Teen Girl Defends Against Attacker

 
The following is a story taken from a news report dated 5/26/25:

 

A 13-year-old girl in California fought off a man using her jiu-jitsu training and broke his ankle when he tried attacking her on her walk home from school.

Police in Carmel, Calif., are now looking for the teen’s attacker. Police say the suspect ambushed the girl by hiding between two parked cars and stepping out to punch her in the face...

For three years, the 13-year-old has been taking jiu-jitsu classes at the Carmel Youth Center with Michael Blackburn, who teaches at the center...The teen applied what she learned in her class when the man tried to attack her...

“She punched him, she got him in a headlock, kneed him a couple of times, spun him around, threw him on the ground,” Blackburn said...“She had stepped on his foot doing all this, and when she threw him on the ground, he broke his ankle.”

The teen was able to run home safely but her attacker is still on the loose. According to the local outlets, Carmel police do not have any solid leads on the man but have released a sketch of what they believe he looks like. 

The suspect is believed to be around 6 feet tall, muscular and now has an injury to his left foot inflicted by the teen who fought back...

 

As stated, the unnamed teenage girl has been training in an unspecified style of jiu-jitsu for three years. This ended well, of course, but the 6-foot burly perp is still out there limping around. I'll edit in an update if they nab this slimeball.  This shouldn't happen to anyone, least of all a child.

Amazing—thirteen years old! Kudos to Sensei Blackburn and his Carmel-by-the-Sea dojo for teaching this young lady right.

Cannabis Infused Jiu-Jitsu

Jiu-jitsu competitors have found a new way to get smashed on the mat — a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament where getting high on pot is a requirement. With recreational marijuana sweeping the nation state by state, it was only a matter of time for the next step in sportive martial arts events to happen. This is not a joke or a lark.

From the promoters' blog:

High Rollerz hosted a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition where fighters must smoke marijuana before grappling up. The winner took home a pound of weed.

While we know athletes from various sports smoke marijuana, whether using CBD to treat ailments or to reduce pain after a tough match, perhaps nowhere is marijuana usage more prevalent than in MMA. As UFC commentator Joe Rogan has said, “A tremendous amount of UFC fighters smoke pot. A massive amount. […] More UFC fighters smoke pot than don’t smoke pot.”

But it’s still surprising to learn that High Rollerz hosted a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition where fighters must smoke marijuana before grappling up. Organizers estimated about half the tournament was “pro fighters.” And the prize? A pound of weed, which is an estimated worth between $4,000-5,000.

Marijuana has some interesting affects on the central nervous system of users, none of which seem conducive (at least to me) to being an effective fighter. Unlike alcohol which loosens inhibitions such as aggression, pot (and other cannabis derivatives) is a drug of peace inducement. But according to proponents of these BJJ weed-smoking tournaments, marijuana has transcendent properties that help enhance focus, the ability to relax, and being in the "zone" where executing techniques happen spontaneously and effortlessly.

All kinds of positive research have been done on the medical benefits of marijuana. But I think you would be hard pressed to find a competitive fighter from another art who would extol the virtues of weed. Not all BJJ practitioners are on board with smoking dope before a match, as illicit drugs (including true enhancers, such as steroids) are antithetical to the spirit of martial arts, where practitioners are obliged to be good citizens and role models to look up to.

Anthony Bourdain: Profile Of An Enigma

Anthony Bourdain, a celebrity chef and martial artist, has left this realm by his own hand. His death hits me hard, I suppose, because he was from my generation. But also the senselessness of it. A culinary savant and a de facto anthropologist, he traveled the world treating his television audience to exotic cuisines and cultures. I wasn't a huge fan, but the few times I caught his show, Parts Unknown, it left me invariably hungry. Bourdain took equal pleasure in watching the creation of a fine meal as he did in eating it in front of us.

He began studying jiu-jitsu when he was 58. He called it "physical chess", and the idea of being a beginner at something and learning a new skill at his age enthralled him. He competed in his art.

A down-to-earth, affable guy, he struck me as someone who wasn't overtly alpha, but not shy to speak his mind. He was famous, admired and charismatic. He was a gifted writer. What more could a man want?

He leaves a young daughter and a legion of fans. Anthony Bourdain — gone at 61. For reasons unknown.

