From Ju-Jitsu Self-defence by W. Bruce Sutherland (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1916).
 

For the interest and encouragement of lady readers, a few illustrations are now presented in which the wife of the writer demonstrates some of her favourite holds and throws, the writer himself acting the part of assistant.
 

In the present instance the assailant has struck out with his right. The lady knocks aside the blow with her right, grasping his wrist, and bring her left hand to his chin, forcing it back, and at the same time bringing her left knee behind his right leg. As a result the opponent is brought to the ground with little effort.

Having brought him down, she slightly changes her grip, bringing her hand more to the front in order to press the opponent’s hand back more firmly, her knee being brought forward against his elbow. The opponent cannot lift his free hand off the ground to clear his chin, because the weight of his body would at once increase the pressure on his imprisoned elbow joint.

As her assailant strikes out with his right hand, the lady stops the blow with her closed left, then, opening her hand, seizes his wrist and presses his arm upwards. She quickly dives underneath his arm, and brings her right foot behind his right leg as shown in the arrow in the illustration.

At the same time she throws her right arm across his body and traps his free arm, pressing it to his side, as shown in the illustration.

She has now complete control of her opponent, who cannot struggle to free himself without exposing himself to intolerable pressure on his elbow joint across his shoulder. He can be brought to the ground with little trouble by being forced backwards across her knee.
 
 

In this case, the opening position is the same as in the preceding one. The lady stops the blow with her closed left hand. Then she seizes her assailant’s wrist, and pressing his arm upward, quickly dives underneath it. At the same time she brings her right hand to his chin and forces his head backwards.

He is now entirely defenceless, and the lady may bring him to the ground by chin pressure alone, or she may place her right foot behind his, and trip him.
 
 

The assailant’s blow with the right hand is knocked aside by the lady with her left, which she immediately brings against his chin; at the same time she bends forward and catches hold of his left knee.

By simultaneously pressing back his chin and raising his knee, as indicated by the arrows, the assailant is at once thrown on his back, whatever his weight and strength may be. This throw is extremely simple and effective, and may be put into practice by the weakest.
 
 

And a Cautionary Tale

By William Baxter

Copyright © EJMAS 2003. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: If you try the techniques described above exactly as shown in the photos, then you may have results quite different from the ones described in the text. For example, the woman is consistently off-balance and standing too far away for her techniques to work against a non-compliant partner. Thus, the attacker needs only to bring his hands together in front of him to recover his balance.

To emphasize this point, we present the following cautionary tale.

The big quiet country boy from Garstang, Lancashire, was a wee bit lost when he started a sports science degree at the University of Northumbria in 1987. He knew no one and there was no wrestling club, which surprised him.

But, always a man to just get on with it, Joe Threlfal went down to the gym anyway, and to keep fit, he started doing shadow boxing. One day, when he visited the refectory for lunch, a group of students came up to him. The tallest of the males, who was slightly bigger than Joe, said, "I have been watching you and see you have done some boxing, I am a karate black belt and I would like to have a ‘practise’ with you."

This surprised and slightly disturbed Joe, as his only experience of Oriental martial arts was kung–fu movies on the telly. He didn’t know what to expect in any such match. However, like most young men, he didn’t want to appear a coward in front of the very pretty girls in the party, and so reluctantly agreed to meet the next day.

After classes the next day, Joe went along to the gym and was surprised to find about twenty people there, all friends of his opponent and all expecting to see something dramatic. They did.

As the two men changed into sports clothes the challenger leaned over to Joe and said, "I’ll try not to be too fast for you." The others tittered and Joe mentally gritted his teeth, but said nothing and continued changing.

When they stepped out into the gym floor, Joe’s opponent made a number of dramatic and extravagant gestures. Then he stepped towards Joe, said something in Japanese, assumed an attacking stance, and commenced to dance around him. Joe, not quite sure what to expect, watched all this posing very carefully. Then, as his opponent made some kind of elaborate punching movement, Joe stuck out a straight left. This hit full on the chin and the fellow dropped like a log.

Like the good sportsman he is, Joe immediately went over and helped the man onto his feet; his lip was cut, his gums were bleeding and he was a bit dazed. Joe suggested they should stop the bout. However, prestige and honour were now at stake: How dare this country bumpkin try to take on a karate black belt?

The bout restarted in much the same way, but this time, Joe’s straight left was with maximum force and his opponent went to sleep.

Later, while telling me the tale, Joe said, in his broad Lancashire dialect, "Ye know Willie, he were lucky Ah didn’t bother to follow up wi’ the big ‘un. That fellow were trying to humiliate me." You see, Joe is a real fighter, not a martial arts poser. Subsequently one of England’s best Cumberland wrestlers, he at that time also ranked third in British professional boxing’s cruiserweight category.

"I wrote this story from a kind of ‘reality intrudes’ perspective," says Baxter. "It happened at the time when the kung fu mania was at its height in the UK and every wild claim made by any one from the Asian martial arts was accepted without question. Do you remember the fellow who claimed he had taught Cassius Clay a secret karate punch by which he knocked out all his opponents? Nothing to do with hard training, fitness, and athletic ability, just a secret karate punch which could knock out championship level heavyweight boxers. If you can't find a suitable way to use it, it doesn’t matter."