This is as good a time as any to set your resolutions, make your plans and get results for your martial arts growth in 2012. But because the world of Bujinkan Taijutsu is so wide, many people have some difficulty even thinking about where to start.

Here’s a little help!

1)      If you haven’t started yet, or have started but lost steam along the way, start afresh! Look carefully at your schedule and ask yourself what changes should you make so that you can attend class weekly. If you can’t commit to weekly training, then commit to being there at least once a fortnight. And let your instructor know, so that he or she can take your attendance and training needs into consideration as he or she creates the lesson plans.

If you have already started, there are three areas you can look at and pay more attention to this year.

a)      Physical conditioning – if your body is weak or stiff, it is very difficult for you to get the basic techniques right. Bujinkan Taijutsu isn’t very strength-intensive, but you will need a basic level of conditioning in order to do sanshin no kata and kihon happo without gross errors. For example, it is very hard to learn hicho no kata if you are unable to stand on one leg for at least 30-60 seconds.

So physical conditioning is important!

And in Singapore, the average person is far more likely to die from a heart attack than from a knife attack. So make sure you spend at least a reasonable amount of time and effort in keeping your body in a decent state of health!

b)      Formal Techniques – if you have already learned ALL the techniques of the Tenchijin Ryaku no Maki (the official Bujinkan syllabus) you will still have the rest of the techniques and combos from the 9 schools of the Bujinkan to keep you busy for the rest of your lifetime. But if you don’t, then you have your work cut out for you!

What are the gaps in your knowledge and training? Think about it, have a 5-10 minute chat about it with your instructor and then start fixing it. Do you need to refine your locks? Your throws? Your strikes? How well do you grasp hanbo (half-stick) and kenjutsu (sword-work)?

If you haven’t attained your black belt yet, a good question to ask your instructor is “What do you want me to work on to attain my next kyu-grade promotion?”

c)       Real-life Application – if you train exclusively in formal Bujinkan techniques but don’t explore them in a modern context, you may not be able to apply the principles in a real-life conflict. Some people can (we call them martial geniuses)but the rest of us need to actually spend time working on modern applications.

Examples: we often practice our throws while wearing gi jackets or something similar. How do we adopt our techniques to a situation when an opponent is not wearing suitable attire? We practice in open spaces. Are we able to adapt when fighting in an enclosed environment (such as a stairwell or lift)?

As you can see, these areas give you a lot of stuff to work on. If you are new to all this, work with your instructor in drawing up a training plan for 2012. And ask your instructor to help. This will not only give you the benefit of his or her experience, understanding and knowledge, it will also make you accountable to someone for your martial growth.

And that is one essential element for actually disciplining yourself and getting results for 2012!

Before we went into the technique proper, we looked at the 3 most common problem-areas for musha dori. In other words, when people mess up musha dori, chances are that they missed one (or more) of these three important factors:

1) Correct positioning – Your body has to be at the right position, distance and angle vis-a-vis your opponent. The first exercise was to have my students step into the correct angle, position and distance from the target until it became familiar. That, to me, was less than one-arms-length distance away from the target, with your body facing the same direction/angle as the target and feet in line with the target’s feet.

2) Correct stepping – It is lunging forward with a downward action with your first step, and turning to the right direction and raising your centre of gravity with the second. You have to do it all in just two steps. Quite tough against a stationary target.

3) Correct arm movement – You need to draw a circle with your opponent’s elbow at just the right angle. Too shallow an angle, and you will not turn the opponent’s shoulder away to keep him from punching you with the other fist, too deep an angle and your opponent escapes the musha dori easily by going with your force and movement.

A properly executed musha dori will have all of these factors in place.

Later on we looked at musha dori as part of a combi. We used chi no kata and ka no kata against a standard jodan tsuki, then added in the musha dori as the follow-up. This showed us clearly the context in which a musha dori would be appropriate. In fact, it was even easier to use it against a jodan tsuki than against the usual sleeve grab.

