March 12, 13

Atlanta, Georgia – Stone Mountain Bujinkan Dojo

Contact: Randy Sessions   Rsessi307@aol.com Phone :770 630- 7450

March 19, 20

Chicago, Illinois – Bujinkan Jigokoro Dojo

Contact: Tony Brooks

March 21, 22

West palm Beach, Florida

Contact: Paul Fisher

March 26, 27

Joao Pessoa, Brazil

Contact: Simao Freitas  simaotaijutsu@hotmail.com

April 1, 2, 3

Bogota, Colombia

Contact: Andres Bernal    director@ninjacolombia.com  Phone: 3174373261

http://www.ninjacolombia.com/indes.html

April 9

Washington DC – Jujutsu Dojo of Colombia

Contact: Charles Collins  clcollins41@aol.com Phone: 443-956-0506

The term Shitennou, in this instance, refers to the Bujinkan’s four top shihan: Oguri Sensei, Seno Sensei, Noguchi Sensei, and Nagato Sensei. These are the four senior teachers that Hatsumi sensei has admonished everyone to train with, calling them the “true Shitennou” and saying that everyone should train with all four of them, going so far as to say that “training with only one teacher, even Soke himself, is not sufficient to truly understand his martial art”.
Why would Soke place such emphasis on these four shihan? Besides the fact that they are the four people who have spent the most amount of time training with Soke, they also embody certain aspects of Hatsumi’s budo that are critical to master.
Over the years I have been fortunate to have trained quite a bit with the four top shihan and I still regularly train with all of them. I rotate the frequency with which I attend their classes, trying to immerse myself weekly with a couple of them for an extended period, while training every few weeks with the other two. I feel this has given me some unique insight into the development of our budo taijutsu, and it has certainly given me many tools with which to self-correct the direction of my own martial art journey. In this article I want to show some of the benefits of this “Shihou (4 ways) training” and maybe present a tool for organizing your own training in the future.

*I would like you to keep in mind that the points I choose to illustrate are not nearly everything these four have to teach, only some of the key elements that I have found important and chosen to illustrate here. Others may find different characteristics just as important and we should seek to understand and integrate those as well.

Perception – Contrast and Comparison:
We are always making judgments by comparing and contrasting the information that comes into our field of perception. We tend to see any new information through the lenses of the old information we already possess. It is sometimes very difficult to see what is actually there in front of us. How many times have you been shown a technique in training, thought to yourself “I know this one”, and then proceeded to be unable to do it until the teacher came over to you and showed you the “hidden” piece that makes it work? This is an example of the compare and contrast function of our minds and our ability (or inability) to see or perceive what is actually happening. It’s only through consistent and gradual exposure that we can develop the eyes to truly see what is there. (This is related to the concept of “peel back one layer of the onion and you will only discover more layers…”)
Now let’s talk about learning styles, which is the method each individual uses to organize information so that he can understand it. This is closely related to perception and is influenced by the teaching style being used.

Learning styles: How personal experience and our world-view shape our affinity for certain ways of teaching.
It is obvious to most of us that we like learning from certain teachers more than others. Why is this? Simply put, we develop preferences over the course of our lives based on our experiences. In martial arts, quite often people begin their training because they felt a need to be able to defend themselves from attack. With this as a motivator, we tend to look for the person that exemplifies our ideal of a warrior. Hollywood, books, and magazines have created several “archetypes” or figures that represent the common belief of what a warrior should be like. From the big, muscularly strong hero like Conan the Barbarian to Karate kid’s Mr. Miyagi, a quiet, non-threatening man who talks in riddles and hides the secret of deadly warrior skills. Other people are motivated to belong to a group or get in shape. Wherever your particular fascination lies, you will tend to gravitate toward the person or persons you feel best represent that ideal. This is natural and fine as far as it goes. But here is the danger: if you only expose yourself to the sources of information you are already comfortable with, you will never be able to grow beyond those sources. More to the point, if you don’t expose yourself to other sources, you will not be able to truly understand what is being taught by your ideal teacher! (Remember, we tend to see through the lenses of what we already know).
If you now understand the need for contrasting and comparing our learning sources, I will present my current observations on the shiho (4 ways) of the Shitennou.

A little bit about the four shihan.
* Let me say right here, that this is no definitive history of the Bujinkan; I have attempted to synopsize many conversations strung out over years. As is human nature, recollection is subject to alteration – both mine and the parties being talked about – so I will stick to the basic information as best I can for the purposes of this article.

Two of the four shihan are original students of Hatsumi Sensei, Oguri and Seno. They have been training for over 45 years with Hatsumi sensei. The other two, Nagato and Noguchi, started some 10 plus years later. According to the first two shihan, those first years with Hatsumi were quite different. As Soke was not yet the master he would later become, he spent the bulk of time directly teaching kihon as he was shown from Takamatsu Sensei. Apparently in those days they worked on strictly adhering to the pieces of the techniques found in the densho (kamae, distance, timing, etc), only practicing the henka that were written in the scrolls. They went systematically through each ryuha (school), from shoden to chuden and then okuden. After several years of this, Hatsumi began to explore more within the densho, choosing an idea or concept to focus on and flesh out, pushing his own understanding farther all the time. So Hatsumi was in a completely different phase when Noguchi and Nagato Shihan began their training. In Nagato Sensei’s words, they had to “steal” the information they needed (on the foundational pieces that made up the techniques of the bujinkan), since Hatsumi was no longer directly teaching them. Although they had sempai (senior students) who would teach them their understanding of the basics at that time, without the direct teaching of Hatsumi Sensei for their foundational movements, both Noguchi and Nagato Shihan would develop along  different lines. Along with this 10 plus year gap in training time, is an age difference from when they began training. Seno and Oguri Shihan were teenagers, while Noguchi and Nagato Shihan were around 30 years of age. Looking at these timelines, and being aware of the difference in perspective those years would give someone, is a good place to start comparing and contrasting these 4 excellent representatives of Hatsumi Soke’s art.

