Japanese Physical Training; The System of Exercise, Diet, and General Mode of Living That Has Made the Mikado's People the Healthiest, Strongest, and

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI THINGS THAT THE STUDENT CAN TEACH HIMSELF--HOW AGILITY IS ACQUIRED In the preceding chapters there has been given all that is essential to the preliminary work of the jiu-jitsu student. One who has mastered in all its details the work described, and who has kept at it with assiduity, will find himself in greatly improved health and much better able to cope with an adversary in actual combat. The Japanese student is required to devote several months to the foundation work. In his earlier months of practice he is kept mostly at the feats whose aim is the development of muscle and endurance, and he is given only enough combat work to keep up his interest in the study of physical well-being. After the first few months of practice the student is taught to think more for himself. There is much that he can teach himself. Reference has been made already to the student's ability, after some early instruction, to locate for himself nearly all of the vulnerable muscles and nerves of the body. In the limbs the most vulnerable parts for the pinches are to be found, as nearly as can be described, at the centres of the fronts and backs of arms and legs. The neck is full of points where a pinch can be secured with most painful results to the victim. Some of these have been indicated, but it is necessary to add only that the student should locate every one of the rest by actual practice upon his own neck. He can test then the efficacy of these holds upon the neck of a companion, submitting in turn to a like attack. Suppose the student clasps his hands with the fingers interlaced. He will discover that a quick, hard wrench of one of his wrists upwards or sideways produces pain and a weakness of the muscles and bones of the attacked part. On the...