The awkwardness of many men can be traced to their unconsciously raising their Grecian Arch whenever they do anything requiring and effort.
LESSON 6
THE WAIST HOLD
This lesson teaches you to keep your balance when struggling in a clinch.
It is a simple method of accustoming a beginner to personal contact with his opponent.
WAIST HOLD
STARTING POSITION
The two students stand facing each other at a distance of four to six feet. The heels are eighteen inches apart on the same line. The knees are slightly bent; the body erect and well balanced, limber and not tensed.
Note:
The Waist Hold is a good exercise for the muscles. It also familiarizes the beginner with the sensation of being seized and teaches him to keep cool, thus correcting the tendency of the timid individual to stiffen up and tense his muscles instead of keeping them limber and ready for instant action.
Step up to opponent. Slip your hands beneath his arms and clasp them behind his back.
Place your chin on his chest midway between collarbone and nipple.
(Opponent stands still and does not move.)
Bend opponent back by pressing your chin firmly into his chest and pulling his waist towards you.
Do not throw him. The trick is achieved when you unbalance him.
Then release him, return to starting position, and allow him to try it on you.
Do it each three times alternately.
HOW TO DEVELOP SUBCONSCIOUS STAHARA CONTROL
A person's natural inclination when gripping anybody is to put all the strength into the limb which performs the immediate action, that is, the hand or the arm.
In seizing a man around the waist, for instance, the tendency is to lean on him utilizing arm strength only and forgetting to keep your balance.
This lesson educates you out of this habit and gives you automatic Stahara control.
This will develop in your brain a "plexus" that will automatically keep your balance in all sorts of positions and grips.
It will also give you such a grasp of the principle that you will unconsciously apply it in every trick you try.
Practise the Waisthold until you automatically keep your balance every time and never hold on by arm strength alone.
While doing this exercise you are thinking of two things:
First: To keep your balance.
Second: To check any tendency to raise the chest wall.
You would be surprised at the number of people who raise their chest walls (as in fig. 14) when they exert strength.
At first you will have to think hard of your balance and your Stahara, but after a few practices you will keep your balance without having to think so hard, you will also find that you have more control of the Stahara.
That means that your subconscious mind is learning to take care of these operations leaving the active mind free to attend to the details of the new tricks.
LESSON 7
This lesson teaches some simple calisthenic movements to increase your balance and Stahara control.
Done five minutes night and morning they will give you a healthy appetite and improve your figure.
FIRST STAHARA CALISTHENIC
Advance your left foot 24 or 36 inches in proportion to our height, left toe pointing straight to the front, right toe pointing straight to the right, or at right angles to your left foot.
Clasp your left wrist behind your back with your right hand.
"ONE"
Straighten the right leg. Bend the left leg, bringing the knee over the toe and as far forward as possible.
Bring the chest directly over the left toe.
The right leg, back, and head form one straight line.
Keep the feet flat on the ground -- do not raise the heels or toes.
"TWO"
Straighten the left leg, tensing muscles of left thigh. Bend the right knee as much as possible.
Carry body back until chin is directly over right heel.
The left leg, body, and head form one straight line.
Do not bend the abdomen outward, keep it flat.
Perform twelve times with left foot advanced. Repeat with right foot advanced.
Note: This is one of the finest exercises known for reducing the hips.
HOW TO CULTIVATE BALANCE
For the first few days make this a leg movement, tensing the muscles of the rear leg as you go forward, and of the front leg as you go back.
For the next few days concentrate on your stomach muscles. Tense them when you are farthest forward, and also when you are farthest back. Try to feel that your body is one solid piece in each position.
Next, make it a balance movement, without conscious muscular contraction.
Stay in the forward position while you count five, lean forward as far as possible. Realize that your Center of Balance is in your Stahara. Make your position stable and balanced but without tensing any muscles.
Move swiftly back to position "TWO" and retain that position while you count five. Again remember where your Center of Balance is. Your stomach muscles will naturally tense in this position, but relax them as far as possible, keeping your body limber.
At first your heels will rise off the ground and you will be in danger of losing your balance forward. As you go back your toes will come off the ground and your position will be so weak at first that a person could topple you back with one finger.
As you lunge forward imagine that you are putting all your weight into a blow with your fist. As you go back, think that you are ducking back to avoid a blow aimed at your face. Practise of this exercise will give you a wonderful control of balance.