The 4 Distances

As anyone in the Bujinkan will know, understanding and controlling the distance between yourself and your opponent is an essential aspect of our art, and the 4 Shitennou, while all strive to be at the paper-thin distance espoused by Hatsumi Sensei (kami hitoe), tend to favor a particular angle and position over the others.
If we can imagine someone striking at us (whether it be a punch, knife attack, or cut from a sword) we have 4 basic options to avoid being hit:
Move back – just outside the range of the strike.
Move forward – inside the range of the strike.
Move to the side – “slipping” the strike.
Move down – “dropping” under the strike.
*Of course, depending on the angle and direction of the strike, one or more of these options may not be viable.

Let’s look at the first distance; outside.
Nagato Sensei consistently takes this distance, moving back (and off the line) just far enough that the strike can barely touch him, yet he is able to deliver considerable force to counterstrike the opponent. This, in my opinion, is the first distance we should learn to control as it offers us the most consistently safe position to be in and is the easiest of the 4 distances to learn to control.

At the other extreme is the second distance; inside.
Oguri Sensei is well known for being able to get right inside your space. From the moment the attack is launched he seems to be able to magically move from several feet away to right up in your face. Again, to a place where you are unable to generate any force against him, but he is free to do whatever he wants to you!

The third distance we can see is: moving to the side.
Noguchi Sensei, using the dynamic movement ingrained from his years of dance, likes to slip along side of the attack. Due to his height relative to most of the people training, this creates distance for him to deliver strikes or kicks as well as grab the opponent.

The fourth distance is: dropping below the attack.
Seno Sensei often illustrates his ability to actually get hit while dropping under the attack. From here he causes his opponent to shift their weight partially onto him, so he is in effect, supporting them. He then moves his body (the support) out of the way, causing his opponent to fall unexpectedly. Seno Sensei also uses this position to launch strikes that are unseen as they come from underneath the opponent’s field of view, causing them to have an exaggerated effect on the attacker’s structure.

Next, let’s look at “points-of-control”.
Points-of-control are locations on the uke’s body that are either being checked (guarded against) or being used to guide the uke to his next position (often unknowingly).
We will discuss how many points-of-control and which parts of the body each of the Shihan tend to use.

Oguri – Knees, elbows, feet, and heel of the hand- followed by fingers.

Many people have felt the “trash compactor” feeling that Oguri Sensei generates by using his knees and elbows to break his opponents structure in multiple places throughout their  body.  Quite often Oguri Sensei ends up with one hand free (usually on his hip!) while he suppresses his uke with the other arm and his legs.

Nagato – palm of the hand, elbows, wrapping both of ukes arms, hips and butt.

Nagato Sensei nearly always “catches” the lead attack with his hand, grabbing hold (lightly) and then trapping the other arm, from there he proceeds to wrap the uke up, changing hands frequently, while pushing or pulling in various ways on the attacker’s body in order to break the structure.

Noguchi – fingertips, strikes, kicks (indirect control by moving through space).

Being adept at slipping punches and kicks, Noguchi Sensei likes to let his uke’s arms slide along his neck or shoulders causing uke to be overextended, he then applies a lock or throw with his arms which are still free.

Seno – whole body wrapping, taking the shape of locks without grabbing.

Much as Hatsumi Sensei does, Seno Sensei likes to make contact in an uncommon manner, like using the back of his hand to “pull” his uke. If he is applying omote gyakku, for instance, he may lightly trap uke’s hand between his forearm and body, then turn, which causes the body to torque in the shape most people associate with the wrist lock…

Reactive and Proactive:

Although we tend to practice responses to specific attacks which necessarily appear to be reactive in nature, but, as Hatsumi Soke regularly shows, the line between attack and defense is a very blurry one. After you have become accustomed to training with these teachers you will begin to notice there is a tendency for each to choose a particular timing they feel is important to control.

Oguri Sensei:
From the moment you think the technique is beginning Oguri Sensei has already begun! Whether it’s with a slight pressure against your hand as you grab, or a subtle shift in position creating an angle from which you can’t actually reach him, he has become the leader. This “pre-action” is a hallmark of Oguri Sensei’s taijutsu.

Seno Sensei:
As an example of reactive timing, Seno Sensei prefers to stand there and wait for the last possible moment to move. This creates a feeling that you’ve actually hit him (and some times you will but not cleanly), he then uses this moment when you are feeling success to capture your structure and balance.
He is always creating a target for you to chase after while he quietly prepares the trap for you to fall into.

Nagato Sensei:
Again we return to a ‘proactive’ way of controlling the opponent. Even as the attacker is preparing his first attack, Nagato Sensei is manipulating the distance, using his footwork to pull his body out of range, while his hand and arms become like ropes in the space the attacker needs to move through in order to get at Nagato Sensei. These “ropes” end up looped around the attacker’s arms as he tries to continue his attack.

