Welcome to Kirk Lawson's Lulu Storefront!
You'll find two types of material here.
First, you'll find re-publication of antique Martial Arts manuals, focusing mainly on manuals important to the Western Martial Arts traditions, though not exclusively. These manuals are faithfully hand transcribed from original text with the original images scanned. Though I hold copyright on the text formatting and on the scanned images themselves, you are free to download PDF's of these historic texts, free of charge, at no cost and to re-distribute them provided you adhere to the legal terms stated in the foreword. Essentially this is that you agree not to attempt to profit my hard work. My intention here is to ensure that these works are available to the Western Martial Arts community at large.
Secondly, you'll find original material here, including DVD's. Again, this material focuses on the Western Martial Arts tradition. Here, again, the goal is to provide content to the general Martial arts community which is rare, obscure but unique, or otherwise difficult obtain.
Thank you for visiting here. I encourage you to check back occasionally as I add new material.
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Print: $19.95 ...the most important work on classical boxing I have seen so far ...
this book will be very very important in the history of this art.
-Ken Pfrenger
Kirk Lawson's "Banned from Boxing" is a unique valuable resource for the burgeoning study of classical pugilism as a martial art and combat sport.
-Tony Wolf
Join Kirk Lawson, a Martial Artist with more than 20 years of experience in various striking and grappling arts, both Western and Eastern as well as an avid MA historian, as he explores the exciting and mostly forgotten world of grappling in historic boxing.
Using antique boxing manuals as reference as well as a healthy dose of experience, Kirk systematically presents in easy to follow terms and sequences the throws, trips, and grapples of historic boxing.
With more than 70 illustration, both new and taken from historic manuals, modern martial artists and boxing historians alike will find this book an indispensable reference.
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Disc: $20.00 Kirk Lawson presents a seminar on Bartitsu, the eclectic martial art founded by E.W. Barton-Wright in 1899. Kirk's presentation includes a discussion of historical context; the basic movements and techniques of pugilism, Vigny stick fighting and Edwardian-era JuJitsu; detailed analysis of six canonical Bartitsu techniques; "Neo-Bartitsu" variations and the mugging tricks employed by 19th century street gangsters.
This footage was recorded at the Spring '06 Cumann Bhata Western Martial Arts Seminar.
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Print: $7.69 Download: FREE Winning most of his professional matches in less than 10 minutes and a claimed career record of more than 2,000 wins and 5 losses, the "Russian Lion" as George Hackenschmidt was known, was considered the top wrestler of his day and is even now considered one of the top Catch-as-catch-can wrestlers of all time.
First published in 1909, this manual, lavished with 70 photographs, provides an introduction to what Hackenschmidt thought was the most important elements of Catch-as-catch-can wrestling, with particular attention to what was not included in competing manuals.
Though he had earned a reputation as a true gentleman in the ring, his manual includes details on trips, leg-locks, arm-lo
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Print: $9.29 Download: FREE Billy Edwards, born in England, traveled to the United States of America to pursue his passion of boxing. Facing such greats as Mike Donovan and Sam Collyer throughout his career, Edwards earned and held the title of Lightweight Champion of America during 1868-1872.
In 1888, Edwards published his manual, together with the help of his friend, long-time sparring partner, and oft-times professional ring opponent, Aurthur Chambers. This manual catalogs footwork, striking technique, throwing, diet, exercise, and training recommendations for both amateur and professional boxers. Edwards provided his manual liberally with illustrations, 26 in all, in which he and Chambers pose. Additionally, Edwards includes and recommends for amateur use the American Fair-Play Rules for boxing, a little known and never officially adopted rule set.
Most uniquely, this manual was actually used a significant court case, namely Louisiana State vs. Olympic Club, 1894.
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Print: $6.89 Download: FREE In the early 1920's, Superintendent of Police in India H.G. Lang introduced the Walking Stick Method of Self Defense based upon the instruction of Swiss la canne Professor Pierre Vigny. He published this historic manual documenting his cane fighting system.
This manual, faithfully transcribed by Kirk Lawson from the original (copyright held on text formatting and images), Lang included 116 pages of text in his orginal manual including 66 pages of specific instruction and 60 images illustrating his techniques.
Special thanks to Ralph Grasso for preserving this historic text in his library. Additional thanks to Joseph P. Sullivan for providing a copy to me.
Finally, special thanks to The Exiles (http://www.the-exiles.org) for hosting the original PDF transciptions.
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Print: $5.79 Download: FREE In 1936 K.S. Akali, the Physical Director of his college, published a book on the then little known Martial Art from India known as Gatka.
Boasting 19 photographs and illustrations, K.S. Akali's book offers over 60 pages of instruction on footwork, handling, and use of "the Gatka." This instruction, considered training for the sword, offers a unique perspective into not only the Martial Arts of India, but also the efforts to include "scientific" physical education of the time. The emphasis of K.S. Akali's book is on the sporting aspect of the Art which is similar to Japanese Kendo or English Singlestick. He ends his book with rules for the competition with specific instructions for both the competitors and the judges.
Faithfully reproduced by Kirk Lawson, this book is an invaluable resource that both historic researchers and modern Martial Artists alike will find beneficial.
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Print: $8.17 Download: FREE Prehn, a member of the Wrestling Hall of Fame, was one of the early 20th Century "Big Names." He dedicated a good portion of his life to promoting Wrestling including acting as a professional wrestling coach for the Illini, successfully placing in top 10 matches such as the 1928 NCAA Collegiate Championship. As a G.I., he was a hand-to-hand instructor and won the 1918 Middle Weight Inter-Allied Games championship. He was Chairman of the Illinois Athletic Commission. Prehn was elected President of the National Boxing Association in 1928 which added wrestling to its responsibilities.
