Police Jiu-Jitsu!
“You are a quiet person. You have been taught the meek shall inherit the earth. You have been meek all your life and have inherited practically nothing. But you have latent powers – you have a certain knowledge given to few people in occidental countries. You know something about Jiu Jitsu!”
Found this amazing title, Police Jiu Jitsu: As Taught to Police, Marines, “G” men, Soldiers and Members of the Coast Guard, at the Sally Ann today and just had to share. It is a scarce little booklet from 1937 by the Padell Book Company instructing on the art of Jiu Jitsu as learned by combat savvy police and military groups. It is wonderfully illustrated and also contains a section on “Vital Holds in Wrestling”.
What makes this little gem so incredible is that each and every Jiu Jitsu move or attack is prefaced and nestled into a fantastic narrative in which it may become handy. Here is an example (one of many that had me chuckling out loud):
THE JUDICIOUS ELBOW
“Somehow you managed to become ensnarled in this Mardi Gras crowd. The spirit of the occasion is entirely genial. Everybody is laughing — or should be. But one big, burly fellow with the air of misanthrope, an acid expression on his moon-face, is elbowing all the revelers to the right and left of him. This ‘bear that walks like a man’ has had the milk of human kindness dried up in him. His indiscriminate shoving and mauling has awakened the protector in you. Nevertheless, you are unwilling to depart from your habitual calm. Suddenly you see him pushing a little wisp of a miss from his path. She seems so fragile and helpless that the big brother in you rebels. You walk over to him and ask him in what you believe to be a gentlemanly manner why he does not behave. His sneer at your own effrontery is a masterpiece. You are not much larger than the diminuative girl, and he thinks he can break you in two. He puts both ham-like paws on your shoulders, then slips his arms around you. Truly like some bear he means to crush you. You yield so prettily that he is decieved. Just as he is about to exert pressure, you bring your right elbow up until the sharp point of it jams into his Adam’s Apple. He will begin to gag at once. then you move your left foot behind his right, resting your heel against his; you form the fingers of your left hand into a rigid hook and rap sharply against the small of his back and keep pressing this point. Exerting the pressure of your elbow on his throat, you throw him over your left leg so that he falls backwards. Of course, it is the ‘judicious elbow’ that has incapacitated him from active resistance. If this doesn’t sober up his viewpoint and make him look on his fellow man with more tolerance, at least you have removed a dangerous, disruptive element from the joy of the festive occasion.”
Many of the narratives involve a damsel-in-distress theme and are an absolute hoot. However, there are also a number of moves that involve the ladies lower the boom to squelch the life out an overly zealous foot-pad. I will definitely be sharing more of these great instructive manouevres, for both educational and entertainment purposes 
Take care not to let this potent knowledge fall into the wrong hands!
Can you recommend a move or two that might work on a kid that torments his mother? (in a good way of course)The slap up the side of the head doen’t seem as effective as it once was.