The Ultimate in Self-Defense
The Tracy System of Kenpo IS self-defense … it is not a
sport. It is not a plaything like
the martial arts of too many systems and styles that cannot be used in reality
when you really need it … such as when your life is in danger.
Since the beginning of time, unarmed fighting has for most
of the Western World been little more than rough and tumble brawling.
In the 19th century the Marquise of Queensberry introduced
some civility into spectator fighting, and gave rise to professional boxing.
But few men, and virtually no women learned how to “Box.”
Savate was cultivated as French foot-fighting when, as tradition holds,
French sailors observed Chinese “Boxers.”
The Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1900, and America’s Gunboat Diplomacy put
American servicemen in contact, and often fights, with Oriental forms of unarmed
fighting. Jiu-Jitsu (Ju-Jitsu) and
Judo became popular when Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the 26th U.S.
President, learned Judo giving Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, the
international acceptance Judo needed. But
Judo and Jiu-Jitsu practitioners were few in number.
This influence, however, gave rise to the military form of hand-to-hand
combat called “Combat Judo.”
Karate first appeared in America in the early 1930’s but
it was relatively unknown until American servicemen began returning from the
occupied post-war Japan. Then with
the advent of the Korean War, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were sent to
Japan as support troops. Most of
these servicemen learned Karate, because McArthur forbid Judo, but not Karate.
But the fighting style of the western world was still a style without
style—rough and tumble brawling. One
need only look at the movies of the early 20th century to see how the
western world fought. Fighting in
films was a shadowy mirror of how people acted and fought.
Jiu-Jitsu had developed as a Japanese combat martial art
over many centuries of use in actual warfare and gave birth to Judo, which was a
much more gentle way. These arts
were superb forms of self-defense in Japan.
But Judo was virtually useless against a trained Boxer, as many Judo
instructors discovered when American Boxers would challenge them.
Almost every American who trained in Judo in the ten years after WWII
would tell a story of how he had grabbed an attacker by the coat lapel to throw
him, only to find himself getting hit as he held a torn, empty coat in his hand.
Japanese Karate was not much better.
It was still, linear, and direct. It
worked well against the untrained, but Boxers and street fighters found it
useless against them. There were
many contests between Boxers and Karate men in Japan and Korea after the war.
The Karate-ka was allowed to use his hands and feet, without gloves,
while the boxer wore gloves and followed boxing rules.
Even despite these obvious disparities, the boxer almost always won.
When the boxer was allowed to fight without gloves, the match seldom
lasted beyond 30 seconds.
Judo
versus Boxing matches often produced the same results.
However, in those matches, the Boxer was not only required to wear
gloves, but also a heavy Judo Gi. “Judo”
Gene LeBell is the only person who ever legitimately beat a boxer in such a
match. Gene, however, was an
exceptional man, a professional wrestler, an expert martial artist, and it was
not to his disadvantage that he was over 6 feet tall and weighed over 220
pounds.
Jiu-Jitsu versus Boxer matches were quite another thing, as
the Jiu-Jitsu fighter would simply shoot-in in a low stance, taking the first
punch to his back as he grabbed the legs and took the helpless Boxer down to
choke him out.
It is little wonder then that the Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu, which
Hawaiian-born, Japanese-raised James Mitose of the Yoshida Clan, began teaching
shortly after WWII was so effective as a form of self-defense.
Even though Mitose’s style of Kenpo had been handed down in his family
for over 700 years in Japan, it had originated in China, where “Boxing” and
kicking together were accepted forms of fighting.
More to come…
