The journey continues

18 months on from my last blog post. In a nut shell:

• We moved from Wrentham, MA to Mountain View CA in March 2007
• I started work as a senior designer in Google in April 2007
• I am training in Ninjutsu again - more specifically Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu which is a form of Ninjutsu.

School: http://www.warriorfriend.com/

TaeKwon-Do
When I first moved to California I was delighted to find that there was an excellent ITF TaeKwon-Do school on my doorstep run by Mr Morris who I have enormous respect for. I trained with Mr Morris for about 9 months, but during this time I spent more time recovering from injuries than training and my training ended with a tear of the meniscus of my left knee. Scans showed that the cartilage in my knees had worn down prematurely and that this level of strain is no longer an appropriate activity for me to do.

Injury and acceptance
The problem was that my body knew the techniques after many years of training in the art but it was no longer able to perform them. I was throwing techniques with the passion and force of a 20 year old and tearing my hips and knees in the process. After getting to the point of having martial arts, and specifically TaeKwon-Do, as part of my identity it was shocking to feel that this may no longer be the case and my relationship to this part of my life may have to change.

Bujinkan
While recovering I started to research other martial arts available in the area which may take less of a toll on my hips and knees. I was very fortunate to discover the Bujinkan school that I currently train at just 10 minutes away from me. I started there in February 2008 and I am very lucky to train not just with the instructor, Dave, but with all the very experienced guys there who are patient enough to help me get my head around this very cerebral art.

Kamae
There has been some pleasure in learning some fundamentals again, thinking about the groundwork. In this case it is all about focusing on your kamae. At its most basic level it is a stance, but where as in other martial arts there are fixed stances, eg. sitting stance, parallel stance, walking stance etc. , there is no such rigidity in bujinkan which acknowledges that you may not be in a familiar stance during combat and you need to be able to cope with techniques in unusual positions. Kamae encompasses your posture, ability to move freely and your relaxed state of mind. The movements in bujinkan are based around keeping good kamae as you move and making sure your opponent is in bad kamae.

Remember when you walked along a wall and a friend came along and pushed you? You try to stay on and at a certain point you just have to jump off. Think about that feeling at this point just before you accept your fate that you are going to have to fall off. The feeling of helplessness, verging on inevitability that you are going to have to succumb to your fate. This is the position you aim to have your opponent in.

It is when we are in good kamae that the technique just seems to take care of itself and feels effortless. It is easier said than done.

Much of the training is focused on impacting the tactile, visual and proprioceptive inputs to the opponents brain. As our sense of reality is determined by our sensory inputs, we are aiming to alter the sense of reality during combat. By confusing the opponent in this way they can quickly lose their aggression and feel fear and helplessness. This is one of the reasons why the ninja were attributed with other-wordly powers and of course they quite happily encouraged this thinking.

I have only just scratched the surface of this art and I am looking forward to seeing where this new path I have begun on my journey takes me.

Nick
White belt

My experiences of Ninjutsu

It has been a while since there has been an update to this blog, over 3 months now. In that time I have been training in Ninjutsu. The training so far consists of learning a series of kata which are really more practical applications of self defense techniques. The joy of training in Ninjutsu is finding the point where the technique can be applied effectively with the least amount of effort. You practice with a great deal of effort to force the technique to be effective and then you suddenly get it right and it just happens so effortlessly.

What types of techniques?
The techniques are fast, deceptive, distracting and nasty. They are taught in my school along a continuum of devastation where the first response is a control where a friend or someone you don't want to hurt is out of line and takes a swing at you etc. Then a response to the same attack is often shown that allows a more disabling defense against an aggressor which you can get away with if you subsequently get taken to court. Finally there is often a final response for life and death situations where the attacker isn't going to get up again after. I think this approach is excellent, attacks don't all require a full-on ninja head removal response. In a society where people get taken to court for tripping over an uneven paving slab in their front yard we need to understand the law and scale back our defensive response to stay within the limits (or at least be able to get away with it).

Where is the ninja?
What I have described above can be found in many styles of martial art. The ninja part comes into the approach to the combat. Our kata do not start in a fighting posture, they start in a position of submissiveness, an open stance showing weakness and lack of willingness to fight. Attackers in the real world will tailor their offense depending on what they perceive the level of defense to be. If you look like you know what you are doing, there is a chance they may back down, but more likely they will reach for the blade in their back pocket or pull a gun instead.

The hand position in the defensive stance also helps determine where the attack is going to be. With hands to the outside there is a big unprotected space in the middle which encourages them to attack to the face. So you are manipulating them into a false sense of security and directing where their attack should go.

