Defendo

Defendo is a martial art and self defense system created in 1945 for law enforcement by Bill Underwood, a British-born Canadian. Underwood had created Combato in 1910, a "non-boxing or wrestling" unarmed combat system which he taught in Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario and Defendo grew out of this system.

History

Combato had its beginning in the Liverpool theatres with ju-jitsu demonstrations by traveling Japanese wrestlers, Yukio Tani and Taro Miyake. As a boy, Underwood idolized these experts, and rapidly established himself as a prodigy.

The name Defendo was created on August 15, 1945 in New York City by Underwood's daughter, Pat, when Underwood was a guest in the United States training U.S. Army Rangers and for the American FBI for use in unarmed combat. Underwood was frequently requested by American and Canadian Law Enforcement Agencies to teach his Combato system during World War II, but as the war had ended he refused on the basis that Combato was too aggressive. Underwood was asked to modify the system to remove its lethal applications and instead 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".