Possibly his most important contribution is his wrestling manual. It includes many techniques which are now illegal, such as arm-bars and neck-cranks.
Packed with more than 70 photographs, this manual, faithfully transcribed by Kirk Lawson, is one of the best "Scientific Wrestling" manuals of the early 20th Century and is an indispensible reference for modern wrestlers and historians alike.
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Print: $5.67 Download: FREE Born about 1865 in Cincinnati, Len Lanius began wrestling around the age of 12, eventually wrestling on the Vaudeville circuit before retiring and joining the Sports staff with the Cincinnati Post. Lanius claimed to have held the title of Lightweight Champion Wrestler of the World, which would have been around 1890. After the famous Gotch-Hackenschmidt matches of 1908, Lanius started developing his “American Jiu Jitsu.” In his own words, “it was the invasion of the Jap wrestlers around that time that put me to work on perfecting a style of defense to check their attack. Their methods were quite baffling.” In March of 1921, Lanius demonstrated his creation, “Yankee Jiu Jitsu,” to the Rotary Club and, again in June of 1921, he demoed his Jiu Jitsu to the Kiwanis. In 1922 he published this book, “American Jiu Jitsu.” Special thanks to Jason Couch and the Martial History Magazine at: http://martialhistory.com for making the original of this document available for republishing.
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Print: $5.03 Download: FREE This booklet has been designed for students of Cumann Bhata Dayton to use as a study aid. It draws from the many historic manuals and drill books that our club has incorporated into practice and is not based on any one specific body of work. We practice 19th century Anglo-American military saber specifically and, because of that distinction, our philosophy is more suited to the historic battlefield than it is to a duel.
Anyone who is not a member of our club is welcome to use this booklet as a training aid. I encourage anyone who is trying to learn from this or any manual to do everything you can to find a teacher. A book is a poor substitute for learning from an experienced practitioner.
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Print: $5.31 Download: FREE The Boy Scouts long have issued a Master at Arms Badge. In the U.S., the Badge was retired in 1911. In England the badge lives on and can be fulfilled with many great sports such as Target Shooting, Archery, or after-school Asian martial arts. However, to many western martial artists, it lives on as a pale shadow of its former self, consisting all too often of “a note from the boy’s Sensei saying, ‘yes, he attends class regularly’.”
Ah, but in “the good old days,” when politicians represented the will of the people and the grass was greener, the Master at Arms Badge reflected a more western heritage by requiring skill in any two of Singlestick, Fencing, Boxing, Quarterstaff, Ju Jitsu, Wrestling, or Gymnastics.
While myth, as usual, overshadows reality, I was excited to read the post by Robert Reinberger of http://www.budoforum.net when he made the 1925 English text available in raw scans. I am grateful that he has preserved this text and given me permission to republish.
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Print: $9.57 Download: FREE "Gentleman" James J. Corbett held the title of World Heavyweight Boxing Champion 1892 to 1897. Boxing under the Marquis of Queensberry rules, he is sometimes called The Father of Modern Boxing. Dubbed so because his "Scientific" approach to boxing which he used to great effect securing his title against the great John L. Sullivan.
Besides a career in acting, Corbett rounded out his boxing career by teaching at the Olympic Club in San Francisco and writing this manual on his "Scientific Boxing" methods.
Loaded with 50 photographs depicting technique and other greats of the ring, in this 1912 edition Corbett gives descriptions and instruction on both legal, and illegal, ring technique. Faithfully transcribed by Kirk Lawson, the copious photographs and clear description make this manual a must for Boxing historians and modern Martial Artists alike.
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Print: $8.85 Download: FREE Edward C. Gallagher is credited with practically reinventing modern amateur wrestling in the first quarter of the 20th Century.
A natural athlete with a degree in electrical engineering, he turned his logical mind to wrestling in 1916 as Director of Athletics for Oklahoma State. Claiming a knowledge of more than 400 wrestling moves, he instantly produced a winning team claiming 138 wins with only 5 losses the first year.
His simply titled wrestling manual was considered the zenith of collegiate level wrestling books for decades. Faithfully transcribed from the original by Kirk Lawson and boasting a massive library of 148 photos reproduced with digital precision, “Wrestling” by E. C. Gallagher is a must for martial artists, wrestling historians, and devotees of the sport.
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Print: $8.23 Download: FREE Born June 4, 1862, Robert Fitzsimmons began boxing first as an amateur in New Zealand and Australia, defeating four men in his debut. He quickly transitioned to professional and in the late 19th Century met and defeated numerous well known champions of the day including Dempsey, Maher, Hall, Creedon, Corbett, Ruhlin, Sharkey, "and others of like note..." retaining and defending the Heavy-Weight title until June 9, 1899.
In retired life, Fitzsimmons taught Boxing, Self-Defense, and Physical Fitness, then known as "Physical Culture." In 1901, he published his Fitness and Boxing manual titled "Physical Culture and Self Defense" which included material from earlier articles he had written.
This book is a faithful retranscription by Kirk Lawson of the original text. Special attention has been given to recreating the look and feel of the original document, including similar fonts, the preservation of spelling, hyphenation, and intentionally blank pages.
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Print: $5.43 Download: FREE In 1797, W. Pepper of the Notts Yeomanry Cavalry printed the second edition of his Broad Sword instruction manual.
Carefully transcribed from the original text by Kirk Lawson, this manual is intended to train Cavalry recruits in the basics of the horse mounted Military Saber or "Broad Sword." Instruction begins unmounted with details of the basic guards and cuts and ends with detailed cut and parry drills to be directed by the Fleugelman.
Pepper provisioned his Saber manual with seven line drawing illustrations, providing both internal decoration and visual instruction. These illustrations, restored with digital precision by Kirk Lawson, offer a treasured window into the exciting history of this historic Western Martial Art.
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