Japanton – Chronicles of Anton in Japan!

Confronting cruelty,
Strengthens the mind and spirit,
Vanquishing discord.

I will start out by saying this is a philosophy that I have come to myself.  It is not representative of the opinions of the TenChiJin dojo as a whole.

After one has passed 5th kyu, I assume that they are serious enough about their training that they can endure.  The training we do is not the best for physical fitness or even discipline.  These are not things that you can be given through a martial art, especially not this one.  The only thing we are good for is survival in a dangerous situation.  This said we have to train in such a way that gets us ready for a real situation.

What will it be like when you are in a fight?  No go ahead take some time, I’ll wait.  It is my responsibility to give that answer, or as close as I can to it.  Your practise must escalate to a point where you know what it will feel like when someone is trying to hurt or kill you.  That’s what you are training for right?  The world can be a dangerous place and that’s why we take the martial arts.  Regardless if it is falling off a bike, or protecting yourself or loved ones (or complete strangers Shidoshi O.) from danger there is not time to hesitate.  Your mind must be clear, your spirit determined and your body free to act as it should.

At 5th kyu, you should have the skills to defend yourself against an untrained opponent at the very least (see more about this at the end of the post).  But if you have all the skills in the world but hesitate it is meaningless.  If you don’t have the courage to act when you need to then your martial arts will in the end mean nothing.

The only way to gain this skill is through training in a way that pushes you outside of your comfort zone so that you are accustomed to how it feels when you are in a confrontation.  You must train in a way that will develop fudo shin (the immovable heart).  But more on the Immovable heart later, your life is on the line so practise well.

Yes untrained fighters, I promised I would talk about them..  I have heard countless times, “well if you meet a bar fighter then he will be way better than a martial artist anyhow” or “fighting experience is all that matters anyway so when you get on the street your martial arts means nothing”.  If people could just naturally win then there would be no reason for the martial arts.  If practise did not improve your skills then why would every other physical endeavour do it.  I admit the reason why I have posted information on training is because we as martial arts teachers are not taking advantage of the advances in sports learning.

For you to assert that an untrained fighter who gets into a scrap a week at the bar is going to be better than a properly trained martial artist is like putting a basketball player who practices on a team against someone who just was handed a ball told the rules and playing pickup basketball (one on one) one day a week.  That assumption is madness at best.  It does not apply in any other activity, why in regards to fighting?

Well there are two more, that means that training will get serious.  But I will have to add to this post later.

It’s later.

I would like to congratulate Mark and Eric for passing 5th kyu.  In fact I should probably apologize for this point not occurring sooner.

When students are unable to pass the test for their ranks, it’s often failure on my part.  Obviously I have not supplied them with the requisite knowledge which they need for their level.  This is not always the case but it was in the case of a few students whom have been training for some time at the dojo.  If there are skills which students need to have, I must give them a way to gain those skills, that is the bottom line.

I don’t have a time requisite for grading, only skill.  If you have been at the club for a week and have the skills it is time for you to move to the next stage of your training.  Time requirements drive me nuts.  I had that opinion in school, so I will do things different in a martial arts school.

For all the newly graded green belts, training only gets harder from here.  I will expect much more out of you as you aproach your shodan so be prepared.

I have this weakness that I am unable to shake.  Every time I preform a technique that doesn’t work I blame myself not the technique, not the art.

I figure that the techniques which have endured through so many generations have done so because they work.  So if I can’t get the techniques to work, I am the problem not them.

Understanding this is necessary to improve.  I know many talented individuals whom have attained a certain level in several martial arts but that’s as far as they ever go.  I have trained briefly in may different martial arts out of interest but I have chosen my path.  I have chosen to delve into the deeper levels of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu.

I don’t feel the need for cross training.  I will not take away from the value of training in other martial arts that I have experienced over the years.  My love of the martial arts started with Karate 19 years ago.  I still think back fondly on the thousands of push ups from my youth.  The point is that once I saw what was possible in the Bujinkan, I lost my desire for the other arts.

