Bas Rutten invents ‘The Martial Arts Handshake’
Bas Rutten: “I developed a new handshake, the ‘Martial Arts Handshake’. Check it out and spread the word. It’s fun to do.”
The custom of a handshake goes back thousands of years. Extending an open hand demonstrates that there is no weapon being held, and shaking it shows that there is nothing up the sleeve!
In the 3,000-year-old relief below, Assyrian King Shalmaneser III shakes hands with a Babylonian ruler, sealing an alliance.
Going back another 500 years or so, Homer (poet, not Simpson) references the handshake multiple times in the Iliad and Odyssey.
At around the same time, the Bao Quan fist and palm salute was formed in ancient China. It was reportedly initially a symbol of a slave in a pillory, and was meant to indicate a willingness to be a humble servant. In time, it became simple etiquette, a polite form of greeting.
Returning to Western culture, bowing or tipping a hat became the normal means of greeting, until 17th century Quakers found the simple handclasp to be more egalitarian, and it eventually spread worldwide.
Moving to combat sports, at some point after 1867 when boxing gloves were mandated by the Marquess of Queensberry Rules, since a proper handshake is not feasible with gloves on, boxers started the fist bump as a sign of respect. During the Vietnam War the black power salute was prohibited, and the fist bump became part of a sometimes elaborate dap greeting between African American soldiers. It spread from there to the wider culture, worldwide. Today, variations are found almost universally in BJJ academies.
Now Bas Rutten has devised what he calls the Martial Arts Handshake. He made the announcement via his social network.
“I developed a new handshake, the ‘Martial Arts Handshake’, he wrote. “Check it out and spread the word. It’s fun to do, you can also catch with your face but that’s a little fun though, haha.”
God speed and party on.