SECOND STAHARA CALISTHENIC -- CHEST ON KNEE
"ONE":
Stand exactly as described in first Stahara calisthenic, but in addition, lean forward, and press chest against knee.
Tense muscles of rear leg, keeping heels on ground.
"ONE"
"TWO":
Straighten front leg and bend rear leg, swing body back. (Same as "TWO" of first calisthenic.)
When in position "ONE" keep your balance by concentrating on the Stahara, make it hard. Similarly when you go back to "TWO" make the Stahara hard, pound it with your fist to test its hardness.
Note: Pound it gently at first.
Perform four times with left leg forward and then four times with right leg forward.
In both positions "ONE" and "TWO" you will feel a tendency to overbalance yourself. This is because you are thinking, by habit, unconsciously, of the usual muscles with which you fight or work, i.e., your leg and arm muscles; and the connecting link between them, the Stahara, is absolutely uneducated.
Practise this movement a few times daily for two or three weeks and you will then be able to keep your balance without difficulty.
At first you must make the Stahara hard by consciously tensing it, but later on it will not be a muscular effort, you will keep your balance automatically.
As a reducing exercise, this movement has no equal, but if stout and full blooded perform it slowly and deliberately at first.
WHAT BENNY LEONARD SAYS ABOUT STAHARA TRAINING
Benny Leonard, Light Weight Champion of the World, was Boxing Instructor at Camp Upton [near Long Island, New York] with the 77th Division when I was there, and this is what he says about Stahara training:
In reference to Stahara training which you introduced in the army. I do not think there is any other method of training so beneficial for the body.
I shall never forget it as long as I live, as it has helped me considerably.
This training teaches men to put their weight into their blows, and to use their body when punching, instead of the arms alone.
Since the armistice has been signed [in November 1918] I have come in contact with a good many of the pupils whom I taught the art of boxing, and they claim that the bayonet man was helpless in a hand-to-hand encounter if his Stahara was not in the best of condition.
PERPETUAL ABDOMINAL CONTROL
Right where you are sitting reading, whether in your own house or in a street car: --
Take a deep breath naturally and without making a noise, hold your breath, then draw in the abdomen as far as possible. Hold this position for a few seconds.
Relax, let your abdomen regain its normal position, exhale, hold your breath, again draw in your abdomen as far as possible. Hold this position for a few seconds.
Relax, inhale naturally, and continue the exercise.
Continue this exercise until you can do it at any time, in any place, whether standing or sitting, whether walking or riding, whether your lungs are full or empty.
CONSTANTLY PRACTISE ABDOMINAL CONTROL
Practise in front of a mirror to make sure you are getting the right movement and that you are sucking in the abdomen to its fullest extent.
Pay particular attention to your expression. Make your face absolutely impassive and expressionless. Do not allow any trace of exertion to appear on the face.
Place the hands beneath the belt on the abdomen in order to feel that you have the right movement.
If you cannot get the movement by this means lie flat on your back, place a heavy book on the abdomen and endeavor to move it up and down.
Do not overdo the matter of holding your breath but simply try to get the knack of moving your abdomen in and out.
The very fat, and those who wish to reduce should practise this, stripped, in front of a mirror, rubbing and kneading with the third joint of the thumbs the fatty deposit on their abdomen.
Vary this by rubbing with a turkish towel. This will redden and irritate the skin at first so be careful in the beginning not to overdo it.
If you have been at your desk all morning do this exercise for a few minutes before lunch and it will help your appetite.
No matter how rushed or hurried you are walk several blocks on your way to lunch practising this exercise as you walk.
Use it when you are reading the papers, when you are riding in the street car, when you are listening to conversation.
Even in after years when you have mastered Stahara control still use this preliminary exercise a few times every day.
It is a splendid exercise for the bowels and if used regularly will correct a sluggish liver.
MAKE YOURSELF HUNGRY
You should at once adopt this training diet, not for a contest, but for life: -- It consists of
Common sense in choosing wholesome food;
Avoiding things that disagree with you;
Temperance in the amount you eat.
The Golden Rule of eating is:
MAKE YOURSELF HUNGRY FOR EACH MEAL.
Practise the Abdominal Control exercise with the same regularity that you wash your teeth.
It creates a better circulation in your digestive track and makes it function more efficiently. It strengthens the muscular tissues of the abdominal organs, and gives them greater power. It massages the intestines and hastens the removal of effete matter.
If you have not recently enjoyed a good appetite this will soon give you one.
This simple rule of making yourself hungry will give you better health, a clearer skin, and a more active brain than the most carefully selected diet would without getting hungry.