My Black Belt Beats Your Black Belt

A friend of a friend (both guys are longtime Isshinryu karate practitioners) is a part-owner of a successful Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) school in the Hamptons of Long Island, NY. I went to his dojo years ago when he was still doing karate; he was fairly new to BJJ and showed some impressive on-the-ground techniques (his uke [attacker] was 6'8, 300 + pounds). At the time I was dabbling in aikido and tai chi, so the rough and tumble techniques of BJJ were refreshing, so to speak. I had no interest in regular BJJ training, but I respected its apparent effectiveness. My friend's friend has since developed some early onset arthritic joints (he's in his early 30s) from the habitual grabbing of other players' gi (judo jacket), armbars, and the like. His fingers in particular are messed up and will likely worsen, but no cauliflower ears so far.


His new school is a gold mine given that he's in a ritzy area and that he's teaching BJJ. His classes ain't cheap. Because BJJ has more "street cred" (his term) than most traditional martial-art styles, he can charge more — a lot more than the average karate school. I've discussed the efficacy of striking vs. grappling styles in this post, but one thing that really separates BJJ from the rest of the traditional pack of styles is this: for a typical student it takes about 12 years to get to black belt. This is roughly twice as long as it takes to acquire a black belt in karate or many other styles. While BJJ is still regarded as a "traditional" martial art — in that players practice in a gi, go bare feet, and adhere to colored belts for rank — its derision of other traditional arts has become a marketing ploy. From the website of one BJJ school in Texas:

Karate: the vast majority of what is called Karate today is about as effective as interpretive dance. Wide stances, complete lack of takedown defense or awareness of submissions and a general watering down of its belt systems have made Karate kind of hilarious. There are some styles that have proven to be effective, so never assume that someone who does Karate is ineffective, but generalizations can be made.


Taekwondo: perhaps the most popular and most derided Asian martial art, TKD has become a sort of a joke in that it is, on a fundamental level, simply tag played with ones feet. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is superior to Taekwondo because, simply put there is no distance management taught in most standard Taekwondo curriculums making it, on a fundamental level, ineffective…especially when someone that know what they are doing grabs you.

Taekwondo may have surpassed judo as the most popular style on the planet, thanks in part to its inclusion in the Olympics (like judo), but also (unlike judo) for its reputation for quick promotion and prepubescent black belts, resulting in its new moniker "take-one's-dough." In fairness, we have karate "McDojos" doing similar things for the almighty buck. To reiterate, the BJJ guy is raking it in. It's all in the marketing.

The Suffragette That Knew Jiu-Jitsu

This month the film Suffragette will be released that depicts the struggle for women's right to vote in the UK which officially began in 1903. As the movement for voting equality picked up steam in the form of protests and civil disobedience, there was the inevitable presence of harassment and violence that these women had to endure. When the police rounded up the suffragettes to be thrown into jail, many of them resorted to hunger strikes, were released to recoup, only to be re-arrested for the original "crime" of demanding civil rights. To prevent this game dubbed "Cat and Mouse", one of the movement's leaders — Edith Garrud — taught her followers the art of jiu-jitsu to be used against the police and male vigilantes who stormed their demonstrations and meetings. Garrud, who learned self-defense from her boxer husband, was also schooled in Bartitsu from Edward Barton-Wright and later jiu-jitsu from Sadakazu Uyenishi, one of the first jiu-jitsu instructors to teach outside of Japan.

In addition to jiu-jitsu, Garrud taught her entourage — who came to be known as The Bodyguard — to conceal Indian clubs (a weapon resembling an oversized bowling pin) under their hoop skirts to use in case their grappling skills failed them during clashes with police or hooligans. Garrud and her movement prevailed, taking a break to help out in the effort to win the Great War, and getting a portion of voting rights for women (over 30) in 1918. By 1928, full rights to the vote (over 21) were finally implemented.

Later in life Garrud would continue to teach jiu-jitsu and became a stage and film martial arts coordinator. Not a bad life for the 4-foot-11 suffragette who refused to quit. She died in 1971 at the age of 99.

The Way of Holmes

Just viewed the new movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Highly recommended. Holmes' character, nicely portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. and originally penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is part sleuth, part whack job and all martial arts extraordinaire.