Noguchi Sensei:
Once again, with his dance background Noguchi Sensei is comfortable letting his uke take the lead, then matching the timing and rhythm, he slips into the lead, taking his uke farther in his movement than uke intended to go, leading to his downfall.

Anyone who has been uke for Hatsumi Sensei knows that he is the master at letting you feel free to attack at will sometimes, and completely controlled at others. It is these two feelings of being free and being “enveloped” that we will look at last.

“Totally controlled”:
Both Nagato Sensei and Oguri Sensei give the feeling of taking away all your options while you are attacking them. Of course you see or feel openings, but in the moment you se them you instinctively realize that these two shihan are way ahead of you and should you choose to exploit that opening it will be futile! This “wrapping up” is a skill that Hatsumi Sensei often talks about when he tells the lesson of catching a bee in your hand, then lightly but completely holding it so that it does not want to sting you. So it is with Nagato and Oguri Sensei’s, you end up feeling like you just want to stop because you sense you cannot win.

On the other hand is the trick of letting your opponent feel free to attack you as he pleases in order to trap him. This is difficult to do and while you are practicing this you should go more slowly as the potential for uke to actually inflict some damage is much higher!
Both Seno and Noguchi Senseis try to cultivate this kind of freedom in their taijutsu. Often as you attack one of them you feel as if you can hit them (indeed, since they are training as well, sometimes they DO get hit!). But battle is not so precise and clean as to allow us to always be at the perfect distance with the perfect timing, therefor we need to practice this lack of controlling movement. Giving the uke more and more freedom to attack as he wishes while training our ability to successfully recover from less than optimal distance and timing. As Seno and Noguchi show, this will lead to a greater ability to fool you opponent into thinking there is an opening, when in reality there is not…

In closing I want to reiterate that this is by no means a definitive account of the four top shihan and even where I draw attention to certain aspects, this does not mean that the shihan ONLY trains in this particular way. For I have seen all four of them do the exact opposite of their characteristic movements. This is important to remember as they are not bound to one way, neither should we be.
And it should go without saying that we are all (shitenno included) trying to follow Hatsumi Sensei’s budo, therefor we need ALL of the skills, not just the ones we like, those that look cool, what we think “fits our body type”.

So, get to Japan and spend some time with these “four heavenly kings” and do your own contrasting and comparing!

Rob Renner

December 2010

"No, like this!"

What a wonderful event!

Thanks to everyone who made Kikanju the success it was!

We had great weather, great friends, great training, everything we could ask for!
There were around 100 people from 12 different countries, some from as far away as Canada and the United States. It was interesting to be immersed in the culture and cuisine of Eastern Europe for there is a strong sense of community there.

The participants were eager to learn and dove into the training.

As there were 3 of us teaching, it gave everybody an opportunity to see multiple views on the same subject. What really came through though, was how the same principles could be applied in many different ways.

Although the training ranged from easy to hard, slow to fast, with a high degree of difficulty at times, nobody was injured (as per Soke’s wishes).

This event was the first of its kind, with so much information coming form Japan, and with the turnout being this strong, I look forward to being a part of the next one.

Rob

The Incomplete Kihon Happo

Discover what Hatsumi Soke and the Japanese Shihan know about making the Kihon Happo work. Although Soke has been teaching the concept of “chuuto hanpa” (halfway or incomplete) for years and the principles that make this “incompleteness” possible, it is usually considered an advanced idea that you somehow come to only after many years of practice.

But for those people who are looking for the connection between the rigid, formal kata most consider “the basics”, and Hatsumi Soke’s effortless movement, this DVD offers many clues to point you in the right direction. The information presented here is compiled from ideas and movements taken from training with Hatsumi Soke and his four top shihan in Japan.

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to train with Rob then you will already know the value of watching this DVD and practicing the movements presented within.

To request a copy of this DVD now, add a comment below with your contact information.

Payment will usually be made through Paypal.

Cost: 3500 yen – Including Shipping and Handling

I will be starting the 2nd round of seminars in September.

The theme for this 2nd  round of seminars will continue to be:

“Chuuto Hanpa Taijutsu” or “Incomplete Taijutsu”

We will be focusing on how to use incomplete movements to control your opponents reactions with emphasis on:

*Incomplete Distancing

*Incomplete Timing

Incomplete Kihon Happo

We will also cover:

- One-handed Taijutsu

- Boxing, Wrestling, and street-style attacks

- Multiple Attacker Methodology

and much more…

Of course we will be covering many special drills and exercises you can use to rapidly improve your own personal practice of taijutsu.

September 4 and 5

Athlone Regional Sports Centre – Athlone, Ireland

http://www.athlonesportscentre.ie/

Contact: Joe Lillis with the Bujinkan Shimboku Dojo

http://www.bujinkanshimbokudojo.com/index.html

September 11 and 12

Victoria Community Centre- Crewe, UK

Contact: Matt Fisher with the Bujinkan Gouin Dojo

mattfish45@hotmail.com

September 18 and 19

Provence, France

Dojo Mirabeau
3 avenue de Grassi
Aix-en-Provence

Contact: James Bimes with the Bujinkan Provence Dojo

http://www.bujinkan-provence.com/

james-bimes@orange.fr

September 25 and 26

Lippstadt/Geseke, NRW

Contact:  Larz Boltzt with Bujinkan Balance Dojo

balancedojo@aol.com

February 27 and 28:

Chicago, Illinois

Brooks Martial Art Center

Contact: Tony Brooks

Tony Brooks, and everyone who came, as the first stop on this seminar tour, really helped kick it off right. I could see definite improvement from many of the people who have been coming to this event over the last few years, thus reconfirming my decision to travel and share Soke’s art to the best of my ability.

