The first time I saw a copy of ‘Defense Danse LaRue’ was around 2001. It was sent to me as a PDF from a friend. I have to admit I wasn’t impressed with it. Firstly it was in French. Secondly the organization of the Illustrations and Photos seemed to be haphazard. Earlier this year while surfing through Amazon.com I found a Kindle version available in an English translation. The translation was done by Milo Thurston and Phil Crawley. Both names I remembered from various Western Martial Arts forums back in the early 2000's.
I will say right up front, I can only describe what they’ve done is a first rate job. This English translation now shows me what a gem I’ve been neglecting. Now that I’m not doing some half-assed translation of bits and pieces by using free translation site on the Internet, I can see why that even today, 106 years after it’s publication in 1912, this book is still relevant today.
The author was a proponent of what some would call MMA, but others would call a well rounded Combatives system. In this manual he discusses standup fighting to include English style boxing, French Savate (as it applied to the street, not French Boxe-Francaise), and grappling based primarily around Japanese Jiu-Jitsu. He also covers stick fighting (with a cane), knife fighting, and firearms.
As far as actual techniques go by way of striking he favored English Boxing over his native Boxe-Francaise and his two favored strikes were the hook and the uppercut. On the other side of the equation, while he did not advocate the jab and the cross, he did stress training to defend against them. As well, he also recommended the Edge of Hand blow and the Palm Heel. Another item he stressed was that to end an assault in a quick and decisive manner your blows need to be more than just painful, they have to be powerful enough to do damage and incapacitate your attacker.
Where kicking was concerned, he advocated low kicks, waistline and below. The Coup de Pied Bas an example. This concept being well accepted in modern day self defense scenarios. Another thing he emphasized was to always wear a “sturdy pair of shoes” when going out. For anybody who has ever trained with Carl Cestari or Craig Gemeiner of Savate Australia for examples, this is something that is commonly advocated. Kicking someone with a pair workboots, or stiff soled oxfords will always provide better results than when wearing a pir of Crocs or flip-flops.
As to the grappling aspect of his manual, Mr. Renaud was obviously a big fan of Jiu-Jitsu which had made it’s way to the Western European nations in the previous decade or so. He discuses throws, trips, submissions (standing and grounded) in great detail. He covered a substantial number of techniques and while he equivocally stresses the need for learning Jiu-Jitsu, he however equally admonishes at the same time that you should not intentionally go to the ground for two reasons. His first for not doing so is that your opponent, even if unskilled may resort to “foul” tactics such as eye gouging, fish hooking, biting, or pulling a weapon. The second being that most criminal assailants do not work alone, and so you may find yourself being assaulted by a second or third criminal.
Hmmm..., where have we heard this before?
The sections on weapons are relatively short. His take on the use of the cane is not exceptionally favorable. He feels it’s best use is against a group in the street where you have room to maneuver. He keeps the strikes simple and advocates against the Moulinets used in the La Canne schools. One interesting thing though is when he talks about dropping your whole bodyweight into your strikes to make them more powerful. The description he gives is essentially Dempsey’s falling step.
For knifework he there’s nothing fancy or earth-shattering here. However one point of note is how he stresses that you should always try to integrate strikes with your off-hand and kicks wherever possible.
Shades of Pentecost’s ‘Put Em Down, Take Em Out’.
On using the handgun his advice is once again an indication that really is nothing new under the sun. He favored the revolver over the automatic without a doubt, however we must keep the times in context. This book was written in 1912 and automatics were few and far between, and not as reliable as the current crop available these days. He advocates what was for all intents and purposes. Point Shooting, and says that training to hit targets at known distances was unproductive. The longest distance he felt that you needed to practice at was “three to four metres” (10 to 12 feet), otherwise keep it closer.
He even advocates obtaining a hammerless revolver so that you can carry it in your coat pocket and be able to fire it without having to pull it out.
Allow me to repeat, this book was written in 1912.
There were other bits and pieces that you still hear today coming from people that think/act like they have personally discovered these nuggets of wisdom. Such things as use deception, surprise, strike first, the person who strikes first usually wins. No one system is better than the other, Combat Sports are not applicable to self defense, you should practice against people who use a different style than you. Do you actually see your assailant going for a wepaon?, then “Foul his draw”. Does he have a beard of substantial length?, grab it and start jerking his head around. Throw dirt or coins in his eyes, etc. He even shows a technique to help you maintain distance that looks like it came straight out of Geoff Thompsons ‘The Fence’.
And I’m just barely scratching the surface
Taking into account the time period that it was written in, this book was way ahead of it’s time in terms of dealing with the numerous aspects of self defense as it applied to large cities/urban centers in the emerging modern world. The Kindle version is available for $9.95 and the print copy is available from Lulu.com for $20.56 + shipping and handling. My only complaint about the Kindle edition is with the illustrations and photos. While you can enlarge most of them, the quality/size is still less than optimal. In the print edition this is not an issue. Also, the print edition is spiral bound so it can be opened and laid flat, precluding ever having to worry about the binding. Again, I would like to thank Milo Thurston and Phil Crawley for making this classic self defense book available to a wider range of readers. From both a practical and historical perspective this book is well worth the price.
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