Defendo as taught by William Fairbairn and Rex Applegate

[RapidAssault16]

Hi. I am a certified Level 4 Jeet Kune Do student in Progressive Fighting Systems JKD. I took a break from JKD about 8 months ago to pursue other fighting arts (finding the cause of my own ignorance). I have been heavily researching the art of Defendo, a system used in World War II. I have been quite happy with the results I've been getting. Is there anyone else on this board with any experience in Defendo?

[Thai Bri]

Defendo is a Canadian art that implies lineage to Fairbairn et al. But Fairbairn's art was Defendu. It was derived whilst Fairbairn worked in the Shanghai Police Force, and contained strikes, locks and throws etc.

When WW2 came he, amongst others, were asked to train the newly formed British Commandos, US Marines and others. They ditched much of the restraint methods for this purpose, and came up with a very small syllabus of basic, yet brutal, strikes. They also trained bayonet and knife work.

Different instructors have their own versions of WW2 Combatives, as it is loosely known. A good resource is www.gutterfighting.org

I have studied similar methods under a guy called Dennis Martin. The main part of the system can be taught in hours instead of years but, of course, the more years you put into perfecting these techniques, the better you are. I have never studied the "restraint" components of Defendu at all.

[roz]

rapid 16 what is a level 4 from pfs?
is this a senior or apprentace?

[RapidAssault16]

Neither, it is a student level. I'm not sure how the other PFS schools around the country do it but in my former gym (Woodbridge Academy of Martial Arts) we go by a 5 level ranking system.

[cboog]

Neither, it is a student level. I'm not sure how the other PFS schools around the country do it but in my former gym (Woodbridge Academy of Martial Arts) we go by a 5 level ranking system.

Is that in Islien NJ

[Szczepankiewicz]

Combatives are like Chess. A day to learn the rules, a lifetime in perfecting the game.

[Drew Howe]

Combatives are like Chess. A day to learn the rules, a lifetime in perfecting the game.

That is particularly true with Fairbairn's Defendu system. It was still being taught, under the simple name of police combatives, to recruits of the Maryland State Police up until about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, like many other agencies, MSP has watered down their combatives training a bit. All agencies have run from teaching choke holds, which is an instrumental LEO tool; or at least it was. The main reason being that it was shown one day in training and the police were not getting any further in service training on it. Unfortunately, very little has changed.

[RapidAssault16]

Is that in Islien NJ

Yes, it is. Master John Ferguson

[roz]

good luck ra16

[fleetgunz]

lets not forget what Fairbairn's systems were used for and the events that were happening at the time. A good partof the people who had tomaster those technques were either spys or comandos operating either with a very small lightly armed group or individualy. Also in the early on the possibilty of invasion of britian was very real so there was not time to teach a lot of or complicated technques. They also had a wide variety of students from many walks of life. The users did not sit in dojos ect but were operating hundreds or thousands of miles from direct suport against a tough enemy. I would advise anybody to learn this system before studing any "martial art" because it will give a very good base level of skill

[thtackett]

A lot of what Bert Poe taught in my garage was some of the same stuff that he learned in Marine Raider training in 1944 and in China after the war. I need to redo his bio on our website, www.jkdwednite.con as it's all wrong. He was in Korea and not Vietnam. He was wounded in Korea had had to leave the Marines.
Tim