Liralen's Adventures Through Life

For those who are interested in a very detailed history and step-by-step descriptions and pictures of the various kata for Bartitsu, Tony Wolf has compiled a two volume Compendium of all the historical sources for the art along with a number of sequences they've pieced together through magazine articles and everything else. The first volume  contains the complete history along with all the canonical documentation. The second volume , titled "Antagonists" contains all the kata along with all the magazine articles about how to respond to an antagonist. I have bought the second one. *laughs* Admittedly, Tony himself said that it's less than useful to do these kata by yourself, as half the practice of the art lies in responding to the person you're up against. However, they make fascinating sources for those who write or game.

It turns out that a group of people, intrigued by what Sir Conan Doyle wrote in his Sherlock Holmes stories (and misspelled it 'baritsu'), decided to do the historical research into the Victorian martial art of Bartitsu. A few of those historians were also practicing martial artists, and they gathered up all the materials and have started a school of neo-Bartitsu, what the art would have become if it were being practiced today... Last Saturday I attended a local "seminar" by Australian Tony Wolf, on the art and found that it was more of an all-day workout in the art itself. Tony is based in Chicago and is flying around the country promoting the art and his two volume compodium of all the historical kata of the art. He also has done a documentary titled Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes.