Practical Martial Arts Association

I was recently listening to an old episode of the 'Managing Violence Podcast' in which the presenter introduced his 'Violence Survival Pyramid'.  It inspired me to get my own one down on 'paper' so here it is.  The presenter noted that he had gone through several iterations of his own, and I must say like everything in Jujutsu it is subject to change.  The 'Managing Violence Podcast' is an excellent listen if you are interested in dealing with violence - check out the relevant episode here .

Australian/American Signals cooperation was not only important in stopping the Japanese advance to Australian shores but marked the beginning of Australia embedding its forces with the United States rather than simply furnishing troops for the British.  Whilst the British, in my opinion , had a long history of using Commonwealth troops to either protect their colonial interests or to take on deployments with high expected rates of attrition, when Australia faced the real possibility of invasion with the vast majority of its troops and equipment deployed overseas, it was the Americans, whose interests in the Pacific aligned with our own, that were on hand to push the Japanese back from our shores. The Battle of the Coral Sea saw the beginnings of the deployment of Australian sea power under direct American command, a joint approach that would continue to the present time – it was, however, Signals Intelligence that led the way to the embedding of US/Australian forces and played a ma...

In his oldest work (Shanghai Municipal Police - Manual of Self-Defense 1915), W.E. Fairbairn includes the following tidbit towards the end of the book in a section that matches situations and techniques (no picture or further description is in the manual): (2) Your opponent attempts:- (A) To strike you with his fist... (3) With baton, strike forearm a smart blow from below. Those of us who practice certain forms of Jujutsu probably understand a number of reasons why the baton may be down in such a position as to allow this strike - most obviously, it is not particularly civil for police to begin many interactions with weapons in offensive positions (the photo below is from the UN Police Manual 2015, showing the sort of position we are talking about). So one reason to have a less than ideal starting position may be context - especially when equipped with weapons one cannot simply get the weapon between themselves and a possible aggressor, let alone cocked into an aggressive position as ...

In the Water scroll, as Musashi’s advice becomes more specific, we must turn to an often-overlooked factor when considering his writings – his training methods.  He often finished a section by saying drill yourself thoroughly in these techniques, practice this cadence repeatedly, learn how to apply this method – but how exactly?  Consideration of training methods is one of the most overlooked pieces of research with regard to Musashi. When we consider that Musashi and his contemporaries were concerned with preparation for combat we can quickly come to the somewhat obvious conclusion that it is doubtful those methods used by current koryu practitioners were the only training methods used at the time.  In Jujutsu we are aware that many of the training methods used around the time of the Meiji restoration were not successfully transmitted into the Showa period. When considering a training program in any era, especially with regards to traditional martial arts, what is typic...

The active struggle against barbarity and totalitarianism is not a quasi myth from the feudal period nor an abstract  koan  for contemplation - it is in our recent past and goes on in much of the world today.  We who live in societies so civilised that the carrying of weapons is not a regular habit of most of the population live in one of history's outliers.  One who practices a  gendai  school of Jujutsu should always keep the closeness of these struggles in mind. Each year, around this time, we are given cause to remember the Second World War.  My thoughts always turn to my teacher's teacher, whom I trained with only occasionally but whom many of my contemporaries knew quite well and trained with quite a bit.  This man, fresh in the memory of many people, had to use Jujutsu to survive in occupied Holland being part of the Dutch resistance. Rather than being somewhat ashamed that the majority of the Jujutsu schools I have prac...

Last month I looked at those koryu schools that have an 'anti-nito' component - I was able to only find three examples, two of which are related.  Of course, it is normally true that one should be getting something out of both sides of a kata, and I have not looked at the actions of the 'loser' in the many schools in which the 'winner' employs nito.  That is for another series.  We can, however, look for some common threads within the limited scope of the material covered (and if you have other credible koryu examples, let me know in the comments). From Kasumi Shinto Ryu we have: Attack the weak direction of the crossed block or guard through the centre. Take the centre once the guard opens and look for an opportunity to counter a single-handed blow with the long sword. From Shindo Muso Ryu using a longish weapon we have: Attacking the mid to high crossed guard (or arms) from below. Opening the crossed guard to take the centre. Countering single handed blows. At...

I managed to win the Tozando 2019 Essay writing contest with my article Olympics & Budo - A Questionable Mix .  I believe I was lucky in selecting a good topic on which to write.  I do feel that I should have put a little more time into it given the wide audience it will reach, however, it is a reasonably good example of the sort of opinion piece one would find on this blog.

With reference to my previous long series on the Kusarigama I would note that, before taking Kusarigama kata on face value, one has to consider whether long-range entanglements of the sword/s are deliberate tactics or unwanted possibilities.  With that in mind let us observe the use of the Kusarigama against an opponent with two swords. 1 The long weapon attacks down the centre, the use of the cross-block means both swords are trapped at the same time.  In my opinion, this may be one of the few times an entangled chain is desirable as both swords are controlled with the chain and the use of the two swords can be detrimental to the leverage advantage of the swordsman. 2 Here the Kusarigama swings in from the side, resulting in a single wrap.  The Kusarigama, now down to just the Kama, adopts a strategy of counter-attacking single handed blows.  It could probably be argued that the swordsman is somehow 'forced' to use single handed blows in a 1-2 timing, rather than si...

When talking about Nito, Shinto Muso Ryu must be of interest due to the story of the encounter/s between the school's founder Musō Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi and the most famous adept of Nito swordsmanship Miyamoto Musashi.  I once asked a senior Jodo practitioner about any lore with regards to the method used to defeat Musashi (according to the school) as I presumed this would have been preserved.  The answer I received was that it was the use of Tai Atari , as seen in the Kihon, which is said to have been the technique which overcame the famous warrior (although this, like the story itself, should be considered here-say at best).  We do however see this technique put to use against two swords in the Okuden set. Chudan Kengome Shinto Muso Ryu is interesting as it puts a long(ish) weapon against the two sword style in a few examples.  The Kengome kata from the Chudan set begins with a slow setup, like Kasumi Shinto Ryu, where the Jo user attacks the crossed guard...