March 2, 3

Special Foundational Workshops – Night Classes

Manaus, Brazil

Contact: John Holladay

Its always cool when you get to see your friends after a long time, especially when, after training with you in the past, they have continued improving and taking positions of leadership themselves. John has a really great, close-knit group there in Manaus. He has done a good job of teaching the foundations of Budo. This can be especially challenging when you are teaching at a military facility as John does!

Thanks for the hospitality John, I am looking forward to the next time…

March 6 and 7:

TAIKAI Brasil 2010

Joao Pessoa, Brazil

Contact: Simao Freitas

Wow! What can I say?! This taikai was awesome. So many obviously dedicated people, traveling for thousands of kilometers to train for nearly a week! The venue was super cool, with the beach nearby and great weather the whole time.

Do to the great distance and cost of traveling to Japan, it is very difficult for many Bujinkan members to get to Japan, so when they got a taste of some of the feeling from Japan, they were thrilled. And for me, when I saw the look of surprise and then later understanding on their faces, that was truly the highlight of my time there!

I have no doubt those groups from all over Brazil will begin making huge strides in the direction they want to go. I am already thinking about next year!

March 10,  11

Special Foundational Workshops – Night Classes

W. Palm Beach, Florida

Contact: Paul Fisher

paul@paulfisher.com

March 13

Washington DC

Contact: Charles Collins

clcollins41@aol.com

(443) 956-0506

March 14

St Louis, Mo

Contact: Patrick Lee

tanikoen@hotmail.com

(314)266-4488

March 20

Vancouver, B.C.

March 21

Victoria, B.C.

Contact: Sherrie Silman

bujinkan@taoshpere.org

(250)480-1442

If you have any questions or have trouble contacting the event hosts, please feel free to contact

Rob at: mindwrench@gmail.com

“Controlling your opponents perceptions”

Part 2: “Proprioception (Perception of Body Position)”.

In Part 1 of this article on Shinnenjutsu, we talked about Visual Perception, and how controlling your opponent’s visual perception, in effect, controls his mind.

Now we are going to look at some of the really fun stuff, Proprioception, and how you can take control of another person’s mind through touch. This area is talked about quite a bit in the Bujinkan (kinesthetic words like; relax, don’t use power, etc), but understanding the mechanism of controlling another’s perceptions through touch, and how to apply it, are another matter altogether.

Let me state here that this is by no means the “definitive” and complete answer to the “magic” that Hatsumi Sensei and some of the Shihan demonstrate, but it does go a long way to giving you a set of tools that will allow you to see and understand, as well as perform, the kind of things that Sensei does with his Budo Taijutsu.

Before we go into it, we need to understand a little bit about what Proprioception is.

The Proprioceptive Sense refers to the sensory input and feedback that tells us about movement and body position. That is the position of the body relative to itself (i.e.; the arms related to the torso), and the body relative to whatever it’s touching (the ground, a chair, another person, etc). . It is one of the “deep senses” and could be considered the “position sense”

It’s “receptors”(called proprioceptors) are located within our muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, and connective tissues. The skin, whenever it is stretched or pinched, also plays a huge role in positional awareness.

If this proprioceptive sense is not receiving or interpreting input correctly within these muscles, joints etc., then we refer to it as Proprioceptive Dysfunction.

Without proper messages regarding whether muscles and skin are being stretched, whether joints are bending or straightening, and how much of each of these is happening, people will have the following “clinical” signs of Proprioceptive Dysfunction (an actual disease)…

• · Difficulty “motor planning”; i.e. conceptualizing and figuring out what each part of his body needs to do in order to move a certain way or complete a task (what is an unconscious sense to us, becomes an active, conscious, frustrating sense to them)
• · Difficulty executing those planned movements: i.e. “motor control” (the brain may know what to do, but they can’t figure out how to make their body do it)
• · Difficulty “grading movement”; knowing how much pressure is needed to complete a task (i.e. hold a cup of water, hold and write with a pencil, turn the page of a book, hit a golf ball into the hole, etc.)
• · Difficulty with “postural stability”; i.e. the ability to hold and maintain one’s postural muscles and responses, giving you a sense of security and safety during movement

As you can see from the above, this sense of Proprioception is a key component and enormously important for us in the study of Budo Taijutsu. Although we are not creating a permanent case of Proprioceptive Dysfunction, the immediate effects are the same and thus useful for our purposes.

Related to Proprioceptive Dysfunction is the idea of Proprioceptive Dissonance.

Dissonance means disagreement or incongruity, the idea of Proprioceptive Dissonance refers to a situation wherein the proprioceptive sense is being given two or more different and antithetical (competing) messages, causing the mind to send faulty info back to the body.

(It is important to note that your proprioceptive response occurs at the level of the nervous system, which has a very fast response time, not the much slower, higher-order conscious thought processes that we typically associate with “mind”)

Now that we have a definition of Proprioception and why we might want to cause Proprioceptive Dysfunction and Dissonance, let’s look at some ways that we can implement them into our taijutsu.

