Online Ninja Training
Podcasts & Webinars
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'm in the process of upgrading the ways that my students, clients, and friends can get information from me about self-protection and personal development training.
In addition to the free newsletters that you can subscribe to at:
http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com/newsletter.html
I am teaming up with two of my Black Belt students to produce a podcast radio show (called "Kuden") and a series of online seminars, also known as "webinars" on self-defense and Ninjutsu, the Japanese martial art of the Ninja.
Right now, the planned schedule will be:
Newsletters - 2 to 3x week
Podcasts - 1 per week
Webinars - at least 1 major one per month (with the possibility of a few smaller freebies)
The newsletter is of-course FREE.
And, when you subscribe, or go to the website at http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com you can sign-up for free online training courses that are delivered via email.
I'll have a page up soon about the podcasts (also "free"), including a very professional "opener" that you can download and listen to, to get an idea about the quality and "feel" of the shows.
Thanks again for your trust and support.
Peace & Happiness,
Shidoshi Miller
Monday, July 21, 2008
Monday, July 07, 2008
A Case For Studying Ninjutsu Over Simply Practicing Budo-Taijutsu
This article should probably be called: "What's a master Ninja martial artist - a teacher of the art of ninjutsu - do after surviving a near head-on car crash?" Before I answer that question though, let me tell you what prompted the idea behind what I'm about to say.
Since 1997, a little over a decade now, the average martial arts practitioner within the Bujinkan Dojo has been lead to believe that what they are studying is limited to the armed and unarmed martial art skills that everyone sees when training in Japan. In fact, most students have been convinced that the last remaining Ninja in the world, Soke Masaaki Hatsumi, doesn't even teach Ninjutsu, also known as Ninpo in its higher form.
This, to me is amazing. It's amazing because this is the same teacher that I, and several senior practitioners have been studying with and under...
...since 1980/81...
...when the art was first introduced to the Western-world!
But, I digress. Before I discuss what people believe and don't believe they're studying and practicing...
...I should probably talk about the two things I've been discussing already. Yes?
Ninjutsu and the Art of the Ninja
In the world of martial arts and self-defense training, where arts are generally broken down based on their primary fight techniques - where...
- Karate is known for punching and kicking
- Judo is known for its throwing
- Aikido is general seen as a locking, throwing, restraining art, and...
- Tae Kwon Do is known for it's high, flashy kicks and aerial maneuvers...
The Japanese art of the Ninja, known as Ninjutsu, pronounced "neen-joo-tsoo," has all of these aspects and more. Where modern martial arts can be seen to have become specialized in their focus and application, the art of the Ninja is still rife with all of the options and contents used by ancient warriors who were battling for life and survival, not belts or trophies.
Ninjutsu is what you might call a composite martial art. It is, as pointed out by the grandmaster of the art, "true budo" or true martial ways. Instead of merely focusing on unarmed skills with a hint of weapons training thrown in, the art of Ninjutsu contains a whole slew of sub-arts that make it up. I like to tell my students that...
"...it's like Ragu spagetti sauce. Name a skill, weapon, or strategy, and if it's a viable, usable application for dealing with a real-world assailant...
...it's in there!"
While it IS true that ninjutsu is typically the methods for information-gathering, historically, the ninja combatant was required to know, not only the 18 fundamental skills that all warriors of the time were trained in, he or she was also schooled in another set of 18 skills that were reserved for advanced ninpo practitioners to insure that the operative was truly prepared for just about anything.
Do a little research and you'll find that most arts being taught today focus on umarmed and armed fighting skills. Ninjutsu, on the other hand, also teaches the use and understanding of such arcane methods as...
- Goton-Po "Escape and Evasion, Wilderness Survival, and Use of Nature"
- Hensojutsu "Disguise and Impersonation"
- Teppojutsu "Firearms"
- Seishin Teki Kyoyo "Spiritual Refinement and Personal Development"
- Omyo Do "Balance and the Forces of Nature"
- Kuji '9 Syllable Seals' (Tapping into the Secret Powers inherent within the human being's body, mind, and spirit)
- And so much MORE!