Holmes' "curse", as he calls it, is an all encompassing, all consuming sense of acute awareness that gives him surveillance of his surroundings with impeccable scrutiny and detail. His ninja-like methods of stealth includes cross-dressing and "urban camouflage", the latter of which allows him to blend in with anything from a bookcase to a sofa. The cinematic Holmes also possesses a form of strategic precognition that plays out in his consciousness how an altercation with one or more adversaries could likely happen. Similar to reenacting kata in your head, so to speak. Sans for his irrational fear of horses, Holmes is calm and steady regardless of circumstances.

Holmes' martial prowess, on screen played out with typical Hollywood flair, gets comparatively short shrift in the original written version. Doyle does mention on one occasion that Holmes is a practitioner of "baritsu [sic], a system of Japanese wrestling."


In truth, Bartitsu was developed in 1898 by E.W. Barton-Wright, a British judoka who combined elements of grappling, la canne (stick fighting suitable for a walking cane or an umbrella), fisticuffs, and any other nasty method of street fighting he picked up during his long travels abroad working as a civil engineer for railway and mining companies. Barton-Wright spent three years in Japan studying jiu-jitsu and then judo under Jigoro Kano. Kano-san would've been more than happy to give his English disciple a black belt with the promise of bringing judo back to the United Kingdom. But the promising student had other ideas.

Upon his return to England, Barton-Wright promptly established his "new art of self defense" and the popularity of Bartitsu quickly spread throughout London. Barton-Wright was interested in promoting his style as a combative system; he felt sports such as boxing were hampered by rules and favored attributes such as size and strength. As such Bartitsu was also marketed towards women's self defense.

The Bartitsu Club was also a haven for boxers, fencers, savateurs (French kickboxers) and grapplers of various systems including jiu-jitsu and schwingen, a style of Swiss wrestling. In addition to self-defense, Barton-Wright provided physical therapy at his venue.

By 1903 the apparent novelty of Bartitsu had lost its steam. In its place, jiu-jitsu and judo continued to thrive in England. Barton-Wright eventually resumed his physical therapy practice but continued to teach Bartitsu privately until about 1920.

In recent years there has been a revival in interest in Bartitsu, due in part I'm sure, to the relatively recent development of MMA, (the ancient Greek art of Pankration underwent a similar resurrection) and will likely get an even bigger surge from a pair of really cool Sherlock Holmes flicks. The "new art" of Bartitsu is new once again. It's elementary.

Evolution

Change is good. Or is it? Over the past several years we've seen a major shift in what people refer to as "martial arts." Currently, MMA is in vogue, and already there are thick boundaries drawn between what is considered nouveau and the time-honored traditional martial arts. It seems TMA are no longer fashionable, as heavy emphasis is being placed on the combat effectiveness of an art, quite often to the exclusion of all else. Asian martial arts in particular have always been shrouded in a little mystery. Chi/ki-energy, mind control, and superhuman abilities are the stuff of urban legends and hucksters. With the advent of reality fighting all bets are off. There are no secrets.

There's this place near my job that offers boxing, sambo, jiu-jitsu, the works. The area with mats is surrounded by a chain-link fence. In one corner of this school someone is working on a speed bag, while in another, basic self defense drills are taking place. This type of eclectic approach has become the norm, and I'm left wondering if becoming a jack of all trades is better than being a master of merely one. Is learning a hodgepodge of styles the direction that the martial arts are heading towards? Some of the old time masters forbade their students from cross-training in other styles, but the founders of many traditional systems did just that to develop their own curricula.

Previously, I mentioned TMA as being "time-honored" but truth be told, the majority of traditional styles are barely a century old. Tae kwon do, aikido and karate - while they have ancient roots - were all formally systemized in the twentieth century. Judo, which was created in 1882, actually negated the nasty martial applications found in jiu-jitsu so it could be taught to school children and the proletariat. Budo, the martial ways, flourished during Japanese peacetime as a dignified and ethical pursuit of warriorship. Today, we can watch bloody cage matches on TV or YouTube. So much for evolution. Change is not always good, but for sure it's inevitable.

