By a little practice you will be able to utilize his forward momentum. If you try this when he has no forward momentum, it will not succeed.
Pull his head under your armpit.
Opportunities for this hold occur most frequently when opponent is trying for your legs.
There are three reasons why this hold is so much deadlier than the ordinary front strangle hold.
1. The sharp edge of your wrist will choke him a tenth of the time that the flat side would.
2. You use the strength of the Stahara, not the strength of arms only, in choking him.
3. You unbalance him onto his tiptoes, thus weakening his powers of resistance.
HOW TO THROW A MAN FROM BEHIND
In practicing the trick on the next page, a beginner usually makes the mistake of pulling the opponent back so clumsily that he loses his own balance. To do so, keep limber all over, with your strength and balance in the Stahara.
The first point to aim at in practice is to keep your own balance. To do so, keep limber all over with your strength and balance in the Stahara.
The second point is: do not pull him by main strength, topple him back.
The third point in your practice is to steal gently up to your opponent, place your hands and foot on him simultaneously, and have him on the ground the next instant.
Take the position of each figure in this trick and compare your own position with the illustrations.
Place him on the ground so gently that he is hardly aware anything has happened, then gradually work up speed. By combining gentleness and speed, you will gradually acquire the action of the tiger.


HOW TO THROW A MAN FROM BEHIND - ii
Place your hands on opponent's shoulders. Simultaneously place your right instep behind his right knee. (In a real emergency you may use your toe.)
With the foot, knock his knee forward. Simultaneously pull his shoulders back.
Let his back come against your chest. Pass your arms over his shoulders and through his armpits.
Step back, and lower him gently to the ground.
With your right knee, support his right shoulder. Bend the right knee. Extend left leg straight behind you, foot flat on the ground. The knee may be bent a little.
Keep your body well balanced, with your strength in the Stahara. From this position, start your practice of the strangle hold and death lock.


IMPROVED METHOD OF THROWING A MAN FROM BEHIND
Place your hands on opponent's shoulders and simultaneously place your knee on his backbone just below his belt. Do not grasp his clothing, it is just a waste of time.
Pull his shoulders back, and drive your knee forward simultaneously. This is done with a forward movement of the Stahara.
The right foot is instantly returned to the ground. Opponent's body flies forward to this position.
If unsupported, he would crash to the ground with sufficient force to be knocked out.
Practice this trick in the same manner as the previous trick, by passing your hands through his armpits and seating him on the ground in front of you. In war you would drive your knee against his spine with sufficient force to paralyze him. In practice, place your knee on his back, gently, then flip his hips forward.
You will soon do these two movements without a pause, and so swiftly that an onlooker would think you were kicking your opponent, yet the opponent would hardly feel your knee. By adopting this method of practice you will be able to continue till you can do it like a flash of lightning.
If you start too roughly at first with one another, you will never continue your practice to the point of proficiency.


ADVANCED PRACTICE IN THROWING MAN FROM BEHIND
The advantage of the improved method of throwing a man instead of the first method of knocking his leg away is hat if you knock away, say, his right leg, and he happens to have his weight on his left leg, he will not fall. By knocking his hips from under him, however, there is no chance of failure.
This trick is not only a deadly method of attack in itself, but it is the best preparatory exercise for the Standing Death Lock, as it gives you the correct knack of unbalancing a man. As you place hands and knee on him, keep your balance in your Stahara, otherwise you will be leaning on him for support and your legs and arms will not coordinate and will not throw him with their maximum strength. After a little practice you will be able to steal up, lay your hands and knee on him simultaneously, and have him on the ground before he realizes you have touched him, and so expertly that you jar neither his spine, his neck, nor his seat when he reaches he ground. This of course requires your initial practice to be very slow and careful.