It All Begins with Ninpo/Budo-Taijutsu
Laying at the foundation of the advanced levels of power and ability attributed to a Ninja - a Master Warrior - is the art of Taijutsu, or simply...
..."The Ninja's Body Art."
This is the realm of physical training that most practitioners of the art are familiar with and ficus their attention. However, within the grand scheme of things...
...taijutsu is merely a sub-art making up the whole.
And...
...while it is a significant part of the whole, and an essential piece to accessing many of the higher levels of training...
...it is NOT everything.
How do I know this? How can I say such a thing when doing so borders on heresy in the world of the Bujinkan?
Simple. I have real experience dealing with real problems in a very real world.
Experience Changes Everything
As long as anything can remain in a theoretical realm for a person, he or she is free to play what I call "mental gymnastics" with that thing. In the context of martial arts, you can do things like:
- Imagine yourself a modern-day Samurai (without really knowing what that is or was)
- Create impressive techniques (that work well in the sterile confines of the dojo but will fail miserably in a real-world encounter with a murderous attacker)
- Choose favorite techniques or skills (without the understanding that a real assailant will have his or her own agenda and force you into areas that your not familiar with)
Get the picture?
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
Why am I going on about this?
Why another comparison between Ninjutsu and Budo-Taijutsu?
Well, you see...
...I'm in the process of recovering from injuries sustained in a near head-on collision with another driver that, through lack of awareness, turned his car into the path of my own at the end of September.
"So? What's that got to do with martial arts training?" I can hear you asking.
And my answer is...
...it depends on how you see your martial arts training.
But, let me give you a hint:
How much good do you think my kamae (postures/stances), strikes, kicks, joint locks, or throws were when the accident was occurring?
Right...
...they were worthless!
In fact, at this very moment, I am physically incapable of doing most of what took me years to perfect.
Now, before you get too sympathetic, all is not lost.
Why?
Because I don't just study Budo Taijutsu. I personally have been studying the full gamut of skills and lessons within the art of Ninjutsu since the beginning. And while my taijutsu training has had to take a back row seat due to severe back trauma and what the doctors are calling Post Concussive Syndrome - a result of my being knocked unconscious - I am able to shift my focus to things like meditation, honing my weather-reading, disguise and impersonation, and interpersonal communication skills.
And never leave the realm of Ninjutsu at all!
Because, in this "attack," my assailant was not throwing punches, kicks, or a knife-edge at me. He wasn't even trying to hurt me.
No. What I was, and continue to have to survive and get through, is an attack from a human being who was throwing ignorance, inattentiveness, and a two-thousand pound car at me!
As I always tell my students, the goal of a Ninja student is to...
Become a NO-LIMITS Person.
And that, my friend, requires training and exploration in more than just physical fighting skills.
The question is...
...are you training to be able to handle a fight, or are you training to be able to survive anything the world might throw at you?
I know my answer. How about you?
Copyright 2008 by Jeffrey M. Miller and Warrior Concepts International
Want to train in Ninjutsu? Find out how you can be a part of my next live Ninja Camp!
Become a master of the shuriken, the Ninja's throwing star with my new training manual.
Subscribe to my newsletter and get even more articles, tips, and training ideas on the Ninja's art of Ninjutsu, self-defense, and personal development at: www.warrior-concepts-online.com
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
"3 Lessons of the Ninja's Kamae"
by Shidoshi Jeffrey M. Miller
In the Ninja's art of unarmed combat known as ninpo-taijutsu, or budo-taijutsu, there is the core lesson of kamae - the use of effective body positioning. While other martial arts might refer to this strategic positioning of the body as dachi or "stances," the Ninja sees his or her kamae as an outward manifestation of the inner workings of his or her heart, rather than a fixed position dictated by one's style.