When the attack comes in you move and strike with speed. The initial defensive move is not going to launch them across the room as in TaeKwon-Do, that is not the purpose. It causes pain, is stunning and confusing - a jab to a location which is rich in nerves to the face for example, below the nose or the temple. The move could be taking out knees to collapse the legs below the attackers vision, or the nerve grouping on the inner thigh, under the arm, in the neck. Then the fun begins. At this point the ninja has moved around behind or to the side of the attacker where they can easily disappear (eg. run), control them to the ground, throw them down and finish them in an amazing array of techniques available. The desired effect is to leave the attacker completely confused about what the hell just happened. They are lying on the floor of the bar with blood streaming from their nose, pants full of urine after a bladder strike with no idea where their 'victim' went to and certainly no desire to fight any more. Best of all, it was effortless for the ninja. Very little energy was expended, the tuxedo is still immaculate - James Bond style.

How does Ninjutsu fit into modern society?
At a ninja training weekend recently we sat around a fire at the end of a hard days training and talked about an essay written by a retired marine. He referred to the people in society as sheep, doing their best to lead happy, good-natured lives and intentionally being oblivious to dangers in society around them. It was not a reference in a demeaning way, it is an observation of a great lifestyle. Unfortunately in this society there are wolves that prey on the sheep. The thieves, muggers, con artists, rapists. The sheep do their best to pretend they don't exist as the thought of being surrounded by wolves taints the peace they have created for themselves in their lives. There are members of society that spend their lives protecting the sheep from the wolves - the sheepdogs. These are the soldiers, the police, the security guards and this is where the ninja live. The trouble is they often look like the wolves, they carry weapons and remind the sheep that they live in a dangerous society. So the sheep dislike the presence of the sheepdogs, they protest against police carrying automatic weaponry in their airports and having guns on display in their kid's schools. When the wolf strikes however the sheep cling to them desperately like the children that need to be pulled off of the legs of the police officers in the Columbine tragedy.

Everyone is safer in a room because a ninja is in there. They may be the last person you expect to be a protector as they will be trying to avoid looking like or acting like a 'tough guy'. Training in ninjutsu gives you an awareness of the wolves in society and gives you a sense of responsibility to protect those around you. Along with that goes ridicule in our society, people laugh at you for being a ninja and make jokes at your expense. These people are oblivious to the dangers around them and do not understand why someone will spend their free time training to combat this threat when they can be enjoying the game on their new high def plasme TV munching on pretzels. It is an inevitable result of your training and the position the ninja takes in modern society and must be understood and ignored. If the average person is ever unfortunate enough to be the victom of an attack then they will feel differently at that point.

Nick
White belt with 3 stripes

First Ninjutsu Class

I took my first Ninjutsu class last night. It is always challenging learning how to do the basic punches again in a new way after developing such a powerful technique in a previous approch. You just need to let go of what you know and empty the vessel within you and allow new knowledge to pour in.

Nick
White belt

Ninjutsu

A couple of nights ago I took the leap and joined a new martial art school, training in Ninjutsu. The location is in Providence RI, training under Mr Brian Giannini. My main point of frustration with my kung fu training was its lack of focus on practical application. This is what Ninjutsu is all about, devastatingly efficient and practical movements. Mr Giannini also introduced me to the idea of stealth in a traditional ninja approach and in the modern day setting. Having the knowledge that noone is aware, but everyone in the room is safer as a result of you being there. That really tapped into the very essence of who I am and what I want to achieve through my martial arts training and so seduced - I signed up for my first month. It will be great to just try it for a few weeks and then decide if I want to continue with this or start with the teacher training in kung fu. The atmosphere is very different from the traditional chinese training room. There was more of a family feeling in my kung fu school and in the ninjutsu school it appeared to be a collection of 30-somethings, just like myself, that have trained for many years in other martial arts and have been drawn to the basic effectiveness of this style.

So I return to wrapping a white belt around my waist again and opening myself up to new experiences and training.

Nick
White belt

The Warrior Stage

I have reached a cross roads in my martial arts journey. I have been experiencing some frustrations in my training in recent weeks. I am feel like I am not achieving my full potential and that I am being held back by the school. The people I train with are not at my level and consequently there is no challenge from them. This semester we I am not learning a new form - it is new to my peers but it is just review for me. I find the training just not realistic or practical enough for me and it will be years (black sash) until I will be able to start receiving this training. My contract with the school approaches and I have decided to look for alternative styles in the area that might meet my needs more.

I was going to arrange a meeting with my Sifu to explain this and before I had the chance this weekend he asked to talk to me. I was invited to join the instructor training program at the school and join the 'Masters' group where the training level will be stepped up. It was interesting timing. I explained my feelings of frustration to Sifu maury and rather than being disappointed with me he seemed almost pleased. At my level of training students often go through a 'warrior stage' where they feel a level of frustration with the training and they either see it through, find another style or quit altogether at that point. It demonstrates that the student is ready for the next level of training.

I have decided to find out more information about an alternative style and also the advanced training at the kung fu school. My style of choice is one that I have been very interested in exploring for many years now - Ninjutsu. There is a Ninjutsu school only 20 minutes from me in Providence that I will look into this week. It seems to be exactly what I am looking for and so it will be interesting to meet the instructor and observe some classes.

It will be time to decide which road to head down on my journey soon.