Striking vs. Grappling

Do you train in karate or some related style? How often do you work ground techniques at your school? Most karate students train on a traditional wooden deck, so if some rolling or grappling moves are required, somebody is recruited to go into the back room to pull out some small cheesy mat to work out on. Some basic takedowns and rolls are shown and then the obligatory mat disappears for another three or four months. At least that's been my experience. Karate is simply not about ground techniques and never has been. Actually, this is surprising given the history of tegumi (Okinawan wrestling) which actually predates karate, yet never influenced karate's development.

In karate, certain techniques taken from kata do resemble jiu-jitsu moves, but you'll find none of that in a sportive karate match. From what I've seen karateka don't like to be grabbed in any way when sparring. Most people - including black belts - don't really respond properly to this maneuver, despite endless repetitions of bunkai or self-defense drills. Sport and reality tend to be mutually exclusive within the karate realm.

Longtime columnist Dave Lowry once suggested that karate techniques can never be practiced realistically. There's a certain amount of truth to this, as strikes, particularly to vital areas, are taught to be pulled without hurting the opponent. In arts such as judo, Lowry explains, a hip throw can be executed full force without splattering the other guy. In this way, the judoka can come to appreciate a realistic sense of close quarter combat that cannot be fully realized by the karate practitioner. This could be one reason grapplers usually prevailed against strikers in the early years of MMA matches. The following is an old clip featuring Royce Gracie of Brazilian jiu-jitsu against some hapless kung fu guy:



A couple of points to consider:

• Ground techniques and multiple assailants don't mix.
• Speaking from experience most street fights do not go to the ground.

I'm not suggesting that an altercation that goes to the ground is out of the question just because I don't want it to happen that way. The truth is that I've invested many years in karate, a standup style, and the prospect of learning the ground at this point doesn't sound too appealing. I do have a friend who holds black belt ranks in Isshinryu karate, jiu-jitsu and judo (acquired in that order) who confides that if ever assaulted he would be inclined to fall back on his jiu-jitsu/judo skills, but that's him. Again, karate does include a variety of grappling-like skills that are highly effective in a standup fashion.

Karate, like most martial arts, were developed on the premise that your assailant is most likely a brutish thug who has no idea how to fight. This is a pretty good bet, but if you run across some drunken smartass who fancies himself a grappler you may be in for a rough time. Or maybe not. Jim Advincula, who began his training in Isshinryu karate on Okinawa in 1958, tells a story of how someone stormed into his school one night demanding to know why grappling wasn't included in the curriculum. Only when the intruder received a hiza tsui (knee-strike) to the face after a failed attempt at a leg lunge attack did he understand. He was lucky, it could have been much worse. As the saying goes, God protects fools, drunks and children.

Performance-Enhancing Drugs

The following is a story taken from a report dated Friday, 6/15/07:

Royce Gracie, the man who single-handedly popularized Brazilian jiu-jitsu worldwide with his astounding victories over competitors during the heyday of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, following a win over Kazushi Sakuraba on June 2nd in Los Angeles.

In the world of sports, doping - the taking of illegal drugs to enhance athletic ability - is nothing new. Anabolic steroids in particular steal the headlines. Steroids, which are processed derivatives of the male hormone testosterone, seem to do everything an athlete could want:

• Dramatic increases in size and strength
• Offsets fatigue
• Increases aggression
• Reduces inflammation

With the possible exceptions of:

• Liver abnormalities
• Increased LDL "bad" cholesterol
• Propensity to fits of rage
• Depression

Besides the ever-popular steroids, some athletes have been known to use/abuse other agents, such as artificial human growth-hormone (hGH), insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), and a variety of potent stimulants.

Strict measures have been taken through the years to counteract the widespread usage of sports-enhancement pharmacopoeia. In January 2007, the World Anti-Doping Agency updated its Prohibited List of hormones and related drugs for sanctioned sports, including martial-art events. The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has classified anabolic steroids as a drug in the Schedule III category, which also includes codeine and certain barbiturates.

The opening story is in no way intended to discredit Royce Gracie, the Gracie family, or the noble art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu or its legion of practitioners.

There are no shortcuts on the martial path. Taking these compounds eventually become a crutch and weaken the spirit. The way is in the training, not to be found from a magic pill or a hypodermic needle.

