You might as well add muscle to that title too. When people train in our art they are supposed to be working together with their partner to discover the principle hidden within the katas. Suppose to…
Unfortunately the weaker side of human nature can often creep in and get in the way. When people don’t really understand the technique and its not working well for them they often will move faster or use muscle so they can “win”. It is ego, plain and simple, that causes this.
I’m not saying they are egotistical, I’m saying that our egos have been trained to want to be right. We crave the sensation of doing things right and being praised for them.
But not being right isn’t wrong when you are training. Real training is an experiment where you searching for the cause and effect principle hidden within the kata. Making mistakes and then working through them toward the desired outcome is actually one of the best ways to learn.
Speed and use of muscle cover up your mistakes, halting the learning process just so you can feel better about yourself in the moment. Slow down, let go of your need to be right and you will really learn and feel good about yourself all the time.
Sometimes it is very difficult to explain what we teach to people who either know nothing or very little about martial arts. To-Shin Do is a self defense system based on the principles of ninjutsu, designed specifically to meet our society’s needs at this time. That’s great but…
If we say To-Shin Do, they say Tae Kwon Do, we say no, they say they don’t know.
If we say Ninjutsu, they say jujutsu like MMA, we say no way, they say okay.
(Whoa, I gotta stop watching those Dr. Seuss movies.)
Any way I’ve been thinking about this, because that’s what I do, and I think I have a simple answer. Three words that convey the essence of what we do so you can explain to your friends.
Ninja Self Defense
That’s it. And when they ask “Ninja?”, you say yeah real ninjas teaching real self defense.
Hey don’t forget that Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are going to be in Boston for a seminar soon. Here are the details and the link to sign up!
An-shu Stephen and An-shu Rumiko Hayes teach their 2012 Festival theme in New England at the Boston Martial Arts Center dojo. Friday night Ryu-Tai “riding the dragon” in health-restoration ninja yoga and a special meditation on holding focus in times of conflict and confrontation, and Saturday-Sunday unarmed and armed personal protection with advanced nagare intelligent effortless dragon flow emphasis. To register, contact Boston Martial Arts.
Our art is so vast it difficult to be an expert at all of it. We train on as much as we can but there is just too much to master it all. Which is why buyu (martial friends) are so important to our training, they can be our teachers for things we have not yet mastered.
Last year at Ninja Festival in Ohio I had the gratifying experience of watching one of my students become my teacher. There were a number of long distance students commenting on the forum about the use of the kyoketsu shoge (blade, rope and weight weapon) prior to festival. They had questions about its use and were asking if any of the senior practitioners could give them some tips at festival.
My good friend and senior student Derek Thompson had learned from me the basic concepts of the kyoketsu shoge many years before, including the neat trick of tying someone up from across the room with it but he has done much more training since.
At festival he got to work with the long distance students during a late night break. As I watched him explain he went through things I had shown him, then things I had discovered training on my own and then he went off into things I had never seen before. It was great. I was having fun learning from my student.
We all have specific skills and all of us have put in time training in specific areas. Train to know as much as you can but keep your mind open to the knowledge and help of your martial friends. Working together we can learn more.
Sneaky Ninja News is now officially up and running. What we want to do for you is get you information, stories from behind the mask. Reviews, reports, interviews and more of everything ninja brought to you by the Sneaky Ninja News Team.
On the home page there are three videos in the top section. One is about Sneaky Ninja News giving you more detail of our plans to share information with you. The second is about Sneaky Ninja Stuff where you can learn cool sneaky ninja stuff online. And the third is about Shinobi Martial Arts our school where we shoot all the Sneaky Ninja News videos.
Enjoy these videos but what we really want to do with Sneaky Ninja News is answer your questions about the martial arts, sneaky ninja style of course. Send us your questions, tell us what you want to know and we will put it on video and get it out to you.
Our art is, very simply, huge. There is so much to it not only in content but also in depth of understanding, that I am very confident I will NOT figure it all out in my lifetime.
I say this is not to depress anyone training, on the contrary, this fact is what makes it all worthwhile. I’m never going to stop learning, there will always be more.
The reason I bring this up is because of two reactions to the training that are opposite sides of the coin. First is that of our Little Ninjas when Sensei Darryl shows them something. Almost every day one of them responds, “That’s easy”. What they are really saying is look at me I can do it, a very normal child reaction. They simply don’t understand the depth of what they are studying.
The other side is when I see adult students getting angry with themselves because they aren’t getting the concept we’re working on this very instant. I have to remind them that it is not that easy.
If it were that easy, anyone could figure it out. Something that easy would have been easily defeated on the battlefield, simply put it wouldn’t have lasted. This art has continued in some form for almost a millennium.
It may not be rocket science but it is very comprehensive. It takes time to understand the principles. When you do get them you realize that there are layers of understanding beyond that each more wild and amazing.
So lighten up on yourself and learn to train without condemnation. Getting angry with yourself isn’t the answer. Studying why something worked or didn’t work is.
In our martial art school we have standards that a person must reach to obtain a black belt, these standards however are not just about physical skills. If it were just about kicking or rolling well the young and athletic students would always do the best but it is not.
A black belt at our school is about change. Everyone starts some where in their life and as they train their understanding of our art, themselves, and their surroundings has to change. We have markers along the way to direct them but it is a very personal thing.
You can’t really compare yourself to others because the things you have to change may be completely different than the person next to you. I’m a big person and could use that to fight when I was younger so for me I had to learn to change my need to use strength in order to progress.
For someone smaller or younger they may have to discover their strength by changing the way they view their stature. Everyone is unique, everyone is on his or her own path. The art works as a direction for all of us to travel. This way we can keep each other company on the journey.
In the martial arts if you are studying for actual self-protection and not just sport you must develop both you martial skills and you fighting awareness. The two are not always the same.
There are many skills you have to practice like, punching, kicking, body movement, etc. But you can’t stop there, you also have to learn to fight with these skills.
An extreme version of someone with great martial skills with little fighting knowledge might be some of the kata performing martial artists at competitions doing kicks into splits, flying through the air and flipping all to the latest popular music, impressive, athletic, fun to watch but not the most practical skills in a real fight.
The other extreme might be your local cage fighter, big, tough, and very dangerous but not what you would call skilled or stylish. Most of these fighters tend to use muscle, strength, and force of will. The problem here is that there is always someone bigger, stronger and meaner out there.
When training for self-defense you want to balance these two sides. Practicing your skills repeatedly to create natural body movement and learning to apply those skills with training partners to create fighting awareness.
They are different and must be trained differently. One focuses inward on yourself, evaluating movement, making corrections then repeating over and over again until it becomes part of you. The other focuses outward to understand the cause and effect relationships within a fight.
Together these two sides create real self-protection capability.
Move over Fox News, watch out CNN, enter the Ninja to online news with SNN: Sneaky Ninja News “Stories From Behind The Mask”.
Everyone thinks Ninjas are cool and they’re right, but what do Ninjas think about? SNN Sneaky Ninja News will let you know with stories about everything Ninja reported by Real Ninjas.
Segments will include:
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