Proprioceptive Dysfunction

First, the receptors in the joints send two important pieces of information to the mind:

• Amplitude of movement
• Speed of movement

Amplitude refers to the distance that a joint is moved, while speed of course, refers to how fast that joint is being moved.

Amplitude

So, when a joint (arm, leg, head, etc) is being moved too far, your proprioceptors send a signal alerting your mind that you need to make an adjustment. If an attacker has grabbed you in “kumiuchi” and you respond by pushing and pulling on his arms, his body will automatically adjust in order to keep a strong and balanced position.

You can use this reaction in two ways.

Method 1:

The first is by not moving the arms (relative to the opponent’s torso) but leaving them in place and moving your body around them. This is where the principle of “move your body around the weapon, not the weapon around your body” (sabaki gata) comes into play.

(Don’t get caught up on the word “weapon”, in the case of omote gyaku, the “weapon” is the wrist, or the place you are using to control your attacker. It is much like a fulcrum and your body is the lever)

At the Bujinkan Zero Point Dojo here in Japan, we use the idea of Initial Contact (the moment you “come to grips” with your attacker) to convey the principle of sabaki gata. At the moment you and your attacker “clinch”, there will be a “shape” to where your two bodies are connected (look at the places you are connected, then look at the angles between his arms and torso – this is the shape).

In order for you to create Proprioceptive Dysfunction, you need to leave that “shape” the same as you move with your feet, up to the point at which his balance is taken, but not so far that he has to take a step or falls down. If you move him past this point, his sense of balance will kick in and he will regain his structure.

(This maybe somewhat difficult to do at first, but it will come quickly with a bit of practice.)

The important thing here is this: your opponent will believe his balance and structure are okay, because you have kept the amplitude of movement small.

The other important piece related to this is speed.

Speed

When we talk about speed here, it is always relative to the attacker’s speed. You essentially want to mirror the timing of his movement. In the above example from kumiuchi, if your attacker puts tension into his arms and presses you, you must move with the timing of that press. This sounds self-evident, but most of us will want to move faster in an attempt to “beat our opponent to the punch” so to speak. This is counter-productive for the goal of mind-control.

You are probably familiar with the admonition to slow down when practicing your taijutsu. Besides the need for skill acquisition (which you must do slowly at first, then gradually at increasing speeds in order for maximum integration), there is another reason for moving slowly: it deceives your opponent’s proprioceptive sense (shinnenjutsu).

In order to demonstrate this, grab someone nearby by the arm and jerk it, you will see how they automatically adjust to accommodate and tense up. This is called the stretch-reflex, it’s a proprioceptive tool and its purpose is to prevent the muscle from incurring damage, this reaction (the tightening up of the muscles around the part of the body being jerked on) is amplified in a high-stress situation.  This also means you will be helping your opponent generate more force against you. Unless you are confident that you can easily overpower every person you might meet, try to avoid this.

Just as with controlling our opponent’s visual perception, you want to move first, but move slow. When you feel like you’re moving slowly enough, try to move even slower. In practice, take it down as slow as you can while still maintaining good structure.

The second method to play with is;

Method 2:

Purposefully moving your attacker’s arms in order to elicit the proprioceptive response you need from him.

Again, from kumiuchi, this time you can push with your right arm onto his left arm as if you were going to take mushadori, at the same time turning your body and softly slipping your left elbow over his right arm. At the moment he reacts to the movement of his left arm (proprioceptive response) by tensing his body in an effort to prevent your taking the mushadori, you drop straight down, trapping his right arm with your left in the ”real” mushadori! This is a more obvious example of shinnenjutsu.

____________________

Proprioceptive Dissonance

In implementing Proprioceptive Dysfunction we seek to send incorrect or incomplete signals to the proprioceptive sense, in effect controlling our attacker’s minds through deception. Now, with Proprioceptive Dissonance, we will take control of our opponent’s mind (proprioceptive sense) through confusion (sending too much and/or competing information).

In order to successfully do this there are several movement principles you will need to implement:

• Many Points of Contact – “Glad-wrap” his body with yours.
• Push – Don’t Pull.
• Use 3 dimensional movements (spirals or arcs).
• Move into the space they need to occupy next.
• “Slide” along the contours of the body

Many Points of Contact:

In the Bujinkan we are often admonished to have “as many points-of-contact as possible”. The general understanding of this is because it allows us to “control” (through feeling) what our opponent is doing. This is true enough, but there is another reason it is so useful, because all these points of contact are sending information to our opponent’s proprioceptive sense (he is feeling too), which means that we can send the information that we want to send, creating Proprioceptive Dissonance (mind control).

I use the term “glad-wrap” (the plastic that you use to cover food and store it in the refrigerator), because, when you cover the food, glad-wrap takes the shape of the food, but it doesn’t actually move the food!

Because you have these points of contact, you can apply pressure with your whole body, (knees, elbows, hips, etc) not just your hands. This means that your opponent’s mind is busy trying to keep track of all the sources of information coming in, much more than it normally deals with on a day to day basis. Since you are “covering” your opponent’s body, you can apply specific pressure throughout your opponent’s structure.

(How to apply this pressure is covered next)

Push Don’t Pull:

This idea is a bit harder to convey in terms of what is meant by “pushing and pulling”. Generally, the force of your pressure should travel away from the body (push), not travel back into your body (pull). The motion of your force when doing a push-up is, of course, a push; the motion of clapping your hands is a pull, because if your hands did not stop each other they would continue to travel until they touched the body.