Nick
Green Sash

Living in the Moment

This weekend during an internal class Sifu talked a little about the importance of living life in the present and how critical it is to reaching the higher levels of our training. People spend their lives either in the past or the future, thinking about what that have done or what they need to do. Kung fu training, tai chi and meditation are essential tools to help us exist in the moment. Masters are often described as having a supernatural ability to know that an attack is going to be thrown before the initiation of the movement. Masters report that time slows down for them in combat and they feel like the attacks are coming in at slow motion (Illustrated in the first of the recent spiderman movies when Peter Parker first discovers his powers...). At a higher level of training the intention of the move is detected rather than the move itself, giving plenty of time to move and react.

Nick
Green Sash

Sticky Tai Chi

In my last tai chi class Sifu Maury explained the purpose of the movement that we have been practicing for the last few weeks. It is a pulling followed by a pushing movement, shifting weight from one side of the body to the other and back again. The idea is that you are grabbing and pulling on an attacker as the attacker is moving towards you and as the attacker pulls away from you your direction is shifting to move towards them as they withdraw. I have talked about "sticky hands" techniques in the past in this blog and this tai chi exercise is a perfect example of that idea performed in a way that makes it easier to visualize the movement and purpose. The attack comes in and rather than meeting the energy with force you are trying to control and adjust the direction slightly past you. As the energy is reversed while the attacker is pulling back, you then shift your weight forward and direct your energy towards them. When you encounter hardness you react with softness and you react to the softness with your own hardness.

The big challenge is to incorporate this into the fast pace of sparring practice. I will try my best to see what if I can adapt to this idea; I hope I have patient sparring partners! The initial idea to grasp is careful observation of your opponent, being not only able to see their movement but be aware of the energy they are using. It is only a this point can you hope to react with the correct response, waiting for the point of softness when your strikes would be most effective.

Nick
Green sash

Green sash

Last night I received my green sash. While training you go through a series of plateaus in your improvement and then every now and then you go through increases in skill as both your body and mind become familiar with or 'get' your training. After receiving my black belt in TaeKwon-Do I could look back over the previous 6 years and see this pattern of training development. For much of the summer of have been on a plateau in my training but in the last 2 weeks I feel as though I have just stepped my game up a level. I am more comfortable being closer to my opponent when sparring - finally getting over the distance I felt I needed from my TKD training. My movements are more relaxed which means that my movements are faster - a goal of Kung Fu. I feel as I have more power in my movements and more control over my technique.

It is interesting that I went through the same sudden improvements in training before each new belt color in TaeKwon-Do. I also saw these changes in most people I trained with. The conclusion I came to is that it is a mental change in people. I think that consciously or not, people have an idea of how skilled someone at that belt level should be and step up their game to match this idea. It was very interesting to be aware of such a significant change in myself recently.

The next kung fu 'year' starts in the next week or two and I will have the opportunity to train with the senior students, something I have been desperate to do for a while now. I am looking forward to the next step of my journey.

Nick
Green sash

Biomechanics and energy flow

It has been a while since my last entry, mainly due to me changing jobs and not having a long train journey when I would normally write my entries. The school is training in a new location and has introduced a new approach to classes so we are having the chance to always do sparring each week and bag work. Also there is an 'internal' class which is Tai Chi and I am enjoying it enormously.

To be honest there has not been that much in the training that has inspired me to write a blog entry, until last night. Sifu corrected our arm position during a tiger strike move. Most of the student's elbows were facing out towards the wall rather than down to the ground. This subtle distinction makes a very significant difference in the strength of the move. Anatomically, it engages much more of the chest and back muscles, you can particularly feel your lats engage as you rotate the elbow down. From the kung fu point of view the reason is to do with energy flow within the body, with the elbow out the energy is lost outside the framework of the body. With the elbow more tucked in and facing down within the shoulder line/framework you are able to tap into the energy of your whole body. Both these approaches are correct, depending on whether you want to take a more scientific approach to the situation or embrace the more esoteric kung fu view.

I love little gems of information like this. I am interested in the biomechanics of all the movements and taking advantage of these ideas to enhance my technique. Just taking some time to learn a little bit about functional movement of muscles and joints will improve your training. At the same time pay attention to the traditional ideas of energy flow and body positioning as this will enhance your technique even further. In the Tai Chi class we visualize our legs as two tall glasses, one full of water and one empty. As we move our weight from one leg to the other we visualize pouring water from one container to the other which helps transfer energy from one leg to the other. Once you release the energy from a leg it is free to move around easily and be positioned where you need it, while the other leg gets grounded being full of energy.

The point of mentioning the Tai Chi is that if you concentrated on purely biomechanics in the shifting of one stance to another I think it is unlikely that you would find the same sense of grounding as visualizing the water (energy) flow between legs as you move through the stances. Whether you believe in the esoteric side of martial arts or not, I believe you would find a firmer, more grounded stance when you focus on the energy flow as well as good technique. My point being that focus on biomechanics will improve you and an effort to understand energy within the body may just take your training to a higher level.

Nick
Green stripe sash