Mixing It Up

Bruce Lee predicted that the day would come when practitioners everywhere would have to resign themselves to an irrefutable truth: Knowing only one style is limiting; that cross-training in the martial arts is the best way to develop a formidable repertoire of fighting techniques. Lee himself borrowed from a variety of systems, including Western arts such as fencing and boxing. He felt that the single study of any style, while they all contain deep wells of material, could cause the aspirant to become dogmatic and exclusive. A martial fundamentalist if you will. Interestingly, Lee's thinking mirrored what was happening in the US on a much broader scale at the time; the 60s was a decade of radical change and upheaval - a breaking away from dated ways and ideas. Needless to say, Lee's concept of cross-training did not go over big with the old school strict adherents of martial tradition. Visionaries tend to say the right things at the wrong time.

No single style has an answer for every imaginable encounter. Brazilian jiu-jitsu's ground strategies are highly effective - but against multiple opponents? Would those who train in a predominantly kicking art - such as tae kwon do - be able to execute their familiar techniques standing on a patch of ice? These are just a couple of scenarios to consider. I'm not suggesting that people should run out and start training in a hodgepodge of every style they can get their hands on. I'm still a firm believer in having a foundational art to work from. Being a jack of all trades will never measure up to being a master of one.

One Strike, One Kill

Many practitioners don't realize, or forget, that weapons came first in the martial arts. Jiu-jitsu, one of the forerunners of the empty-handed systems, was actually developed much later than the classical choice of weapon of feudal Japan: the sword. The sword (ken) was considered the soul of the classical warrior in both the East and West. Almost any cut delivered during a medieval swordfight was lethal and final. It should go without saying that both the kenshi and chivalrous knight took their training quite seriously.

Weapons are taught alongside most modern martial art systems. On Okinawa, customary weapons were banned on and off for centuries by various invading kingdoms. Ingenuity became the way of strategy and deception and kobudo was born. Since farming was a way of life there, its implements could be used as authentic weapons if the need arose. Kobudo, while considered as an integral part of traditional karate, is really a system unto itself. In Japan, kendo (the way of the sword) is actually regarded as the quintessential budo form, in part, because of its roots to kenjutsu (swordfighting). In iaido, practice involves removing a live blade from the scabbard as quickly and efficiently as possible. This idea brings to mind the gunslinger drawing his revolver from the holster during the wild shootout days of the Old West. Weaponry is yet another aspect of the martial arts that remind us that traditional training's original focus was about life and death.

Getting Some Airtime

Let's face it: there's few things more spectacular than witnessing a well performed jump-kick. While deemed impractical by many, jumping techniques do appear in some advanced kata of certain karate styles. They've also made some obligatory appearances in a number of not-so-advanced martial arts flicks. So on one hand, we have tradition; on the other, we have sensationalism. The best of both worlds, right? What about a practitioner that's built like a sumo wrestler? Launching oneself up to the rafters to execute a side kick, or a flying scissors takedown could prove to be a problem for a big guy. The jumping techniques were likely conceived to take out the big guy anyway, so the point is probably moot. The real question is whether soaring through the air has any street value to it.

In recent years, it's become fashionable to say something like, "My art isn't flashy, it just works." Those that study styles that are touted to "work", like krav maga, or especially Brazilian jiu-jitsu, train to stay close to the ground. It makes sense to live with gravity and accept it. Besides, what goes up, must eventually, come down.

Keeping It Real

Reality training in a martial arts school is not as simple as it may sound. Quite often, uke and nage over-cooperate with one another in self-defense drills to the detriment of learning proper function and technique. Donn Draeger recalled one of his instuctors wacking him over the knuckles with a wooden bokken because he failed to hold his weapon properly. Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba instructed his disciples to attack him full force with spears. These days, students wear head gear, chest protectors, and hand guards - I'm all in favor of safety, don't get me wrong, but sometimes safety equipment can do more harm than good in preparing students for actual battle. Jiu-jitsu ground-fighting takes on a whole new meaning when it's moved from the mat to the concrete sidewalk.

Training in the martial arts should be approached with passion and conviction. When training with a partner, make her/him work! Make it as real as possible. Pretending uke is a jerk or bully works wonders. Realize your bujutsu skills will be most sorely tested away from your school, your sensei, with your shoes on, and quite possibly with a loved one in your presence. Remember, how you train is how it happens.