Extending the combi a little bit more, we looked at a version of kata maki from koto ryu. Block against the first punch, shift your weight forward to avoid the second. Notice that if you keep your first blocking hand in place, shifting your weight forward very naturally starts the musha dori. And if your opponent stepped forward for the second punch, your musha dori ends up applied against the cross arm.

If you think getting a musha dori is bad, try getting one on the cross arm. You are literally screwed up, very badly!

Final application, I showed how to use a musha dori in a multiple-attacker situation. If you get your musha dori correct, you are controlling your opponent and holding him in place with one arm. That means your other is free to capture weapons or draw your own. You can also just hold your captured opponent in place as a shield against further attacks. It’s very difficult to hold an opponent in a musha dori for long. We usually would just throw the opponent instead of just holding him up there. But in a multiple-attacker situation, having a shield for even a few seconds is usually worth the effort. It can buy you more time and space to deal with a very bad situation!

As usual, there was no way I could get my students totally proficient in musha dori in the space of one lesson, though I did see great improvement. But it was a great start. I look forward to looking at this really cool technique even more in the future!

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

As a teacher, one of my primary goals is to train up students who can effectively deliver force into an opponent. If you don’t have that ability, don’t call what you do taijutsu! 

Delivering force into an opponent requires:

• Kamae – without a firm foundation and grounding, the force is easily shed off. Or it may return to your own body. You will have exerted a lot of strength, but a lot of it will be dissipated… Kamae also includes aligning your foot, knee, hips and shoulders correctly behind the omote or ura shuto.
• Distance – too far away and you miss, too close it becomes a push rather than a strike. Nothing wrong with a good push at the right time, but remember if you are too close it’s just more dangerous. I teach my newbies to do sanshin from a greater distance, to reach out with the strike.

I used a simple umbrella as a hitting target for my students this lesson. My personal experience with newbies is that once you have them practice sui no kata & ka no kata with a partner, some problems arise. These include:

1) Their partners may not punch correctly. And that messes up their distance perception.

2) Newbies usually hesitate to hit their training partners correctly. And this can lead to them moving their bodies too close (to push) or too far.

So I use the umbrella to tsuki, the student has to jodan uke  onto the umbrella. Then I shift my body to the right spot, where an upright umbrella would be at the right angle and distance for the student to shuto. Weird? Yeah. But it works better than putting a target on my neck for the student to clout. The students hit better and I don’t get groggy after class.

How did it go? It went the way I expected. The guys did well. Even without totally pristine form they were able to hit accurately for the jodan uke and relevant shuto. Power and confidence was there. And they got the distance correct too. The next step is to get them used to the same distancing and taijutsu when working with a partner. I know this takes more time than just getting them to practice the original form straight away, but so far all my scaffolding has worked out wel and my students get things right sooner rather than later.

My gamble paid off!

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

What I taught them was:

1. Bo furi gata – even though this is more a bo technique, it is useful for getting the people used to the shifting of grip along the various parts of the stick that characterizes Kukishin stickwork.
2. Figure-8s, one-handed – the movement actually comes out in Kukishin Hanbo Chuden (mid-level) techniques, in at least 2 out of the 4. So it’s a good movement to have under your belt.
3. Stepping offline against a jodan tsuki (high-level attack) – go for the ribs.
4. Stepping offline and dealing with a gedan tsuki – whack the hand.

I also demo-ed the first two waza from Hatsumi Soke‘s book on hanbo. We didn’t really have enough time to work on them, but I showed them anyway so the guys would know what to expect in future stick training sessions.

I don’t think we’ll return to stick techniques so soon, but I really want to take a few months to work on them sometime next year. That would probably mean making my Tuesday class more exclusive (less beginner-friendly), but I feel I bear my regular students the responsibility of doing my best for advancing their budo skills also. I’ll chew on that and see how it goes from here!  

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

Sometimes it takes more time for a technique to sink in. I went through my usual onikudaki syllabus last week, but it didn’t seem to work as well as usual. We isolated the

• footwork
• hand movement
• body movement

… but sometimes it’s hard for the body to grasp the idea of doing it all the same way.  So I went through it all again this week.  Last week we looked at onikudaki with a few variations; from seiza no kamae, with the wall, against  omote shuto/knife slash to throat and all that. This week we worked on the different elements (mentioned above) as well as practiced it against a cross punch.

