“The Most Dangerous Kick of an Expert Kicker”

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 27th June 2018

Participants in one of instructor Alex Kiermayer’s recent Unarmed Bartitsu seminars practice the chasse median (mid-level side kick).

The chasse median is also one of the few kicks represented in the Bartitsu canon, albeit in the context of demonstrating how the Bartitsu-trained defender could counter this type of attack, which was picturesquely described by E.W. Barton-Wright as the “Most Dangerous Kick of an Expert Kicker”:

It’s likely that Barton-Wright had in mind the use of kicking attacks by Parisian street gangsters, who had then recently been dubbed “Apaches” – though it would take a few more years before that nickname gained real pop-culture currency.  Barton-Wright’s presentation of kicking in Bartitsu was, of course, also coloured by the prevailing English sentiment towards French athletics (and particularly French kickers) at the turn of the 20th century …

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