The same scientific analysis has been followed in these pages. The photos take the place of the platform demonstration, and the printed words take the place of commands.
Take the position of each illustration and slowly practice the movement described and you will learn how to apply your strength.
LESSON 8
This lesson teaches you --
Methods of practice for husband and wife.
The psychology of training.
Three different methods of Throat Attack.
First defense to Throat Attack.
Second defense to Throat Attack.
Third defense to Throat Attack.
Edge of hand blow.
Name of Partner Date Practice Commenced 1st Defense 2nd Defense 3 rd Defense
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Place a check mark against each trick each day you practice it.
A USELESS METHOD OF DEFENSE
It is useless when thus attacked to seize Assailant's wrists and try to pull them off.
Yet that is what most people would do under the paralyzing effects of fear.
It is almost as useless to try and seize a finger and pry his grip open, or even break the finger. If he is strong he would have you nearly choked before you could accomplish this.
Even if you are stronger than Assailant is, strength is not nearly so speedy a way of conquering him as the methods given here, particularly the Third Method.
METHODS OF PRACTICE FOR HUSBAND AND WIFE
If a husband wishes to teach his wife the defense tricks he will assume the role of Assailant, as directed, and attack her with the attempted strangle, the waisthold, etc.
In attacking her throat, he will place his hands on her shoulders and his thumbs on her windpipe, gently, without pressure, and will remain in that position while she slowly executes the defense, practicing this again and again until she acquires speed, and until she can act without hesitation.
He may then hold her neck with gradually increasing pressure in his fingers, carefully avoiding pressure with his thumbs.
Soon she will learn to anticipate the attack and will act so quickly that the defense is made before his fingers can reach her throat.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TRAINING
In this way her reflex action is being trained and an attempted move on the part of a ruffian on the street on a dark night would stimulate her reflex action to perform the necessary defense without having to hesitate and think of what to do.
It will train her to act in the face of danger and free her from the paralyzing effects of fear.
The partner with whom you practice knows what your defense will be but must not take advantage of this knowledge to escape or parry the defense. He must attack again and again without variation.
Remember that the ruffian who attacks you on the street does not know what your defense will be and probably expects no opposition at all.
Your properly executed defense will incapacitate him before he has time to change his method of attack.
DIFFERENT METHODS OF THROAT ATTACK
An Assailant might press his thumbs directly into your windpipe.
Or he might cross his thumbs over your windpipe. A strong man could strangle you this way with one hand.
Some men would place the ends of their thumbs on the glands of your neck. This is a very painful grip.
The following lesson provides an adequate defense against any of these methods of attack.
In practice the Assailant may use any of these methods of attack but should exert no pressure with his thumbs.
At first he will merely place his hands on his partner's throat until the partner is familiar with the defense. Later on he will shove you gently. You will retreat more quickly than he shoves, unbalancing him as you retreat, and perform the counter.
Increase the speed of the attack gradually, but never become rough enough to injure one another.
In an actual combat the Assailant might not only try to choke you but to knock you over backward as well. The quickest way to master the defense to the roughest kind of attack is to eliminate the factor of momentum, and practice the trick stationary, until you have mastered all the details except momentum.
If you make your partner shove you while attacking, you will quickly catch on.
FIRST DEFENSE TO THROAT ATTACK
Assailant seizes your throat.
Bring your palms together.
(In practice, Assailant must hold tightly with his fingers, but will not press your throat with his thumbs.)
Bring your hands like a wedge smartly up between his arms, thus breaking his hold.
Place your hands behind his head or on his neck.
Pull his head smartly down, simultaneously bringing up your knee onto his nose with sufficient force to knock him out.
In practice, stop the blow three or four inches from his nose.
Make the effort from the Stahara to ensure efficient coordination between arms and legs, and keep your balance.
SECOND DEFENSE TO THROAT ATTACK
Assailant seizes your throat.
Clasp your hands together as in fig. 50.
Swing forearms upward against the side of Assailant's arms, thus breaking his hold.
Then strike him on the side below his ribs with your double clenched fists.
THREE METHODS OF DEFENSE FOR THROAT ATTACK
There are three methods of defense against throat attack taught in this lesson. The third one is by far the best. After this course is completed you will discard the first and second -- they are merely preliminary training.
A person who uses arm strength alone would not find the third method much better than the others, and would not be able to say why it was better, but you, who are working on the Stahara principle, will soon notice that the third method enables you to discount Assailant's strength to a greater extent, and to deal a more deadly return blow.
If you were taught only one method, you would know so little about the principles of the art that anyone who could do another trick efficiently -- perhaps by sheer superiority of physical strength -- would be able to prevail upon you to discard your former method.
The first and second methods have their place in this scheme of training as they give you experience in using your body in different positions, and give you greater resources of tactics to draw on -- for instance, when the chance presents itself, you would be able to use the knee smash on nose.
When this course is completed, however, your reflex action will make you automatically use the third method and scrap the others.
THE WRIST TWIST AND OTHER COMPLICATED DEFENSES
The wrist twists in Book 6 are also excellent defenses but if you are outmatched by Assailant's strength, use the third method given here, it is your best bet.
