A Beginning…

Ninja“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”

 

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