Which brings me back to my weakness, I know the ideal.  I have seen an image of what I want my martial arts to become so when I fall short it’s just me.  I have no one to blame but myself and I can only look to myself to make it right.

I will see if I can’t create an appropriate Haiku to end this post.  Haiku’s are tough, I don’t know how Shawn does it.

The topic of fitness and Budo has come up in the past few months so often that I wanted to write about it.  Everytime I wanted to I was caught in an infuriating (in my opinion) conversation, I do not like to write blog posts with my grey matter thus troubled.

With able body,
And unhindered reasoning,
True budo aspired.

I made this haiku for to explain what I have been told by Japanese shihan.  I wrote about it often in my posts.  The way that we are ridiculed by Japanese instructors because of our poor physical condition.  Besides not knowing the techniques needed to progress in our art, our bodies are in no shape to even preform the techniques of the Bujinkan.  We have quite the audacity trying to pass on our sloppy techniques to others.

I of course don’t want to get carried away and turn our classes into exercise classes but come on, we should know a bit about what we eat and effective ways to keep our bodies flexible and strong for the sake of taijutsu.  The techniques don’t require speed or strength but if we don’t take care of our bodies how can we hope to attain the most important technique from Hatsumi Sensei, being able to move like a 30 year old when we are 77?

Being able to do it your own way is not good enough either.  From conversations that I have had with the senior Japanese shihan, if you can’t do the kihon then why do you bother coming to see Hatsumi sensei?  As I have said before, one of them was astounded that he had a class who wanted to do the kihon so he gave us the gift of an hour worth of training on our tsuki (punch or thrust).  After that he told us that if we practised that every day for a year we could relearn the basics without habits.

In the haiku I mentioned that able body and unhindered reasoning.  There are very few people in the Bujinkan that I give a pass on technique.  Those few whom find themselves in a wheelchair or otherwise infirm I know can not do techniques as taught by the shihan.  Otherwise, it’s time to get to work lets get our bodies and movement right.

I look forward to the madness this post will cause.

Last night I ranked my second 5th kyu ever.  At our school you do not receive a green belt until you are 5th kyu.   The reason this is done is I want a clear distinction in Skill from a beginner to experienced practitioner.  This does not happen very often in the Bujinkan so you have no idea to whom you should look for guidance.  I will also go on to say that once you reach 5th kyu your training must change.  You are now one of the students whom will be chosen for techniques where there is difficult ukemi or harder hits.

Basically you become a personal Yabu-san.  Anyhow Congratz Marcus on your rank, for us it’s a big one.

I have had some questions recently about why Edmonton is a TenChiJin club.  Well the answer is simple, I don’t want to recreate the wheel.  I think that it is important to have a guideline to follow as we pursue our study of Budo.  I think that the progression which Bill Atkins has his students follow (of which I am one) is effective.  I understand the he has not had the chance to get to Japan as of late and I am alright with that.  The fact of the matter is that I have made it to Japan and because I have not been training in the art for a long time, there is a background of information which I need that he has.

I hold a respect (not reverence) of teachers whom have a history in this martial art.  Many of the new generation get pushed through the ranks without having the same groundwork as the older practitioners.  I am not arrogant enough to think that I am any better than those whom went to the classes and did hours of drills on basics.

I must also note that I should not take as long as they did to reach the same level.  Hopefully I can learn from their mistakes and progress even faster than they did.  The next generation must always out grow the last.  But the only way that we can do that is by learning from the last.  I feel an obligation to learn from their sacrifice.

So that’s it, until he or I decide otherwise, the dojo in Edmonton is a Bujinkan TenChiJin Dojo.

It’s 5 AM and I am starting to get tired.  I guess that’s what happens when you have nothing to do on a specific time line.  Because I am awake, I guess I should talk about moving through the hips.

Moving through the hips is something that I can not give physical instruction on how to do.  It is something that must be experienced.  It’s part of that whole “this art can not be taught” thing.  The only thing that I will mention is that a few people in the Bujinkan that I have met do this, fewer still explain it when they are teaching.

I guess it should have been self event, even to someone like me who is a bit slow on the uptake.  But never the less, if I can’t explain the movement, perhaps I can explain the benefit.