When you are touching your opponent, they are relying on you for proprioceptive feedback that allows them to maintain balance and posture – in effect, you are supporting them. The act of pushing takes away this support. Pulling does the opposite; by pulling, they move closer to your center, which gives them increasing amounts of valid information that their proprioceptive sense will take advantage of.

Use 3-Dimensional Movements (Spirals or Arcs):

Proprioceptive Dissonance occurs from receiving too much and/or competing data. Therefore, we want to use more complex movements (3D), instead of less complex movements (2D).

If you push your opponent’s shoulder straight back it sends some data to his proprioceptive sense, if you push his shoulder in an arc towards his weak line (90 degrees to the line that runs through his heels), it sends vastly more data to his proprioceptive sense. Now, if you push his hips in an arc that is 90 degrees to the arc his shoulder is moving through, you will overload his proprioceptive sense, once again, taking control of his mind.

Move Into the Space They Need to Occupy Next:

As you move around your opponent, keeping lots of contact, pushing along their body, not pulling, you need to move into the space that they will need NEXT.  Hatsumi Sensei is always talking about “tsugi tsugi” the next next, meaning; be looking for where your opponent will have to go next in order to keep attacking you successfully, then take that space (controlling the kukan).

For example; if you push someone into their left, rear quadrant, you need to move around their body and into that space first! At this point, they will be slightly leaning on you, because you are still “covering” them like glad-wrap, which means that they are now relying upon you for their balance and sense of position. From here it is quite easy to “take them out” as they will not be able to appropriately respond to whatever you do.

(As you can imagine, in order to do this well, you will have to be very close to your opponent. In training, I talk about keeping them in your “hug zone”, the place where someone would be, if you were hugging them. This will mean less distance to cover.)

Slide Along the Contours of Their Body:

Hatsumi Sensei does this quite often, rather than shoving his opponent, he gently “slides” his arm or leg along the shape of his opponent’s body. There is a touch-response that reacts to this, causing the body to move away from the touch. If you push too forcefully the effect is negated.

For instance; if you place your left hand lightly on your partner’s right shoulder, then slide it along his back to his opposite shoulder, you will find that he has shifted his balance over and onto the front of his left foot.

(Of course if he knows what you are doing in advance he will resist and move differently!)

Since this is a subtle shift, it is most useful when your opponent is already moving.

In order to truly appreciate this (and all of the Proprioceptive Dissonance factors), it must be felt in person. Anyone who has trained with Hatsumi Sensei has heard him say this. Another thing that Sensei says, in every class, is to play with these ideas.

This brief article really cannot do justice to the subject at hand. I encourage everyone to look into the role that Proprioception plays in our martial art and to come to Japan and study it in person.

If you want more information or want to train with these concepts first-hand, go to: www.zeropointbujinkan.com.

Rob Renner

September 2007

“Controlling your opponents perceptions”

Also translated as intention technique, mind reading, mind control, and manipulation of another’s thoughts or perceptions, this concept lies at the heart of Budo Taijutsu.

Disclaimer:
Over the years Hatsumi Sensei has used different “themes” related to a particular school of the Bujinkan to illustrate or point to the essence of Budo. Similar to having many different people describe a particular object, Sensei’s use of these themes, and the interpretations of them, to give us many different viewpoints from which to gain an understanding of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. There seems to be a common thread to all of these themes, that is, the manipulation of truth and falsehood in what our opponent perceives. This seems fairly obvious on the surface, but there are many differing opinions as to what that means. I offer my own opinion; based on my search for a scientific, replicable explanation for the “magic” that Hatsumi Sensei is able to do. By no means am I claiming to have “the secret” to Budo Taijutsu, but the subject matter in this article has gone a long way to my understanding, and replicating, the abilities that Sensei demonstrates. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time as new and better information comes along that allows for a more complete understanding of Sensei’s art.

Part 1: Visual Perception

Sensei is always saying that Budo is not about being strong or weak, fast or slow, it’s about taking the shape of the attack and then manipulating what our opponents believe to be happening – shinnenjutsu. Now, there are many different ways of looking at this concept, for instance, there could actually be some kind of force that exists that can be transmitted from one mind to another, however, as far as I know we don’t have the tools to measure such a thing in a tangible, repeatable way that can be systematically taught. So what I want to concentrate on is the magic that IS available to us, the things that we can physically do with our bodies in training? Therefore, we will look at shinnenjutsu through the idea of controlling your opponent’s perceptions, focusing on the 2 primary areas of perception related to movement:
Visual Perception and Proprioception (Perception of Body Position).

Because of the size and depth of the information, I will cover these two areas in two different articles. This article will cover the first of the two:

Visual Perception:

The human eye sees Motion first, Shape second, and Color third.

Generally speaking, what this means is that, as you become aware of something, it’s motion (relative to your position) is perceived first, followed by the shape of the thing that moved, and after, by more fine detail, such as color or texture. How does this affect us in terms of our taijutsu? As we will see below, it’s really the first two that concern us.

1. Motion

If the eye sees movement first, then that means your opponents body will react to any sudden or big movement on your part. So, our goal, in order to control our opponents mind, is to move as little and as slowly as possible. How do we do this effectively?

Of primary concern is your distance. Hatsumi Sensei calls Budo Taijutsu the Martial Arts of Distance for good reason.