One important thing to note (which I cannot remember if I mentioned during the lesson) is that people don’t punch or grab and then leave their arms out straight. They don’t lock their elbows out there forever either. Sooner or later they will pull the arm back so that they can punch with the other arm. That pulling back action (with the elbow bending in) is the opening we can use for onikudaki, in fact it is the most realistic situation.

Of course that doesn’t mean that we just stand there with our arms down in the onikudaki position, waiting for the opponent to bend his arm. In the meantime all kinds of nasty things can be happening to us. It does mean, however, that we don’t have to force the onikudaki to work. During lessons, the henka (variations) teach our bodies to recognise the most appropriate techniques for the exact moment. And if the moment isn’t right, we need to move on to other options.

Going to post more notes soon…

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

We started off with the basic form, which is a jodan uke against a jodan tsuki, step forward with omote shuto. Then we looked at…

Justyn’s henka

Justyn taught a henka which added a ken kudaki after the uke, followed by an ura shuto. Doesn’t sound profound, but the basic movements within this are vital to having good taijutsu. If you can’t manage this well your movement will always be stiff and slow.

William’s henka

William taught a henka that involved moving forward and using the lead hand to connect with the opponent’s rear hand. If you get this right you have used one arm to protect yourself from your opponent’s two arms. That way, whether the opponent stands there stunned (unlikely) or starts to attack with the other arm (very likely) you have a way to deal with him.

(If I recall correctly, this type of movement is what Nagato Sensei is known for teaching)

The jodan uke movement done on the opponent’s back arm disrupts his balance, the omote shuto heads up to get whatever it can get, but fundamentally it drives the opponent back and off balance so you can arm lock the fellow. Remember when to step for this one. William emphasized not stepping in with the omote shuto unless the opponent is off-balance (yup, I’m not the first to teach this idea).

Shiva’s version

Shiva (from Bujinkan India) showed ichimonji to me this way: you drop your body downwards (at a slight angle, of course) as you raise your arms upwards for the jodan uke. Regular jodan ukes may not disrupt the balance of the opponent; this version certainly will. The distance for this is quite different from the version I’ve been taught at the beginning, but I like this one. Moving in two opposite directions is very Chinese in concept and the way the arms were raised creates a very strong structure that doesn’t really depend very much on muscular strength to hold things in place.

I still had another two more versions to look at, but the time just shot past during this lesson. Looking at armlocks will do that, I guess. Hopefully, the next time I cycle through the Kihon Happo I’ll have the time and opportunity to look at them in class!

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

And other than a few variations here and there we stayed mainly on the hanbo versions of

1. Omote Gyaku
2. Ura Gyaku
3. Onikudaki
4. Ganseki Nage

I actually enjoyed that, just giving people time to really let the technique sink into their minds. “Keep your arm up”, “put your foot there”, “step only after you’ve taken the balance”, little reminders during the session help people get the hang of the movements sooner rather than later.

And as for me, I was doing them correctly even though Justyn hasn’t taught me hanbo for years. It’s all supposed to be the same, right? The Bujinkan is supposed to be a systems-based art, so working on one part of the system is supposed to help you get better at the rest.

Of course, there’s a huge difference knowing you’re supposed to be able to do it, and discovering to your own pleasant surprise that you CAN do it!

How long will I teach hanbo? Maybe for as long as it takes for the techniques to become second nature. Knowing what I know now, I realize how much of the gyaku waza details carry over to hanbo immediately. Very little adjustment necessary. And that is why I still stick to Justyn’s version of the basics even though I have been exposed to other versions by now. I know from experience his version is more universal, and carry over to weapons work much more easily!

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

We did the original form (gedan uke, metsubushi, sokuyaku geri), and then added ura shuto. Why? Because we need to practice two things; first, linking up attacks instead of expecting that one single attack will always succeed, second, switching between high level and low level attacks. If you are ever keeping up the offensive on an opponent, occasionally changing your attack levels messes up your opponent’s psychological state a lot!

