Ninjutsu Training Online

Hello Ninja fans!

Well, well, with just a few days remaining for 2014, have you thought about what you have accomplished in your personal training this year? The year has flown by, and sometimes we need to take a moment to reflect on what we have done to appreciate our progress, or lack of progress in our training. I journal so I can keep a real record of what I do at various times during the year so later I can review and or report on things that I have done, hey everyone’s memory is sometimes a bit off, but if you journal you experiences as soon after the fact as possible you will be able to go back and possibly glean new meaning from a lesson, and or just reflect back on an adventure you had with the family. Anyway, here are some suggestions for you to implement during your year end “reflection time”

1) Be 100% honest in your evaluation! If you suck at something, write it down, who cares other than you, if you are not good at something yet or haven’t achieved a particular goal? Let your ego go and be honest, it will go a long way in developing you for next year’s plan.

2) If possible start with where you were and where you are today. If your flexibility was X and today it is Y, log it! Yes, this means you (in the future) will have to establish and record measurable achievements.

3) Be vivid and descriptive whenever possible, it will help you remember the situation more. (neat memory trick)

4) Lastly, have fun! Enjoy the reviewing process, it is not meant as a punishment but a time to look back upon what you have done and accomplished.

So, why reflect? Well, don’t expect me not to throw out a challenge in 2015 to accomplish even more in your training and life than you did in 2014! Oh yes I will be throwing that gauntlet down soon, and I hope that you will pick it up and throw it back to me as well. I am already starting to list new things to work and train on. It takes me several days to go through this process so I normally start a few days before the end of the year and then put a plan together and work it each and every month in the New Year. Revising as I go and things change or items become accomplished or not important any more (yes life changes!!)

Alright, I hope you enjoy the reflection time and feel free to post or email me any of your accomplishments for 2014!

Bufu Ikkan!

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle!”

Ps: I’ll share a few of my accomplishments here soon!

 “Intuition is a function by which human see around corners. It is useful for persons who live exposed to dangerous natural conditions. – Erasmus” (Dune: Butlerian Jihad)

Intuition, is that sense of knowing what is coming, or that feeling that  something is about to occur, but without prior knowledge or information?  Ever felt it and better yet did you act on it? Now, we all know we have 5  senses, and we rely on these each and every day, almost taking them for  granted most of the time or until something catastrophic happens and you  are unable to utilize one of them. Yet, there is something else there, intangible, but just out of reach for most of us on a daily basis.

I had my first big “intuitive” moment, many years ago, when I was driving without my seatbelt on coming down into an intersection, as I had the green light. I had the strangest sense that something was going to happen, and I locked my seat belt into place just before entering the intersection, when from my left another vehicle goes through the red light and hits me in the front end, spinning me so fast that I hit the rear end of his vehicle forcing him off the road. I was lucky, or was it my intuition that saved me? After that moment I began a long study of intuition and it’s potential in martial or combative situations, and it has served me well these years.

Within ninjutsu, intuition is developed through constant vigorous martial arts practice, usually in a somewhat dangerous situations. But, further exercises can help you enhance your intuitive abilities, so let’s look at 1.

Meditation:

Most of us practice some type of meditation to help us keep our minds focused, and that is where intuition comes in. A basic meditation primer here:

• Sit on the floor and begin to rhythmically breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Each in and out cycle is counted as 1. When you reach nine cycles, begin again at 1.
• As you begin to gain control over your wandering mind, start to focus on an alpha wave generating tool. I like fire, a candle or a small fire where you can focus on the blaze while continuing your breathing exercise.
• As you complete your meditation practice write down new thoughts and ideas that have been stimulated during this practice. Journal them as this is the beginning of the intuitive process.

Just a note here that this is just a cursory look at the meditative process and how it applies to developing intuition as an ongoing tool and skill for your life and martial practice, but it is a place to start.

Let me know if you have examples of an intuitive situation that you would like to share with our fellow ninjutsu practitioners!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle!”

