Defence workshop on Sunday the 21st, when it was still rainy weather. We had another great turnout with 16 students, and even some visitors from Seattle who came to town just to take the workshop. If I were American, that would be on my list of thanks for Thanksgiving.

Week 14 (27 November, 2010): I called this Saturday “short range day”. We reviewed the new cane techniques we saw the previous week, including the Irish horizontal strikes and escrima-style fan strikes. Instead of reaching out for these attacks, we focused on doing them with a bent arm for powerful close strikes and surprising angles. Then, we got back into Boxing with guards against body blows. Our “synthesis” section focused on how a boxer can get to a comfortable (short) range when faced with a stick-weilding opponent.

Coming Up

December will be a slightly shorter month, since we won’t be having class on 25 December.

We’re also adopting a new policy: new students will be required to take an introductory workshop to give them the fundamental skills before joining the regular class. The first of these monthly 4-hour workshops will be 8 January, 2011. Until then, curious newcomers can try one class for free, but will still have to take the workshop before continuing.

Talk to you in the New Year when we’ll review December’s bartitsu and maybe my experiences at the Paddy Crean workshop in Banff if there are bartitsu-relevant events there.

Until then, I remain chilly,

David McCormick