Progress through any educational endeavor is often seen as merely learning the lessons that the teacher gives us. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Rarely does a student question the relevance of any given skill or its relationship to other skills and lessons being taught at the same time. And this is no different in the martial art world.
This is especially true when it comes to the skills commonly referred to as "the basics."
In fact, it's these "basics" that often go overlooked by students and teachers alike as being anything more than merely base elements of a particular style. In fact, they're often seen as nothing more than...
...the stuff to learn so we can move onto "the cool stuff."
I know that I, myself, used to believe that. That is, until I went from conventional, sport-oriented, martial arts, to the art of ninjutsu.
Of course, in the beginning of my training, kamae were just that...kamae. I really didn't see them as any different from the "stances" of my earlier training in karate, tae-kwon-do, and other arts. Even though my teacher spoke of "taking up" the kamae and repeating the "idea" of kamae as meaning "mind-body-spirit attitudes" - being the physical manifestations by our bodies of how we felt and what we thought we could do in any given moment.
It wasn't until I had years of training under my belt, so-to-speak, and found myself hitting a wall in my progress and growth that I finally decided to take another look at the obvious - at these things called kamae.
I began by looking at all of the positions that I had been taught. Each had a name and came from a particular lineage, or school of combat that had been passed down to my teacher.
I pulled out my notes and reread passages in books by my teacher and others who had written about the Ninja's art of ninjutsu, or ninpo, as it's known in its higher, life-centered, order.
But, it wasn't until I took a step back from my role as a student trying to get rank - trying to learn the next kata or "fight-example" - that everything started to become clear. It wasn't until I switched my brain from "learning" to "experience" mode that things started to make sense.
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You can't beat experience when it comes to something as vitally important as self-protection. In my book "The Karate-Myth" and the bonus materials that come with it, I share over 30 years of study, research, and practical experience garnered from my experience as a police officer, undercover investigator, and body guard. Get more info about the Karate-Myth here
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When I looked at my experience as a police officer and body guard and the lessons that I had picked up in "the school of hard-knocks" I suddenly realized that, regardless of form...
...regardless of whether a kamae came from the Gyokko-ryu, Kukishinden-ryu, or Koto school, they all were teaching the same lessons.
And then something else hit me.
Even the basics, the things we think of as obvious lessons, are themselves teaching us lessons.
I realized that buried within each lesson - within each skill - whether it be rolling, walking, cutting, shooting, or kamae...
...were lessons that were universal in nature and yet invisible unless you either knew what to look for or had a teacher with real-life experience who could help you to see them for what they are.
It was then that I realized that each and every kamae was teaching the same lessons. Some of these lessons were at deeper levels and required more understanding, but there were three that stood out for the beginner.
These three basic lessons of kamae are:
- Cover -
Once I uncovered these three jewels, everything changed in my training. I was no longer trapped by the ignorant eyes of the beginner who, years before saw what he thought his teacher was doing. I was then able to correct my kamae and take up positions that had strength, power, and the ability to control an attacker's perceptions, decisions, and actions, without even touching him.
Are you trying to learn as much as you can about the lineages that make up the Bujinkan Dojo?
Learn to fight smarter - not harder!
Check out the Takagi-Yoshin Ryu Shoden no Maki DVD
It was shot live during one of my training seminars and includes the techniques, strategies, and foundational lessons of the Takagi-Yoshin school, one of the 9 lineages contained within the Bujinkan Dojo.
A note of warning though, if you're looking for motion picture quality sound and video, you'll be disappointed. But, if you;re like most and are looking for the information, then this DVD will provide you with enough to keep you busy for months! It breaks through the myth that the jutaijutsu is a grappling art, and sheds light on the skills you'll need to bring this centuries old art to life in the 21st century!
Ninpo-Ikkan!
Shidoshi Miller
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