If your stomach is soured, drink copiously of water, hot or cold. Practice the Abdominal Control exercise, miss a meal, and your stomach will be washed out, sweet and clean. It will assist if you go for a walk while doing this.
One more caution: Whenever you sit down to a meal for which you have no appetite, eat only half of what you are accustomed to and you will be hungry for the next meal.
The results will be immediate and surprising and will pay you a big dividend in increased "pep" and mental power.
ANOTHER MEANING OF STAHARA
The Great War brought into prominence that ugly but expressive word "Guts." It was particularly popular with the Bayonet Instructors who were always telling their classes to put their "guts" into it.
By this they meant that one should put his whole strength and weight into the thrust or lunge, and put the same strength and weight into the thrust or lunge, and put the same spirit into his effort of "sticking" the dummy that he would into fighting with a real foeman.
In short, they wanted to train, not only the muscular endurance of the soldier, but his morale, or fighting spirit.
Shakespeare said:
He that hath no stomach for the fight
Let him depart.
The bayonet instructors wanted to train our "Stomach for the fight."
The word "guts" then, scientifically analyzed, combines both the idea of putting the strength and weight of your body into any given blow and the idea of putting all your mind and will and soul into any given movement.
The same idea inspired Shakespeare when he wrote the above quotation in classical English, and the bayonet men when they punctuated their instructions with a phrase which many will term vulgar, and which at best is slang.
What Shakespeare and the bayonet instructors dimly visualized this course teaches as a specific principle. The knack of putting your "guts" into it can be learnt, separate and distinct from anything else, and once acquired can be applied to anything.
The Stahara consists of the diaphragm (the large muscle which divides the cavity of the heart and lungs from the cavity of the stomach and intestines) on the top, and the muscular floor of the abdominal region, and all that lies between.
When the body is used properly as by an expert in any branch of sport, the weight of the whole body, the weight of the Stahara, goes into any stroke he may make, as in golf or tennis, thereby distinguishing him from the beginner, who depends largely on the working of his arms and legs.
After a course in Stahara training, with the increased faculty of using the body as a whole, and the automatic realization of the fact that the center of gravity lies in the center of the Stahara, a sportsman will be able to watch an expert play golf, for instance, and will appreciate just how the expert uses his Stahara.
He will then be better able to analyze his own movements and correct them accordingly.
Stahara supplies not only a word that can be used, but also a scientific and complete training for what, up till now, was only a dimly realized, vague idea, not yet developed into a principle.
Stahara simply means "Guts" -- moral and physical.
The Secrets of Jujitsu, A Complete Course in Self Defense, Book II
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 TWO.
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
FORM A SELF-DEFENSE CLUB
It does not matter what sort of a partner you first practice with. Keep a record of your progress by making a check mark against a trick each day you practice it. The first day a trick may take five or ten minutes, and after that only one or two minutes.
Let your opponent try all the tricks on you, you will learn a great deal from this.
Get at least one friend enthused to the point where he will procure a set of textbooks for his private study and will keep a record of his progress.
After four such practices with one opponent, you should try to practice each trick with as many different opponents as you can get.
Each man has a different style of physique and you have not mastered the course till you can do the tricks effectively on any style of opponent.
Popularize this practice amongst your circle of friends to provide yourself with opponents. Some one of your friends may develop a better style of doing a certain trick than you, and it will be to your advantage to practice it with him.
All this practice must be formal and not competitive. Once you start wrestling in a haphazard way you will hinder the orderly study of the course.
To attack one another with "any old trick" will result in severe falls, and should only be done on a mat after you have learned how to fall. This will be taught in the second course.
It is quite unnecessary to so in this course which is a complete and adequate system of self-defense and can be learnt without such strenuous practice.
LESSON 6
This lesson teaches you --
How to clasp hands when taking hold.
An interesting variation of the waisthold.
The chin shove.
Correct leverage in the chin shove.
Advanced practice in the chin shove.
Name of Partner Date Practice Commenced Waisthold Chin Shove
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Make a check mark against each trick each day you practice it.
In clasping hands behind opponent's back always take the grip shown in fig. 23.
Unless he is a much smaller man, in which case clasp your left wrist with your right hand.
Never use the grip shown in fig. 25.
If your opponent falls on your fingers when they are clasped this way they may be broken.
Again, if he lies beneath you his weight may jam your fingers so that you would have difficulty in freeing your arms while his arms would be free to attack.