Let’s use Muto Dori as an example. When performing muto dori, Sensei tells us to put our head in a place that is easy to cut, while moving our feet to a position that cannot be cut. What does this mean?
To begin with, you must be at the edge of your opponent’s effective striking range, meaning that he can’t strike you without stepping. Your distance should be such that, as he steps forward to deliver a strike, you have sufficient distance to simultaneously step back out of his reach, but just barely!
(Sensei says the difference between being too close and being too far is the thickness of a piece of paper!)

If you practice this concept the way that Hatsumi sensei demonstrates it, you will find that moving your feet actually pulls your head back out of reach of your opponent. The effect on your opponent occurs when he attacks you, because, as far as he can visually perceive, you have not obviously moved your head, so he will believe he has succeeded in his goal of hitting you – his mind, through his visual perception, still believes your head is in the same place (shinnenjutsu). This will cause him to continue with his (now obsolete) attack, giving you the opportunity to affect him from a safe vantage point.

The opposite of this is:
beginning your motion by moving your head first, an instinctive movement based on the flinch reflex, which can be trained out of our habitual movement through Progressive Impact Training. (This training protocol is simple, but will be left for another article.)
Moving the head first gives our opponent all the information he needs to correct his attack “on-the-fly” (as he is attacking). This is because of our dominant ability to perceive motion and correctly triangulate the destination of a moving body (movement first!)

(Not to mention that pulling your head out of alignment with your shoulders and hips makes you open for the inevitable follow-up attack, since you will be momentarily “stuck” in place as you struggle to regain your center of balance in order to move again!)

The next component we must consider in order to control our opponent’s visual perception is:

2. Silhouette (Shape)

Remember, the second thing the human eye perceives is silhouette (shape). This relates to our position relative to our attacker. Predominantly, we want to be “squared-off” or torso face-forward to our attacker. If you have trained with Sensei at all, or even watched his videos, you will have noticed that he uses the “shizen kamae” where he is face-forward to his opponents 99% of the time. This is not because he is old or lazy!
One of the main reasons is this: when trying to control your attacker’s perceptions we want to give him a target, while at the same time being able to move in any direction. If you are squared-off, and at the correct primary distance, there will be a triangle created with your forehead and shoulders, your attacker’s brain (visual perception) will focus on this triangle, whether he does so consciously or unconsciously.
(The head and upper torso are where we gain the bulk of our visual information in a fight situation.)
As he is tracking this “triangle” , you should be moving with your feet, he will not be aware of how the rest of your body has shifted to take control of the kukan. Nearly everyone knows about the narrowing of focus (tunnel-vision) that occurs in high-stress situations, we can use this to our advantage by showing him what we want him to see (visual perception).

Turning your body completely side-on to your attacker presents a smaller target, very useful if he is shooting arrows or throwing spears at you and you are in formation with many other soldiers, but less useful if you want to hide the direction you will be moving to next. When you are side-on, you have allowed your opponent to “cross your T” as they say in the military, meaning that he is able to get all his weapons on you, but you can only present one side (half, or less, of your weapons) to him. We must remember that people almost never throw only a single attack, and when you turn so far as to be side-on, you will be open for that next attack.
So, be squared-off, presenting a target your opponent feels he can easily reach. Because you are in this position, you have the mobility to move in any direction. Also, since your face–forward position creates a larger silhouette, as you counter-attack, bringing your weapons toward him from your centerline (tight, controlled attacks…not wild, swinging arcs that are easy to discern and prepare for), he will find it very difficult to perceive what the counter-attack is until too late.

(Keep this in mind: when I say things like “be squared-off”, I do not mean perfectly, or at all times! Remember, these are rules-of-thumb; as such there will always be exceptions to the rule. For instance: when slipping forward alongside the blade in muto dori, you will of necessity turn side-on to your opponent – but only for a brief moment, then you are back to squared-off. The important thing is that you can perform the rules-of-thumb at will, and then it will be your choice to move differently, not forced upon you because you can’t do anything else!)

So, in order to take control of your opponent’s visual perception, in effect, controlling his mind (Shinnenjutsu):

• Use a kamae that allows for you to bring all your weapons to bear on your opponent (torso squared-off).

• Move with your feet first, allowing your head to be pulled or pushed in the direction you want.

• Move as little and as slowly as possible.

These two pieces, movement and silhouette, are really just the beginning. Obviously there is much more to the subject of visual perception than I can address in a short article, things like:

• 1 body motion, 2 steps

• Move Down, then Over

• Leave your Head in place, move your body

and many other principles of Budo Taijutsu.
Not to mention studying the ever-changing theories about how the eye/mind connection function. It’s also true that you can’t begin to truly understand this kind of thing without sufficient training under someone qualified to teach it to you. There is so much more depth to understanding the movement that I have described above.

While many people may already have a good grasp on the importance of controlling our opponent’s visual perception, it is the second area, that of Proprioception, that has been overlooked, yet holds the key to some of the greatest “magic” in Hatsumi Sensei’s budo.
In the next article I will introduce you to the ideas of Proprioceptive Dysfunction and Proprioceptive Dissonance.

If you have any questions or want to contact me please go to www.zeropointbujinkan.com.

Rob Renner
August, 2007

Sunday - 4pm – Mabashi Jinja

Tuesday – 14pm - Mabashi Jinja

Wednesday – 11am - Mabashi Jinja

Thursday – 7pm – Mabashi Jinja

Friday – 11pm – Mabashi Jinja

PLEASE CONFIRM ALL TRAINING TIMES AND LOCATIONS BEFORE VISITING

Extra classes outside of the regular schedule are possible for groups visiting Japan, please check with Rob.

