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Jailhouse rock (fighting style)

Jailhouse rock
Also known as 52 Hand Blocks, 52 Blocks, Comstock Style, Stato, In Tight
Focus Hybrid
Country of origin United States USA
Famous practitioners Rahmel Scott aka Immr52, Kawaun Adon aka Big K, Michael Duffy, Rique, Eric Twitty, Daniel Marks, Lyte Burely
Parenthood African Martial Arts, African American Boxing
Olympic sport No

Jailhouse rock or JHR is a name which is used to describe a collection of different fighting styles that have been practiced and/or developed within US penal institutions. The different regional “styles” of JHR vary but share a common emphasis on improvisation governed by a specific set of underlying principles.

Some examples of the many styles of JHR are 52 Hand Blocks, Comstock Style, Stato. Many of these styles of JHR are thought to have evolved regionally in different penal institutions.

Jailhouse Rock, the 52 Hand Blocks and their variants may be compared to savate, which was originally a semi-codified fighting method associated with an urban criminal subculture, which underwent a gradual process of codification before becoming established as a martial art accessible by the cultural mainstream.

52 blocks has been referenced in journalist Douglas Century's Street Kingdom: Five Years Inside the Franklin Avenue Posse, as well as numerous Wu-Tang Clan songs and Ted Conover's book Newjack. Recently, celebrities including actor Larenz Tate and rapper Ludacris have taken up the fighting system for film roles and self-defense, shining a brighter light on this previously unknown martial art.

The existence of this martial art has been debated, but some media exposure has contributed towards verifying the existence of Jailhouse Rock. According to researcher Douglas Century, professional boxers, including Zab Judah and Mike Tyson, have testified to the existence of the style and it is referred to in rap songs by artists including the Wu-Tang Clan. Tales of the pugilistic exploits of legendary 1970's New York prison fighter "Mother Dear" have also contributed to the extensive urban mythology surrounding this system.

The 52 Hand Blocks aspect of JHR was first featured in Black Belt Magazine in the 1970s it was then followed by a key reference in Douglas Century's nonfiction book Street Kingdom. This book played a key role because it introduced 52 Blocks most senior living practitioner Kawaun Adon (Big K). Kawaun would unite with Martial Arts Historian Daniel Marks and Fitness Innovator Hassan Yasin (GIANT) to form Constellation currently the only 52 Blocks organization with a direct lineage. This organization would motivate the authorship of essays like "Freeing the Afrikan Mind: the Role of Martial Arts in Contemporary African American Cultural Nationalism" by Professor Tom Green of Texas A&M University.


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