As I said in a previous post I got this from Noguchi Sensei.  In the past while observing this I had thought it was the use of his back muscles to generate this power, which may be part of it.  If you however recreate the movement you thing you are seeing using your hips instead you can create a response in the opponent which feels quite powerful even though they can tell you are not using your physical strength.

I have also experienced this while being twisted up by Oguri Sensei, it seems like he is using a lot of power, when his upper body is relaxed.  Lets be honest the man is in his late 60’s, I should be able to use my muscles and overpower him.  I have tried to be strong, it doesn’t make a difference.

Now if you are saying, “My favourite Japanese Shihan X does it too”, you’re at a 10 we need you at a 2.  I know that, but the first person to talk about moving through the hips to me directly was Oguri Sensei, the first one to explicitly show me to move through the hips was Noguchi Sensei which is why those two names were mentioned.

That’s all on this for now.  On a final note though, there is a Japanton seminar hosted by Calgary.  I have to drop a line for them since they are the only ones who will actually host me.

In Budo, I compare people on Skills and Levels.

For example, I have different skills than the other teachers in the Club.  When I am away I let Brian and Russ teach knowing that the quality of training will not suffer.

Someone like Lubos is on another Level.  I might have one or two skills which happen to be better, but the rest of the skills which he has are on such a higher level than mine that I have to go through a complete paradigm shift to reach his level.

Why do I mention this?   Because while I am not away you guys must train.  It doesn’t matter if I am not teaching.  I have very little to teach Brian and Russ.  They have a lot to teach you guys.  Anyhow I am back now so I guess I will just make sure to remind everyone when I next go to Japan.

Well I had to spend 12 hours in MSP airport but I made it back safe.  Was moved to first class on the way back from MSP, it was nice.  One person mentioned they were in seat 15F.  Under my breath I said “Do seats go up to that many letters” which got a laugh out of everyone who heard.  I know I’m the bad guy.  Don’t worry next class I will be in Coach so it’s OK.  Now the real training starts, figuring out how to put what I learnt in my everyday training.

In my opinion thats the secret, practise of what you saw in Japan.  That’s what used to happen when we did not have a lot of information.  People would travel to Japan and take what small parts they could from the Shihan and bring it back to practise.  The problem is we have some much information, what do we practice.  The answer is simple anything we want.

Calm down now everyone, are at a 10 I need you at a 2 (thanks Cenk).  Kihon Happo is important, but the more I train in Japan, the better my relationship becomes with Sensei and the Japanese shihan, the more I hear them telling me about Kihon.  The small points in technique that we need to know.  So it doesn’t matter what techniques you practise so long as you know what’s important.

Anyhow I have three things to work on.

1.  Moving through the hips.  (Courtesy of Noguchi Sensei)

2.  Moving slowly enough to feel opponents reactions, but quickly enough to act on them. (Courtesy of Oguri Sensei)

3.  Capturing the opponents without strength.  (by Hatsumi Sensei)

I will take some time later to elaborate on this.  Especially if you have questions on one of the afformentioned skills.  Anyhow it’s time to rest up for class tonight.

There seems to be questions which many people have about if the techniques can work.  At first I though this was a fooling thing to be asking, but maybe not so much now.  If you have questions of if your techniques will work agaist someone bigger and stronger then either you have learnt the techniques wrong or your are being taught something other than Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu.

Too many people seem to thing that the techniques that they are being taught are ineffective then look at them again.  Find someone who can do them against an opponent while using no strength.  Look for a good Shihan who has the solid technique and understanding of what Hatsumi Sensei and the Shihan are doing.  One who will correct you when you are doing something wrong.

If you can’t get someone who says “no” when you don’t get it, someone who will point you in the right direction you are in trouble.  These techniques, this feeling that Hatsumi Sensei is trying to pass on can save your life.

I was lucky enough to have teachers which built a foundation and desire to look at what is good and even question what I was being taught.  Then I was fortunate enough to go to Japan several times to continue my learning.  The information is out there sometimes it is hard to find bu you can get to it.

Your life is on the line, practice your well.