These instructions as to correct methods of clasping hands are chiefly for the man who acts in the role of Assailant in this waisthold series, and in the "Seized from Behind Series" in Book 4.
AN INTERESTING VARIATION OF THE WAISTHOLD
There is a peculiarly sensitive spot about two inches long up and down each side of the backbone halfway between the waistline and shoulders.
Press the big third knuckle joint of your first finger into your first finger into your own back till you discover the spot.
Apply pressure here with the knuckle simultaneously with the pressure of your chin on his chest and the pain will cause him to quit.
As soon as he quits, let go and allow him to practice on you.
Some men are not sensitive to pressure here, but many people are so susceptible to pain at this spot that the trick will cause them to quit, and may even knock them out. Therefore when applying it to anyone, go slowly at first.
Experiment on each other a few times that you may acquire a moderation and temperance and so avoid injuring a less robust companion.
NOTES ON THE WAISTHOLD
Before practicing the chin shove given on the following page you and your partner should execute the waisthold as taught in Book 1, three times each.
The waisthold is not much use against a heavier man and is not taught in this course for its fighting value.
It is taught in order to provide an Assailant for the man who wants to learn the chin shove. It is the first link in the chain of dovetailed tricks.
It is taught because by means of it you learn the correct method of practice before proceeding to the more advanced tricks which might be dangerous unless practiced properly.
It takes away the beginner's nervousness before he comes to the more advanced tricks.
CHIN SHOVE
"ONE"
Assailant steps forward with left foot as if trying to secure the waisthold.
Step forward and slip your left hand inside Assailant's right arm and place it halfway around his waist.
Place the palm of your right hand under Assailant's chin, forearm straight up and down and close to his chin.
"TWO"
Pull his waist forward with your left hand. Shove his head backward with your right until he is in position of fig. 29.
Be careful not to let him fall. Keep your balance in the Stahara.
This movement is not done by sheer strength, but by destroying Assailant's balance through the proper coordination of your right and left hands.
Be careful not to jerk his head back. In a real fight you would do so, but if you hurt your partner it will simply curtail your practice.
WRONG WAY TO TRY CHIN SHOVE
If you hold your elbow away out as shown in fig. 30 you are using only your arm and shoulder muscles against the strength of his neck.
This is using your strength to the least advantage, as an ordinary man's neck is stronger than his arm and shoulder.
Take the right position of fig. 28, and put the strength of your Stahara -- the strength of your whole body -- into the trick.
Experiment and learn the correct method of shoving.
In a real fight you will not stop at the position shown in fig. 29, but will throw opponent over backward.
If performed with sufficient quickness he will be knocked out by the concussion of his head on the ground.
Further, there would be no pause between "ONE" and "TWO" which is simply the analytical method of learning this trick.
It is unnecessary to throw the opponent in practice.
CORRECT LEVERAGE IN CHIN SHOVE
Take position of fig. 31. Assailant is holding you around waist. You have your hand on his chin.
Let him stiffen his neck and resist your efforts to push him back, so that you are struggling with him strength against strength. You will be unable to push him back.
Instead of continuing to push back against his strength push up, dropping your body a little so that your Stahara is behind the upward effort.
This will instantly get him off balance and you can easily subdue him.
ADVANCED PRACTICE IN THE CHIN SHOVE
Compare your position with each illustration until you have learnt the applied mechanics of the trick and can get a stronger man off his balance and so discount his strength by scientific shoving.
This method enables you to commence your study of this course with the same safety and accuracy of movement as if you were being carefully grounded in first principles by a painstaking teacher.
In the early stages of practice it is necessary to pause between the counts "ONE" and "TWO". Otherwise you may inadvertently give your Assailant too severe a tap on the chin. When first shoving Assailant's head back, do it very slowly.
For advanced practice, discard the counts and both attack at the word, "GO", Assailant with the waisthold, opponent with the chin shove.
Assailant will attack slowly at first, but as opponent becomes more expert with the chin shove will attack with increasing swiftness.
There must be no finessing with the arms. Assailant, who attacks with waisthold, knows that opponent's arms are coming inside his, but must not try to parry them. He must maintain the original direction of attack. His one endeavor must be to get opponent firmly around the waist before opponent can get the chin shove.
In a real fight it would not be necessary to place left hand behind Assailant's back, a blow with the heel of the hand on his jaw is the best method.
This practice will enable you to develop the power to hit a hard blow when necessary, and will also train your eye and presence of mind so that in an emergency you would act vigorously.
