Ninjutsu Training Online

Hello Fellow Ninja,

Keeping in top physical shape is never an easy task, especially when you may be on the road, traveling for work etc. So it just so happens I was on the road last week but I had a plan to work out in the hotel gym….NOT.. the gym consisted of an elliptical bike and a treadmill no weights! So I went down the road to the local school and did the following.

Warm Up

25 Pushups

25 Situps

25 Free squats

Workout

10 Handstand push ups

10 Pull ups

Sprint – 25 yards – drop and do 10 pushups, 10 situps

Sprint 25 yards – 10 burpees

5 Handstand pushups

Sprint 25 yards – 50 flutter kicks

Sprint 25 yards – 10 pushups

Insano Death monkey 25 yards circle(as best that you can figure out)

Stretch out 15 mins

No equipment needed, I utilized a tree branch for the pull ups, leaned against it for the handstand push ups, and used a playground field for the sprinting. Great short workout and I hope you try it out sometime soon.

Bufu Ikkan

All right ninja fans, what is an A.A.R.? Well of course it is the military acronym for After Action Report! Now, one of the best tips I ever started implementing was the AAR. After a training session take a ½ hr or so and sit down and reflect on your session. Whether it was a physical condition session, or martial practice it doesn’t matter, what matters is you tear apart every moment of your training and the performance you gave during it. It is also advisable to bring in your training partner, teammate, coach, or teacher to help you honestly reflect on what you did and how you truly performed.

I have a student who has no idea on how to critique himself. He is a fantastic martial artist but he can’t see that in his own reviews. Over the years I have seen my fair share of students and teachers fail at this type of brutally honest critiquing. This is utilized in the US forces extensively, Olympic athletes utilize this in their training programs, professional bodybuilders, successful business individuals, but sadly not enough martial artists take this on.

I can show you pages and pages of critiques on myself and the reflections and comments of my partners and teachers. It has kept me realistic in my performance and often times humbled when I needed it.(Hey, everyone has an Ego and it can get in the way!!) So take this lesson away with you to your next training session .A.A.R!

Alright now I have to critique my lock picking skills because I am once again somewhat stuck on a particularly difficult picking….Arrrggggh!!

Bufu Ikkan

“There is no safer place than the dojo. Therefore , the students should have to go outside the training hall to discover things for themselves, rather than always relying on being taught. I can only teach that approach, that feeling, that special sense. That’s all I can teach, ultimately. So it could be said that I can perjaps teach you to be your own teacher.  – Soke Masaaki Hatsumi

When I look back in my life I have often been pushed by my various teachers to go “outside of the dojo” and to learn from others. This often led me to explore new arts, develop new skills, and little did I know grow my underground network of contacts and information sources. This website was put into place for this reason, to give others more or different information than they might be receiving at their home dojo. We have people from all over the world reaching out and asking questions, reading the lessons or blog posts, even joining the membership side for even more information, and that is driving me with a passion to add even more for my fellow ninjutsu practitioners.

So where is this leading? Well as many of you know, I consider myself an “Information Vampire!” Now this is not to be confused with a “collector of information”. I suck in the material and PRACTICE, everything I learn. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is when I meet   “the collector” who can spout off terms and ideas but cannot put the rubber to the road and apply anything they are talking about. Crap I have met and worked with several highly ranked individuals who were no more than collectors of drills and information but could never truly impart the knowledge in a real world application.

So, your lesson today is to get outside your dojo and apply the lessons you have gained here where ever you train. Get outside your comfort zone and “DO IT NOW.”

More to come this week! But now it is time for some Ninja Conditioning roadwork.

Bufu Ikkan

(Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms who support us each day!)

How many of us have heard, read about or watched on TV the escape of three young girls that had been held captive for over a decade? Well, I have been following this case as it highlights how dangerous a world we live in each day. As a ninjutsu practioner, Hajutsu(escaping skills), intonjutsu(escape and concealment) and Shinobi iri(entering skills) are an almost daily practice with me. There are many drills I teach my students and family members regarding awareness building and avoidance, and escaping skill development.

So my question to each of you is, “what escaping skills are you practicing?”

Here are a few for you to add to your practice sessions:

Escaping from common holds and grabs

Escaping from the ground

Escaping from a seated position

Enhancing your skills on room or area entrance and exit strategies

Escaping ropes (this will involve learning knots and ties)

Escaping the most common handcuffs

Lock picking with traditional picks

Lock picking with improvised implements

So this is just scratching the surface and as you can see the skills necessary for a modern practitioner to learn and hone to help themselves and others in case of an emergency. So what should you take away from this short piece? As you may notice I didn’t lay out any instruction on any of what I outlined, this is a part of your lesson! Search and dig up information on some of this material, utilize your choho skill set to help you develop more knowledge, then teach it to others, like I do here to reinforce the skills and pay it forward. Now my last bit here is just an announcement, over the next several weeks my team and I are revamping the Online Ninjutsu Lessons, and will be launching several EBooks for a very short time at a reduced price. Then a massive re-launch of all of the online material will be completed, but here is the kicker, there will be an opportunity for 50 individuals to get in on the re-launched lessons at a reduced rate so stay tuned for the details and all of the exciting changes coming soon!!!

Now go out and practice, this damn lock I am trying to open is giving me a headache!!

Bufu Ikkan!