Popular judo influencer Chadi has made waves in the martial arts community with his latest claims about the harsh reality of early Japanese jiu-jitsu, arguing that modern practitioners have greatly underestimated just how hardcore the ancient art truly was.
In a detailed analysis of a 1913 jiu-jitsu manual, Chadi challenges the common misconception that old school martial arts were merely ceremonial displays of kata.
“A lot of people would say it is outdated. That’s why it doesn’t exist anymore. Look at their kata. You watch a lot of these nepon budokan demonstrations. People think that that’s how they practiced. No,”
Chadi explains, emphasizing that these demonstrations don’t reflect the intense reality of historical training.
According to Chadi, when Jigoro Kano established the Kodokan and developed what people called “Kano-ryu,” other traditional schools didn’t simply vanish. Instead, they pushed back aggressively.
“They fought, they sparred. People would storm other people’s dojos,”
he reveals, painting a picture of fierce inter-school rivalries that were settled through physical confrontation.
The evidence from the 1913 manual is particularly striking. Unlike modern judo, where throws often end matches, historical jiu-jitsu continued extensively on the ground. Chadi points to techniques that would make today’s practitioners cringe, including the “wrist crusher,” various finger locks that were banned by the Kodokan around 1902 and damaging leg entanglements that could cause serious knee injuries.
Perhaps most surprising are the spine manipulation techniques that Chadi describes. The “koshi shigi” or “hip breaker” involved placing an opponent’s lower back on the attacker’s thigh and pushing down on the collar, creating a dangerous arch in the spine.
“Spine locks were banned fully in the mid 1920s in judo as well as leg locks,”
Chadi notes, explaining how the progressive elimination of techniques was driven by injury concerns.
The manual also reveals techniques like “ashi yori” (leg twist), essentially the Japanese equivalent of today’s heel hook, and the “do jime” or trunk choke, where practitioners would scissor their legs to compress internal organs. These techniques were gradually banned as the Kodokan prioritized safety and education over pure combat effectiveness.
What makes Chadi‘s analysis particularly compelling is his observation about the physical conditioning of these early practitioners. Examining photographs from 1913, he notes the remarkable muscle density and definition of the athletes, describing it as
“carved from repetition, carved from heavy lifting” with a physique that was “not soft” but “very much developed.”
This research challenges modern assumptions about martial arts evolution, suggesting that rather than improving techniques over time, many combat sports have actually become sanitized versions of their older predecessors, prioritizing safety and sport over the combat applications that once defined them.
