Page:Japanese Physical Training (Hancock).djvu/192

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Japanese Physical Training

alternately and smartly, from the hips, while keeping the legs rigid. The throws over the head and over the shoulder are tried also more frequently, while the feat in which the assailant throws one arm about the victim's waist, and presses the open hand of the other arm sharply up under the chin is much resorted to. These exercises, when tried with sufficient frequency, and without too much zeal, are found to strengthen the weakest backs. The dangerpoint, at which too much strength or too much zeal is used, is indicated by the fact that the student finds himself short of breath or with undue pain in the back. The remedy is greater moderation until such time as the back proves equal to greater strain.

When the neck, after the fall has been accomplished and the grip taken, seems to be the weakest point, all of the throat and neck exercises already described in this chapter are to be used by way of remedy. "Bull neck" is an expression in common use in this country. "Iron neck" would be the more appropriate term in Japan. An attempt to injure the neck of a Japanese master of jiu-jitsu by any ordi-