Demos in the 50s

You will recall from my last post that Sensei Dan Newcombe, founder of Self Defence Central Dojo and Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu International, forwarded a number of photographs taken in the 1950s when his father and uncle trained under JDJ to me. This is the latest installment.

Jan de Jong and his school have been performing public demonstrations since the 1950s. Anyone who has gone through the Jan de Jong School and who were proficient would have participated in these demonstrations. There was a time in the 1990s when a formal demonstration team was attempted to be established and whose inclusion was by invitation only, however, that formality soon phased out.

The above photo is of JDJ performing a straight arm lock on the ground. The person sitting to the extreme left in the foreground is Dan's uncle and next to him is a young Margaret Kellond, later Margaret de Jong after she married Jan de Jong.



No mats for these intrepid jujutsuka.

This is Margaret Kellond performing in the demonstration. Not actually sure what is going on there. Margaret must have been a good practitioner as she is only a teenager in this photo.

This is a photo of the demonstration team. Not sure if Dan's uncle in present. Note the belts. I don't know what colour those belts were. At that time the rank was signified by coloured badges sewn onto the gis. Also note that the knots in the belts are not uniformly positioned. It may have been that they are as Mr Miagi suggested in The Karate Kid, just something to hold your pants up, or in this case the top of your gi closed.

Also, as I understand it, the gis were handmade by JDJ's first wife as no martial arts products could be purchased in Perth at that time. It would appear that three-quarter pants were the go in the 1950s.

Old School Wrist Twist Technique

This blog has become a lightening rod for sharing memories about Jan de Jong and his martial arts teaaching.

The latest is by Sensei Dan Newcombe, founder of Self Defence Central Dojo and Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu International, who forwarded a number of photographs taken in the 1950s when his father and uncle trained under JDJ.

Dan is the second of three generations of his family that have trained/studied the jujutsu taught by Jan de Jong. He is continuing on in the truest tradition of JDJ by establishing his own school, modifying the grading system so as to improve the outcomes for students, upholding the integrity and standards that JDJ espoused, and attempting to internationalise JDJ teachings.


Dan described the above photo as an 'interesting wrist twist knife pinning on the ground.'

Here is a history lesson for students of the JDJ tradition. That is the original finishing position of a wrist twist technique that JDJ taught. The wrist twist joint locking technique was applied to take the opponent to the ground and then continued in order to apply a wrist twist lock on the ground.

A similar technique is seen in Jiu-Jitsu: El Efectivo Metodo Japones de Autodefensa by Katsukuma Higashi in the early 1900s.

EN3. Higashi began his professional wrestling career in New York City, where he became the subject of articles and books by Irving Hancock and Robert Edgren. See, for example, H. Irving Hancock and Katsukuma Higashi, The Complete Kano Jiu-jitsu (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1924) and Robert Edgren, "The Fearful Art of Jiujitsu," http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_edgren1_0300.htm. Higashi's style, by the way, was not Kodokan judo but Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu jujutsu. 


JDJ changed the finishing to this technique because of the risks inherent in the opponent being on their back with legs and one arm free to attack if the joint lock is not applied expediently and effectively. He changed it to the current form where the opponent is turned over onto their front.

Now for the technical lesson. The evolved/tactically improved/later version of the wrist twist technique means that the wrist twist joint locking technique is now solely a takedown technique and the finishing technique is either a wrist crush or straight arm lock while the opponent is prone (lying on their front).

FYI. The wrist twist technique is never in itself a throwing technique as Shioda increasingly described in his books on aikido. One of his earliest books explained that tori had to jump to avoid injuring their wrist, which is technically not a throw.

O Soto Otoshi

This post is primarily aimed at all who are currently teaching the jujutsu taught by Shihan Jan de Jong OAM 9th Dan. Given that I may never teach my own classes again, it is time to pass on certain insights that improves on JDJ's teachings. It is time to see further then the giant that was JDJ by standing on his shoulders.

The JDJ jujutsu grading system uniquely includes theory questions in order to examine a student's understanding of techniques. This and other similar gradings is aimed at preparing a person to become an instructor. One of the questions that JDJ would commonly ask was, 'What is the difference between o soto gari, o soto guruma, and o soto otosh?'

Firstly, a more complete question would have been, 'What are the similarities and differences' between those three techniques? The second chapter in my The Science Behind All Fighting Techniques concerns the 'core of all learning.' The core of all learning is the identification of similarities and differences. JDJ is using the core of all learning, in part, to examine the student's understanding of the techniques that they have learned.

Secondly, not one person in the Jan de Jong Self Defence School who attempted this grading and who were asked this question would have gotten the answer to this question technically right. Why? Because o soto otoshi was not taught correctly in the JDJSDS.

Wikipedia provides an adequate description of this technique for our purposes.

O soto otoshi is similar to o soto gari in that one leg of uke's is targeted, however, they are different in that with the latter the 'throwing' leg projects upward and with the former it projects downward. In wrestling it is called a lariat-leg sweep whereas in common parlance it may be termed a trip.

Another similarity and difference between o soto otoshi and o soto gari is that they are both techniques where forces are applied to cause uke to fall to the ground/mat, however, the former is a takedown whereas the latter is a throw. My biomechanically based distinction between throws and takedowns included in The Science Behind All Fighting Techniques is that with a throw, forces are applied to cause both of the opponent's feet to leave the supporting surface while with the latter they are not.

O soto otoshi is a takedown, however, it is included in Judo's nage waza, throwing techniques, category because judo does not include a takedown category in their classification of techniques; an issue explored in The Science Behind All Fighting Techniques.

The best book by far on judo 'throwing' techniques is Toshiro Daigo's Kodokan Judo Throwing Techniques. In that book, Daigo explains the basic technique and then provides various variations of that technique. One of the variations of o soto otoshi is to target both of uke's legs. This technique is similar to o soto guruma in targeting both of uke's legs but different in that tori's leg projects upward with o soto guruma but downward with the variation of o soto otoshi.

Interestingly, Daigo compares this variation of o soto otoshi to tai otoshi, body drop (although it is far more devastating taking the opponent backward rather than forward). In the judo classification, tai otoshi is classified as a te waza, hand technique, and o soto otoshi a ashi waza, leg technique, thereby illustrating the flaw in the judo classification of techniques.