Tweet
Anyone know much about Bill Underwood? Found the info at www.defendo.ca I thought at first this might be Fairbairn's CQC or Defendu but apparently not.
-
-
Defendo is a martial art of korean origin that basically uses a sector defense and attack.
Right side blocks right, Left side blocks left. It was almost a dead art from what I was taught.
My workout partner I believe has trained in Defendo and there are very few people who know anything about it.
however when discussing it with him we wondered if Defendo and Defendu are one and the same thing.
The jury is still out since we have not been able to find anyone to check out Defendu vs. Defendo so see if they styles are the same or not.
Defendu is billed as a combative. I think that is more Ryan Halls area.
I'll check and see if my friend knows of Bill Underwood. I'll post as soon as I know more. -
Defendo - Bill Underwood
Thanks for the response. I have been doing some more reading since my first post and think I have a better grasp of what the system is about. I am hoping some other people out there can verify and post as well.
Defendo.ca has a lot of historical information on the system and it's founder. I am just trying to verify it elsewhere and I did at www.progymtraining.com. Their top guy, Mike Griffin, apparently studied Defendo from Underwood in the early 80's and his comments on his site line up with what Mandel and Cressman are saying at Defendo.ca.
I do know a fair bit about Defendu and Fairbairn and I am convinced that it is not the same system. In fact, I am also convinced that Fairbairn never called his system "Defendo", at least, as per Fairbairns official researcher, Peter Robins in the U.K.
They are both military combative systems and its seems that Fairbairn and Underwood were contemporaries but they were teaching different systems. Fairbairn, Sykes, Applegate etc... were operating in Britain during the early war years and Underwood was in North America training Canadian and US forces.
Bill Wolfe from Defendo.com calls Fairbairns Defendu and Close Quarter Combat "Defendo" but this doesn't make sense. Underwood was using the name since about 1945 - as per the books listed on Defendo.ca, Fairbairn never called his system Defendo.... so it seems that Mr. Wolfe took the name for his own purposes.
Well, that's all I can figure. A bit of a mystery. Please let me know if you come up with anything else. Thanks!Comment
-
I have a copy of Fairbairns manual and I do not see any evidence anywhere that he called his stuff anything - besides "Defendo" would indicate it were mainly a system of defence. Much of his stuff is pretty offensive.
And marketing-wise there was no reason for him to come up with any name for it.Comment
-
Bill Underwoods Defendo
Sean, I assume you mean.... "Defendu"... not "Defendo" and yes, I think you are right. There wouldn't have been a real need for marketing the system or giving it a specific name for that purpose. Defendu was strickly pre-WWII, birthed by name in 1926 when he was working for the SMP. CQC came after 1940 and was the basis for his "Silent Killing" course which he taught at "Camp-X".Comment
-
Mike Griffin is who my friend trained with. So that is what I have some information about. It was added into a system called Chuan Fa.
There are very few instructors of Defendo from what I have been told.Comment
-
Defendo description
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Combato had its beginning in the Liverpool theatres with jujitsu demonstrations of traveling Japanese wrestlers, Yukio Tani and Taro Miyake. As a boy, Underwood idolized these experts, rapidly establishing himself as a prodigy. The name "Defendo" was created on August 15, 1945 in New York City by Pat Underwood, the daughter of Bill Underwood.
Underwood modified his system to remove its lethal applications and focus on the Law Enforcement applications of self-defense, compliance and control tactics.He realized that he could not call this system Combato, so his daughter Pat Underwood proposed that he call the system "Defendo".[citation needed]
[edit] A new name
From 1945 to 1950 Underwood began to teach his developing self-defense system in Canada and the USA under this name.In 1950 Bill Underwood published under copyright "Defendo, Police System of Self-Defense". From 1950 to 1969 Underwood travelled in Canada, the United States and in the UK (1965) teaching his system.[citation needed] In 1969 Canada, under copyright Bill Underwood published "Defendo, Occidental System of Self-Protection".From 1969 to his death on February 8, 1986 in Newmarket, Ontario Canada Underwood was well known for his system and honoured and profiled frequently by the North American media.In 1980 a short documentary on Underwood's life and work with Combato and Defendo titled Don't Mess With Bill was nominated for an Oscar at the 53rd Academy Awards in 1981[1][2]. Between 1980 and 1981 Underwood appeared 4 times on the Johnny Carson Show. He also appeared at that time on all of Hollywood's major talk shows including Real People, That's Incredible, Merv Griffin etc...[citation needed] on all occasions promoting and teaching his system of Defendo.[citation needed]
[edit] Information sources
• Underwood Family's Archives -
• Publication: Bill Underwood's "Police System of Self-Protection", Toronto copyright 1950 -
• Publication "Defendo" Occidental System of Self-Protection, Toronto, Copyright 1969 -
Current and past Canadian Forces Persons - Intelligence -
• Toronto Star Publications -
• Canadian Provost Corps. -
• Martial Arts Illustrated, June 2004 Cover and Feature -
• Canwest News Service: Ottawa, 2003 -
• British Royal Armouries Museum: 2003 -
• Toronto Metropolitan Police Archives -
• The Canadian National Exhibition Archives: Toronto, Canada -
• Johnny Carson Archives, Los Angeles California -
• Academy Awards Archives, Los Angeles California -
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defendo"
Categories: Law enforcement techniques | American martial arts
Hidden categories: Cleanup from January 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since December 2007Comment
Comment