Neo-Bartitsu training in Oakland, CA

After a very successful Bartitsu session, Botta Secreta Productions is offering an eight week Neo-Bartitsu training course to be held in Oakland, CA. This class will be held on Thursday nights (7:00 PM to 9:00PM) starting Sept 15 and ending on Nov 3rd. Please contact Guro Tom Badillo at bottasecretaproductions@yahoo.com for more information.

Neo-Bartitsu event in Pfarrkirchen

On October 9th and 10th the Pfarrkirchen branch of the Ochs historical fencing association hosted a “challenge tournament” followed by a neo-Bartitsu seminar.

Opening the neo-Bartitsu session, Andy Damms gave a lesson on English pugilism, covering history, basic punches with an emphasis on straight punching and the falling step, followed by simple defenses and then the throws typical of bare-knuckle pugilism.

After the lunch break the seminar continued with savate low line kicks and their respective evasive motions, then basic wrist locks and defence in special situations. The latter included the defender being punched while leaning against a wall, the defender being on the ground while the opponent is standing and drills for facing multiple opponents, taught by Alex Kiermeyer.

Neo-Bartitsu stick fighting for “Lost Martial Art” documentary

Courtesy of photographer Riccardo Gallino, here are two images from the latest location shoot for the upcoming documentary, “Bartitsu: the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes“. Supervised by co-director Ran Braun, these sequences included both choreographed demonstrations and free combat displays of neo-Bartitsu stickfighting. They were shot in the historic Villa Meda Battistero in the Italian town of Canzo.

The fight team included three senior instructors from the Nova Scrimia organisation and also the Italian National Stickfighting Champion, who travelled from Verona, Brescia, Saronno and Como to take part in the filming.

A gallery of pictures from the Canzo shoot is available here.

The neo-Bartitsu stickfighting footage will be edited, with Ran’s guidance, by students at the Prague Film School (one of the world’s leading film production academies) as part of a special project co-ordinated by Karin Bleiweiss.