We also did the following waza:

1. 闕倒     Ketō – from Gyokko Ryu – against a high punch, we block, shakoken and kick with an upward movement. Very much ku no kata, except against a high punch this time.
2. 擔撃     Tangeki – from Koto Ryu – against two punches, we block twice, happa ken, then geri. Quite similar to ku no kata in concept too.
3. 指拍     Shihaku – also from Koto Ryu – against two punches, we block twice, fake the kick and then punch instead.

The two waza from Koto Ryu also teach us about distancing. If we are not at the right distance to hit the opponent with a kick, we can either let the opponent close the distance (Tangeki) or close the distance ourselves with a feint (Shihaku). The kick need not actually hit an opponent to be effective; it can either just distract him or protect us as we move in with another attack.

All these variations are not very profound. But I know it will take many more sessions of the same material before they become second nature to us. So if I keep going back to these every time we look at ku no kata, don’t be surprised!

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

On Tuesday morning, I had a one-on-one session with one of my students. We worked on hanbo jutsu (the 3-foot staff), and worked on the material from Hatsumi Soke’s book Stick-Fighting: Techniques of Self-Defence. After some basic exercises and drills, we worked on techniques that were basically

1. Omote Gyaku
2. Ura Gyaku
3. Onikudaki
4. Ganseki Nage

… done with the hanbo.

It’s the first time I taught an entire session on hanbo. And again I just did the same stuff Justyn taught me in my first year of Bujinkan training.

In the evening class, only one student turned up (it happens, not everyone appreciates my budo-teaching genius). So I gave him the choice: work on ku no kata (from sanshin, what I originally planned for that lesson) or to work on whatever he wanted to spend more time on. So we ended up doing the gyaku waza from the Chi Ryaku No Maki.

Those, by the way, comprise of the same locks from the kihon happo but with a few more added in. So a large part of the lesson was a review of the same material I taught to a different student in the morning.

The morning part was a trip down nostalgia lane, and the evening session was moving on. Why? Because I was teaching the gyaku waza with a great deal more understanding than I had. Core movements, what are you trying to do to your opponent, how to counter the techniques, how to prevent the counters from working in the first place – all of these require us to see what the technique is, in its essence.

Conclusion:

Even though I set out to run a beginners/basics class (because without good foundations the rest of the skills are shaky), I find that the people I work with are more intermediate level (6th-4th kyu). And I also discover that I really enjoy working individually with each student. It’s the most satisfying to me, because I see the improvements within the lesson itself. That doesn’t happen if you have a larger class and you move on to the next item on the list before people truly learn and grasp your earlier technique.

Now I of course would love to have a large class (because of ego and because it will help my students more at the later levels), but since this is what I have now, this is what I’ll work with.

And hope that next week more people turn up!

So I met up with a couple of my regular students, had a visitor from the Malaysia dojo, and went through the basics of kenjutsu. They weren’t all the official kukishin stuff, but were henka and waza my sensei taught me from my first year in the Bujinkan.

I usually blend in my sensei’s henka into my lesson contents, but this lesson was almost 100% his material. And that made me realize that I had truly come a long way. Every year in August I commemorate beginning in the Bujinkan. But this time I have students to share my knowledge with.

So I enjoyed the joy and mystery that comes from teaching what Justyn taught me, pretty much the same way he taught me.

Concepts:

If you attended the class, I want you to work on:

1) the basic cuts I taught you. It takes hours of practice before the cuts become second nature & flow smoothly out from your taijutsu.

2) distancing: distance with the blade is different. And as you adapt to the correct distance for different weapon-types, you’ll also get a better sense of what’s a safe distance and angle for you, and what isn’t. And this adaptability is a core component of taijutsu skill.

3) the techniques: they were based on the sanshin no kata, what I believe are the foundations our art. I know you will not get the full benefit from them without a training partner, but if you are just beginning with the blade you will have SOME benefit at least.

Go for it!