Hello everyone,

I had a lot of emails come pouring in just as 1) we had a major ice storm here at the Shinobi homestead and were without grid power or internet connectivity, and 2) I had been traveling to the West Coast for business meetings, so I thought I would take a few questions that had a similar theme and answer them here!

“What is the best way to get in shape for a ninja or ninjutsu training?”

Great question! And I hope you enjoy the Ninja Warrior Workouts I have posted from time to time here on the blog. So, the first thing I would say is that I attack my own conditioning and physical training in a hard core manner. Whether it is with simple body weight exercises or in the gym, it doesn’t matter I train in a triangular fashion and no 1 leg of the triangle is more important than any other. The three legs are 1) Strength and Conditioning, 2) Cardiovascular conditioning, and 3) Flexibility/mobility work. Now, some of you may be stronger in one leg or another so no worries you just need to keep a strong balance to maximize your physical conditioning levels on an on – going basis.

As way too many people have been asking me about my training, I decided that in 2015 you will see more articles and videos on physical training and let’s not forget the upcoming Ninja Warrior Conditioning training package coming out as well!!

“Do I hold Public classes, or is everything private or members only?”

Well, this is a good question as I do have public and private sessions all the time. My schedule is pretty tight and most public classes are on Saturday mornings. Private sessions, one on one or small group are all scheduled with me and then added to my calendar, the same would go for any seminar or longer term event as well. As you may or may not know I do teach a variety of arts, everything I teach has some basis in ninjutsu’s strategies or principles, it may just take form in a different manner for a different art. I have also been asked why I don’t just have regular classes in a school somewhere and my reason is the same, I just don’t have the time at this point in my life to squeeze too much more in! Also, I have the ability here to run obstacle courses, pistol, shotgun and rifle programs, woodland survival etc. All without having to leave my lovely home! (Take that ninja bitches!! (LOL))

Alright, I hope this helps answer a few questions, keep the questions, comments, suggestion, whatever coming in! I love the feedback and it helps me work on to getting information!

Carpe Diem!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle!”

“Learning a technique is not an end in itself. It merely indicates where you need to start.” – Soke Hatsumi

As I finished up a lesson with my Son today, I fell back into a memory of when I began training way back when,  there was a passion in his eyes that I feel each day that I train. It doesn’t matter the art I am learning just this quest to be an eternal student.

Techniques are no different, as Soke points out here. They a just a beginning to the amazing flow of skills that start with one point and blossom outward as your understanding grows from the lesson. Now, it doesn’t matter what skill or “technique” you are starting with, for example I am working on new lock picking skills, and I am seeing a lock in a whole new light as I refine my skill sets.  So, let me step back to my Son’s training today, it started off with something very simple, basic parrying and boxing skills, but then I added a footwork pattern, a different henka of that footowork, which lead to a kneeling version, and then open the door for joint locking and what I like to call, “absorbing” an attacker’s energy. Lots of fun and it was quickly grasped as it built upon itself one layer at a time. Yet, it is just a beginning in the journey, there are so many variants that can be added to these basic moves, that it can almost seem endless. Well, of course I demoed afew of the me at each point along the way to show that there is always something new to learn, in fact I even came up with a few new ones that just flowed from where the techniques were at, and I had to smile at that! Always learning, always probing, always evolving!

I hope your week is packed with new opportunities to expand your training!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle”

As a few of you may know, I have been traveling a bit more than normal these past few months, but I have not let that stop my training. So, I thought a few tips of staying in shape on the road were in order here.

Cardiovascular Workout 1

15 Tuck Jumps

10 Burpees

25 Mountain climbers

10 Push up with a clap

(Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you 5 sets with 2 minute breaks between sets)

Mobility/Flexibility

Each morning I start with the following body loosening exercises.

Seated butterfly stretch

Hurdler stretch each leg

Forward split

Roll Back and Side knee twists

Native squat

Standing Hamstring floor touch

Oblique stretch

Pectoral stretch

Arm rotations

Alright, Ninja Road Warriors, now you cannot say that you can’t stay in shape while you’re traveling! No equipment, no problem! Treat it like a Ninja of ancient Japan would do, and use basic exercises and stretches to keep your self in tip top fighting shape!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle!”