American Combat Judo, by Bernard J. Cosnack

Do a search on Abebooks!

ernard J. Cosnack is (or rather, was?) an American wrestler who also trained judo, jiu jitsu, Frech savate (what he calls "foot-fighting") as well as kung fu. In his days he allegedly trained the US Coast Guards in physical self-defense.

It probably will come as no surprise, but there are hardly any traces of judo in this book. As soon as you see the topic, and titles such as "Combat Judo", you can almost guarantee that we are leaning more against ju jitsu than judo". And lo and behold! I'll be doggoned if we're not watching ju jitsu with some wrestling thrown in for good meassures...

Just like it says on the cover: "200 photograps illustrating jiu jitsu, wrestling, foot-fighting and police tactics." Personally I have speculated many times (and will continue doing so) as to what the reason might be behind using judo to "sell" something else. During the first halt of the 20th century this was very often the case - calling something judo that was (very often) pure ju jitsu.

In this book you will have each techinque shown with four pictures most of the times. The shots are accompanied with descriptive text, naturally. Each method or technique depicts a typical self-defense situation. You will also find some methods of arrest, and some come-along holds. All the shots are taken in wrestling outfits. This may be an extra bonus to some? Jokes aside, it does make the technique more easy to see though.

If you are into the art, or arts at display here, or need to have everything with the "Ju" on it (Ju-do or Ju-Jitsu), you can do far worse than getting hold of this book!

Always make sure you do a search here: Abebooks. They probably have the largest collection of old and out-of-print books. Sometimes the prices are great too!

Back to the page: books (click here)