THE KNEE KICK
Bear in mind during your practice that in certain circumstances you would be justified in using the knee kick, and when matters come to that pass, kick swiftly, and then follow up with the third method, or take him prisoner with the wrist twist.
In other words, while you faithfully practice these other methods, look upon them as a means to an end, as a training in the effective use to an end, as a training in the effective use of the body, but where it is a case of life or death, use the knee kick, before your Assailant has time to get in his dirty work.
THIRD DEFENSE AGAINST THROAT ATTACK
Assailant takes the throat hold.
Swing your right elbow up over Assailant's left arm, knocking his hands away from your throat and throwing him off balance.
Make the swing, not with the arm, but with the whole body (the Stahara).
Swing your elbow back full into Assailant's neck or jaw. They are both equally vital points and a fair blow will lay him out.
In practice stop the blow three or four inches from your partner's neck.
As you swing in fig. 53, step forward and inward with your right foot and step backward and to the right with your left foot. Compare your position carefully with fig. 53.
Do not knock his arm away with your arm, but bring your armpit in contact with his arm. The swing of the body knocks his arm away and also twists your neck out of his grasp.
Practice this until you get the knack of playing the strength of your body against the strength of his arm. Until this knack is acquired, speed should not be attempted.
After mastering this trick -- the third defense, discard the other two -- the first and second defenses.
THE BLOW WITH THE EDGE OF THE HAND
When standing with your right side towards your opponent, strike him with the little finger edge of your right hand on the right side of the neck.
In practice deliver the blow with full force stopping short three or four inches from your training partner's neck.
When standing with your left side towards your opponent, strike him with the little finger side of your left hand on the left side of his neck.
On the preceding pages you have been taught how to defend yourself against an attack on the throat.
If you wish to attack anyone by the throat you will find the blow with the edge of the hand a much more speedy and efficacious method than the attempted choke with the thumbs.
This is always a backhanded blow, and will drop a man like a log.
THE BLOW WITH THE EDGE OF THE HAND
People sometimes ask whether the blow with the edge of the hand on the throat is more effective than a blow with the fist.
It is, one reason being that you cannot reach the throat with the fist so effectively as you can with the edge of the hand.
But that is not the point. The blow with the edge of the hand is given when you are in a position to deliver it and when you are not in a position to strike with the fist.
Conversely, if you are in a position to deliver an effective blow with the fist, as to the jaw, you would use the fist for you are then not in a position to deliver a blow with the edge of the hand.
In the combination trick of wrist escape and neck blow, Book 3, you can twist your wrist free and deliver the cut with the edge of the hand much more quickly than you could hit with the fist.
Furthermore the edge of the hand blow is not expected and consequently not guarded against, whereas the blow with the fist is more likely to be expected and so guarded against.
It is unnecessary to harden the edge of your hand by constant practice to acquire a hard hitting edge. When you deliver the blow, the hand is held straight and rigid and the point impact is the third joint of the little finger.
A woman of ordinary strength can learn to deliver a blow that will knock out the strongest man whereas a blow from her fist on his chin would only annoy him and cut her knuckles.
You may experiment once or twice on friend husband. Tell him to tense his neck, just give him a little tap, and see how he likes it.
EDITOR'S NOTES
EN1. In more precise terms, this point is located immediately below the septum, which is the fleshy piece separating the nostrils. The targets include a bone joint known as the intermaxillary suture and a major facial nerve known as the nasopalatine nerve. The acupressure point is Governing Vessel 26.
EN2. Thumbing is very common in professional boxing, and is a leading cause of retinal injuries. During self-defense training, in his book On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little, Brown, 1995), Lt. Col. Dave Grossman suggests taping an orange over the Assailant's eye and then having the defender practice pushing hard enough to make the orange squirt.
The Secrets of Jujitsu, A Complete Course in Self Defense, Book III
By Captain Allan Corstorphin Smith, U.S.A.
Winner of the Black Belt, Japan, 1916. Instructor of Hand-to-Hand Fighting, THE INFANTRY SCHOOL, Camp Benning, Columbus, Georgia and at United States Training Camps and Cantonments, 1917 and 1918.
In Seven Books.
BOOK THREE.
STAHARA PUBLISHING COMPANY
Columbus, Georgia, 1920.
***
This electronic version is copyright EJMAS © 2000. All rights reserved.
Contributed by Thomas J. Militello, a 15-year member of Astoria, New York's non-profit Horangi Taekwondo Dojang, which is headed by James Robison.
Readers interested in seeing film images should note the following film held by the National Archives and Record Administration:
NWDNM(m)-111-H-1180.
Title: Physical and Bayonet Training, 1918.
Scope and Content: Recruits at Camp Gordon, Georgia receive detailed instruction in boxing and jiu-jitsu. Wrestling and jiu-jitsu holds are used against a foe with a bayonet. Troops do calisthenics and play rough games calculated to make them physically fit.
35mm film, 15 minutes
Judging from responses from the US Army historians at Forts Myer and Benning, little biographical information is available concerning Captain Smith.
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