DOES TORITE JUTSU WORK?

This open letter from Peter Consterdine was written in 1999 in response to various "Martial Artists" claims that the Torite Jutsu system does not work.

These claims were made by people who have never taken the opportunity to even try Torite Jutsu!l recently had the great pleasure and considerable pain of having Rick Moneymaker conduct a seminar for the British Combat Association (BCA) in Coventry.
 
For those of you who are not familiar with the BCA, it was started in 1993 by myself and my friend and co Chief Instructor, Geoff Thompson. It has brought together some of the best `practical' martial artists from all disciplines in the UK and we have over 160 instructors, many of whom have `real world experience' of combat situations. In addition to some of Britain 's most senior martial artists, we have serving Police Officers, Military Unarmed Combat Instructors, as well as people whose professions include, like my own, the Close Protection of wealthy and prominent individuals. We also have instructors with many years of experience working the doors.
 
For myself, I have 35 years of continuous martial arts training under my belt, have a 7th Dan in Karate and, in addition, to spending some 8 years on the Gt. Britain & England Karate squads, was also a British Full Contact Champion. Over the years, I've studied Wing Chun and a variety of other systems and specialised in the development of Impact in martial arts. Over the past few years in my capacity as a Professional Bodyguard, I have worked in some 14 countries and authored 3 books, `Streetwise' (Personal Security & Self Defence), `The Modern Bodyguard' (Close Protection Training) and `Fit To Fight' (high intensity training for personal combat).
 
For countless years I have had a physical training regime that few in the martial arts would ever subscribe to and I say this and provide my background, not for any self-aggrandisement, simply to make a point of reference for what I am about to say. I had over 60 instructors on the DSI seminar in Coventry and to a man and woman, they were convinced of the efficiency of Torite Jutsu. Not because they were hoodwinked, but because they know from personal experience when something is so painful and effective.
 
As a consequence, I have been appalled by some of the internet correspondence to this site. Sadly, there is a new breed of martial artists coming to the fore and that is the "Keyboard Combatant". Unable ever to reach a high standard in a rigorous and stressful training regime, they are able to enjoy some prominence through the polemics and semantics of arguing against a system. I have had one or two of these same people on my own seminars and have to say it but quite frankly they "couldn't fight sleep".
 
I am one of the most powerful strikers in the world of martial arts and 8 police forces and the British Home Office have seen fit to employ me as a consultant to pass on some of the dynamics of these skills. I am therefore more qualified than most to adjudge that the DSI system of `Meridian Points' works and works well. It takes the `science' of martial arts into another, less physical plain, and before you "typists" get your combative fingers going, when I say `science' I mean science as it relates to the workings of system we may call Chinese Medicine.
 
It is not provable science, it is 'feeling science'. I have felt it, my people have felt it and they are intelligent enough and more than experienced enough to know that it is unnecessary and irrelevant to try and put a slide rule to it, so as to establish the `rules' of the science.But that is precisely what these and you'll have to pardon me `nobodies' feel is their right to do. Having achieved nothing themselves, they will now work hard at making sure no-one else does.

When you see such questions as "Well will it work in a real combat situation"? You know precisely who you' re dealing with. You're dealing with someone who wouldn't know a real combat situation if it bit them on the arse.
 
People who do know have the perception, ability and adaptability to take a technique that they will adapt, adopt or modify into their own armoury. Whether it is for pro-active intervention through pre-emption or reactively for a more defensive strategy, they are skilful enough to see how they can make a technique fit in the overall jigsaw of combat.
 
What also disappoints me is that one of the great assets that Rick and his people, like Russell Stutely bring to the world of martial arts, is a great system, but without the baggage of ego that we usually get from ultra-talented people. This is what makes some of the letters I've seen even more galling. I could understand it if these letters and negativity were directed at certain well know figures who now believe their own press releases and whose ego exceeds their talents, but with the DSI people, this is just not the case. Small, closed minds, allied with marginal talent and a reluctance to work hard would seem to produce in these correspondents an intransigent dogmatism. There is an old Arabian saying, however, that I feel fits the bill in this case:
 
"The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on".
 
I'm writing this letter, not to deter free speech, but that speech has to be tempered with both common sense, intellect and be spoken by people who have the competence and background to judge certain experiences. If you don't like it then 1 suppose it's keyboards at 5 paces - forget that, make it 10 paces, 5 may be too close for you.
 
Peter Consterdine