THE BEST DEFENSE IS ATTACK
The best defense is attack. In other words, keep your opponent so busy defending himself that he has no time to attack you.
"Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in
"Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee."
In actual combat, do not wait until he attacks you, but get the jump on him.
But the best way to learn a trick is to practice it on a man who is attacking you.
If you practice it on an unresisting opponent, his body is relaxed and you do not meet with the proper resistance.
On the other hand, if you tell him to resist you every time, he will soon be able to prevent you getting the grip and that makes it impossible for you to practice.
Get your opponent to attack you as instructed. This not only provides you with the proper resistance, but reproduces as nearly as possible the conditions under which you would actually have to use the tricks.
Furthermore, it trains your reflex action and makes you instinctively do the right trick.
This feature of the course makes it unique for by this method you will be able to do the tricks better in two or three weeks than you would under years of the old system.
LESSON 7
This lesson teaches you --
The Nose Push.
The psychology of the Nose Push.
When to use the knee kick.
The escape from the chin shove.
Name of Partner Date Practice Commenced Nose Push Escape from Chin Shove
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Place a check mark against each trick each day you practice it.
NOSE PUSH
Never allow yourself to be seized around the waist, but as you may be taken by surprise and find yourself in this grip the following trick should be practiced, so that you will have a definite and effective defense.
"ONE"
Stand still and allow Assailant to seize you with the waisthold, his chin on your chest and bend your back until you are almost falling, holding you so close that you cannot use the knee kick.
"TWO"
Clench fist with thumb jutting out. Insert end of thumb (not the nail) beneath Assailant's nose just where the nose joins the face, so that the thumb presses partly against his upper lip and partly against the nose bone where it joins the face.
There is a very sensitive spot here, which you can locate by experimenting on your own nose. [EN1
If he turns his nose to your right use your left thumb. If he turns to the left, use your left thumb. If he buries his nose in your chest, bring up both thumbs and dig for it.
"THREE"
Push Assailant's head back until he releases his waisthold.
Do not touch his face with your hand. The only point of contact is your thumb. Otherwise you decrease the pressure your thumb exerts on the vital spot.
Do this very slowly at first in order not to hurt partner's nose.
His nose is not pushed but the sensitive spot where nose meets face should be pressed upwards in the direction of his ears.
Pushing at this angle makes it easy to get his head back.
"FOUR"
Bring your knee up into his stomach making the effort from the Stahara.
In practice stop three inches from the mark at which you aim.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE NOSE PUSH
When a man has seized a woman with criminal intent and endeavors to carry her off, an escape is easy if the thumb be pressed not beneath his nose, but into his eyes. [EN2
Such a course would be justifiable only where life is in danger. If you are unarmed you have a right to take such action as is necessary to save yourself.
Making a mental note of this, however, is not giving yourself adequate training in self-defense. You might forget to do it. A woman would be apt to lose her head and scream aimlessly.
Sticking your fingers in a man's eye is too dangerous a trick to try on one another but the Nose Push may be practiced with safety. You will thus be made familiar with such an attack, and will think coolly and act instinctively.
A system that merely tells you to stick your finger in a man's eye does not give you a proper education in self-defense.
Your reflex action must be trained so that you will act instinctively in the moment of danger.
WHEN TO USE THE KNEE KICK
If you are attacked by a thug with a knife or pistol or a piece of lead piping or a sandbag, or if your life is in danger and you are unarmed, you are justified in defending yourself by attacking your Assailant's most vital spots -- his crotch or his eyes.
Under no other circumstances would you be justified in resorting to these foul, unspeakable methods. It is unthinkable that a fair man in a fair fight or even an unfair fight, would ever stain his honor by such a dishonorable action.
The same thing applies to women, only in the last extremity would it be defensible for her to use such tactics.
However, there are unfortunately many instances where the most dastardly attacks are perpetrated and the victims are defenseless because they do not know how to use the weapons with which nature has provided them.
In such an instance you would be accessory to your own death if you hesitated to disable or kill him, by the above methods.
You might have such a margin of superiority in strength and skill that you could take him prisoner by a jujitsu grip or knock him out by one of the legitimate blows to his jaw, neck, or solar plexus, and you must use the more humane method where possible.
But in the last analysis, the eyes and crotch are the vital spots and an attack on them is the first thing to do when it is a question of life or death.
It is often asked -- "Instead of that trick you are teaching would it not be simpler to raise the knee and kick him?
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