REAR STRANGLE
When an opponent is on the ground with his back towards you, step up close with your right foot. Place your right knee against his shoulder. Kneel on your left knee.
Place your elbow on his shoulder with the forearm straight out in front. Bring your right forearm in front of his throat, the sharp edge of the wrist-bone against his windpipe.
Place the fingers of your right hand on the elbow of your left hand.
Bring the palm of your left hand behind opponent's head. Strangle him by pressing his head forward with your left hand and pressing his windpipe with your right wrist.
Go slowly and release him the instant he signals defeat.


STRANGLE HOLDS IN A JUJITSU MATCH
In a jujitsu match, when an opportunity offers, the strangle hold is applied like a flash of lightning. The opponent makes the signal of defeat, and the match is decided. Quick as has been the operation, no injury or pain has resulted to the vanquished man.
A jujitsu man who applied a hold so roughly and clumsily as to damage his opponent would be so ashamed of himself that he would not show his face in the wrestling hall for months to come. Such an incident, however, does not occur. Before a jujitsu man has worked his way up to the ranks of the third-class exponents, he has acquired a temperance, a control of his movements, that makes such an occurrence unthinkable.
Although there is no limit to the deadly nature of the holds used in a jujitsu match, there is never an accident on that account. I have trained large numbers of men in the effective use of the Death Lock, and by this system in a few lessons, they, too, acquire a temperance, and are able to use this hold with safety to themselves and their opponents.
The rear strangle is one of the four methods used in jujitsu matches of strangling a man from the rear, all of them equally effective and interesting. They achieve their object of making the opponent quit either by pressure on his windpipe, on the nerves and blood vessels of his neck, or on his spine. You are not taught these other methods in this course, for the simple reason that the Death Lock supplants them all. A complete course of self-defense should teach you not only the best tricks to use, but why you should use them, and we give you this rear strangle so that you may compare it with the Death Lock.


LESSON 52


THE SECRET JAPANESE DEATH LOCK
The most effective hold in existence.
Superior to the ancient secret holds of Greece and Rome.
Known to but few Japanese and never before published in any book, Japanese or foreign.

Name of Partner Date Commenced The Death Lock
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Make a check mark against each lesson each day you practice it


THE SECRET JAPANESE DEATH LOCK
Set your opponent on the floor with his back to you. Place your right knee against his right shoulder with your left leg straight behind and your balance and strength in the Stahara.
Place your right cheek against his left cheek.
Place your right forearm in front of his neck, with the sharp bone against his windpipe.
Place the palm of your left hand on the back of your right, and clasp tightly.
Keep the weight of your body on the back of his head or neck, and choke him by pressure of your wrist-bone on his windpipe.
Be cautious and slow, and release the instant he claps.


THE DEATH LOCK - FRONT VIEW
Study of these two photos will teach you more than countless demonstrations or explanations. The hold can be taken so quickly and effectively that the opponent has quit and been released before the observer has had time to notice it.
Again, if you did happen to get this hold on a man, you would try to choke him with your arms, and as you have less leverage than the previous rear strangle, you would conclude that the former was the better trick. This explains how the few people who knew this trick were able to keep its secret to themselves. Now, however, by these photos and instructions anyone may discover for themselves how to apply the weight of the whole body against opponent's neck.


THE HISTORY OF THE DEATH LOCK
I had studied jujitsu six or seven years before I knew that such a hold existed. I had retained one of the cleverest exponents of jujitsu, who was professor at one of the large military stations, and he made a long journey three times weekly to instruct me at my private wrestling school in Yokohama. Although I was in the ranks of the "first-class" men when I started with him, he could at first make me quit every few seconds, but in about a year I worked this down until the average was three victories for him in five minutes, and he had to exert himself to defeat me.
He was a slow looking man, but he could apply locks and holds quicker than the proverbial greased lightning. The speed of his movements was accentuated by the fact that he maneuvered me into "walking into" these holds, half of his speed coming from my own efforts. I was especially amazed at the speed with which he used to choke me from the rear, and thought it was the ordinary rear strangle.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20