K I H O N
Newsletter #18
July 2001 ISSN# 1534-1437
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An email newsletter focusing on Ninjutsu/Budo
Taijutsu training. Published by www.KIHON.com
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**** CONTENTS ****
>> Sempai Insights: Instructor Insights
>> Kata Ideas: Thoughts on Technique
>> Budo Quotes: Martial Arts Quotes
>> Keiko Events: Upcoming Events
>> Shoshin Comments: Comments
*** Sempai Insights *****
Keeping To Your Commitments
Glenn Catania, BNYD
"What could this possibly have to do with
training?" you might ask yourself. Well,
everything. These are busy times for everyone. We
all know that very well. Time is flying buy. Days
become months, months become years. The biggest
commitment should be to yourself, and what is
really important to you. Years from now when you
look back on your life, many things will be
forgotten. Your commitment to yourself and your
family will not. Everyone has responsibilities,
but life is really about enjoying it. Work is
important, but so is what you love, what gets your
juices flowing, your passion. This is not to say
some of us do not love work. I do, but I have
other loves. Every day can be a struggle. The
world attacks and you put your passion aside. It
should be the opposite. Let it fuel you; let it
maintain your calm mind. When the punches are
flying, you can still work on controlling your
breathing.
A great way to get the most out of anything is to
make a list. Check all the things that really are
important. Refine it from time to time. Priorities
change. That is ok. Cut away what you don't need
anymore and concentrate on the things you want
more of. This might sound like some dumb exercise,
but it will stop you from wasting time. When you
spread your grasp too wide, the sand falls through
your hands. The trick is not to make a bigger
fist, but to grab a little less, and hold on to
more.
Live for what you want today, not for what you
wanted yesterday. Time is watching you. Are you
watching it?
*** Kata Ideas *****
Kihon Happo From The Ground
Don Houle, BNYD
A lot of martial artists who are only passing
familiar with Budo Taijutsu training sometimes
remark that our training lacks "ground fighting"
techniques. This is a common mistake. Although the
amount of practice a student will get with these
techniques largely depends on the instructor at
their particular dojo, there are, in fact, ground
fighting techniques in the Bujinkan, and they are
as effective as the other movements we practice.
Since the kihon happo form the basis of our
taijutsu, a good place to start is to practice
these techniques from the ground or from a
disadvantaged position. Begin with your partner in
a "mount" position - basically sitting on top of
your torso with knees on either side of your chest
while you lie on your back - this is a "worst
case" scenario that is difficult to escape from.
Now, practice the basic omote gyaku, ura gyaku and
hon gyaku [outward, inward, and center wrist
twist, respectively].
Here is an example of omote gyaku from the ground:
the defender covers the opponent's grabbing hand
with her same-side hand. Using her free hand to
strike the uke's body, face, or arm to distract
him or otherwise upset his balance, the defender
begins to remove the grabbing hand from her gi and
twist it to the outside, bringing the palm to face
the ground. As she does this, she uses her legs to
begin to twist her torso in the same direction as
the twist. Applying more pressure to the gyaku
brings the opponent to the ground where the
defender can roll up onto her knees or finish the
technique with a kick or restraining technique.
Remember that these techniques are effective due
to coordinated body movement, not just the use of
the arms. Therefore, we should still use tai
sabaki [body movement] to effectively shift our
opponent to a disadvantaged position. This is
accomplished using the knees and shoulders in a
manner similar to the way we use our feet from a
standing position.
It's important to practice all of the basic
techniques from the ground in order to build
confidence and become comfortable in this
position. When you get stuck and don't know how to
proceed, just use your creativity and rely on what
you've learned in the past.
*** Budo Quotes *****
People today seem like they want to progress. It
seems that the quicker and greater the progress,
the better. However... if we accomplish huge
progress in a short time, we may lose a lot of
life's essence and our lives may become
tedious... On the other hand, we cannot stay at
the same level, which would also be meaningless.
Then what can we do? It is easy. We can just
change our lives. It may not be progressing, but
transforming.
By Masaaki Hatsumi
[Ninpo: Wisdom for Life, Pg. 91]
http://www.kihon.com/ninpo/
*** Keiko Events *****
* Bujinkan New York Dojo
http://www.kihon.com/dojo/events.html
* Mark O'Brien USA Seminars
http://www.kihon.com/mob.html
* Bujinkan New York Dojo
27 Milburn Street
Bronxville, NY 10708
http://www.kihon.com/ny/
*** Shoshin Comments *****
Be The Tree
Lauren Brandstein, editor
A lot of new students have difficulty with musha
dori, and I think this is because we don't have
the right spirit behind it. When a gyaku is right,
you are wrapping up the uke, not the other way
around. So why do we twist ourselves, bend our
backs, and look at our feet or our hands or the
sky to get the gyaku to work? Why should we become
so entangled, why should our balance be so broken,
when it is the uke who should feel tangled up and
unbalanced? We try so hard to get the gyaku to
"work" that we forget our own alignment and
destroy our own balance.
I think most of us forget *why* we are doing the
technique. I forget that I'm not "doing" musha
dori "to" someone, having planned to use a certain
"technique," which will have a predetermined
result. I am simply moving somewhere, evading a
real attack, and remaining standing and intact as
easily and naturally as possible. So if someone is
attacking me, the thing to do is to avoid the
attack and neutralize the possibility of more
attacks, and to do it just by casually moving a
certain way, as if I were going to move there
anyway. Except that the attacker's arm happens to
be where my arm goes, so it gets redirected, and
then stepping *this* way just happens to make him
fall. It shouldn't be a struggle, and it shouldn't
make me bend and twist my body to achieve that end
and "make" the uke fall.
Many people compare musha dori to a snake curling
around the branch of a tree, and that image makes
sense to me, but I see the uke as the snake, and
the tori as the tree. Although the tori moves to
escape the uke, when it is done well, it's as
though the tori were always there, like a tree,
and the uke, the snake, was forced to go around
it. As tori, I should be absolutely calm and
steady like a tree, and if I am absolutely strong
the opponent must then be weaker, less steady and
balanced. He has already weakened himself by
attacking, and so if I simply move to avoid his
attack without twisting and bending myself, then
he must bend to me.
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KIHON Newsletter and all contents
Copyright (c) 2001 by Joe Maurantonio
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