*Written by Japan resident and long time Bujinkan member, Vaughan Moir.

I live in Japan and travel to Chiba monthly to train with Soke and the four Shihan. For the last couple of years I have also been training with some of the foreign instructors living in Japan. While they all have something to offer, training with Rob in the Zeropoint system has been by far the most valuable training. Why?:

1. You learn skills that enable you to isolate and then integrate movements that are fundamental to Bujinkan Taijutsu.

2. Having learned these Kihon movements, you are able to understand how Soke and the Shihan are using taijutsu and kyojitsu to affect their opponent’s balance and control the kukan. Zeropoint training provides a key to clarifying and defining the Bujinkan’s fundamental movement, giving you a structure with which to look at what Soke and his top shihan are teaching, and therefore adds value to your training in Japan.

3. You learn a series of exercises that will quickly transform your reflexes, and from that, the way that you train. Many people try to show their “feeling” of Soke’s movement, but Zeropoint training has specific drills and exercises that directly affect your taijutsu.

At first I thought that there were all these amazing coincidences occurring; I would train with Rob, then train with Soke or the Shihan, and see exactly the same points emphasized. After a few months, I realized that the Shihan were doing these things all the time.

No coincidence! I just never had the eyes to see what they were doing before, despite having trained in the Bujinkan for many years. Zeropoint training gave me those eyes.

Add value to your training! Check out Rob and the Zeropoint Dojo while you’re in Japan.

Vaughan Moir

What are the basics (kihon)?

基本

(Kihon; foundation, basis, standard)

Many people talk about the importance of learning the basics (kihon) in our martial art.

“Without a good foundation”, they say, “You can’t really achieve a high level of ability”.

In fact, there are some people who go so far as to say that it’s worthless to train with Hatsumi Soke, because he is teaching so far beyond the basics.

* (I think it appropriate to add here that every art has its basis in logical structure, however wild and seemingly unconnected some artists’ works appear to be.)

It’s easy to pontificate about the importance of learning the fundamentals, but here is the real question; “what are the fundamentals?”

When someone speaks about the “basics of Budo Taijutsu”, what are they referring to? If you ask ten different people to be specific about what constitutes the basics, you will get ten different answers. But for practical reasons the truth has to be simpler than that.

The Criteria for Determining the Basics:

If you wish to design a teaching model to give someone a skill-set one of the crucial elements to the planning of this design would be to “begin with the end in mind”.  Everything in the model must correlate to the end product you are seeking.

In the case of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu – the “end” -  is Hatsumi Soke.

Since Hatsumi Sensei is the definition of Bujinkan, then our goal is to have taijutsu skills comparable to his. Whether or not you believe this is even possible is irrelevant, if you are trying to learn (or, more importantly, teach) Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, Hatsumi Soke is the model.

So, with Hatsumi as the model, then everything we do in our training should be designed to give us the same skill-set he has. If you are practicing basic movement that looks or feels vastly different from the look and feel of Hatsumi Sensei’s movement – it is wrong!

This is not to say that there aren’t people teaching useful things other than what Soke is teaching, and some that are very strong fighters doing things their way, but if we are looking to have Soke’s skill-sets, then we have to be more rigorous in our definition.

Creating Habits:

Let’s look at this logically, why would you imprint your nervous system with a movement methodology that you knowingly were going to have to throw away and completely change down the road? For example; many people feel that practicing Sanshin and Kihon Happo with wide stances and big, overly-exaggerated movements, where the whole body moves as one big brick, for years– regardless of the technique (distance and/or speed) involved – is essential to developing “good basics”. They say that eventually you will get rid of these big movements and start to use smaller, more refined movements. However; your Central Nervous System has already created the neural pathways (habits) that your body will use, making it extremely difficult to erase the inappropriate sense of timing and distance that will have been created. This, of course, will add years to the amount of time if takes to develop the Hatsumi skill-set – giving credence to the theory that it takes 30 years or more to achieve a good level of ability and understanding in this art!

*This last paragraph has caused some confusion concerning the practice of certain movements.

Let me be clear; I am NOT saying we shouldn’t practice wide stances or wide, deep stances! Of course there are techniques in our art that require wide foot placement (ie; Togakure ryu katas, some ukemi from the TenChiJin, etc).

What I AM saying is that we must practice ALL the types of movements we will be using in training. This means practicing Sanshin with the WHOLE RANGE of possible foot positions and leg angles, from both feet not moving while standing in Shizen no Kamae, being able to deeply flex your knees, hips, and ankles, to a very wide Ichimonji no Kamae, where the back leg is deeply flexed and the front leg extended. And ALL the combinations in-between!

I do personally feel that we should give more of our practice time to the movements that we encounter the most frequently in training (and this varies depending on the individual as well as the dojo), since we are trying to ingrain these movement patterns into our nervous system.

As Soke often teaches, we must not be victims of our habits, indeed we need to have as many options available to us as possible in order to fit “appropriately” into any given situation. If we only train one set way of moving, however powerful and devastating that movement is, we have cut ourself off from this capability.

A Principle-based approach:

Having explained some of the methodology behind efficient design of teaching models, let us also look at the idea of principles. A principle is like a mathematical axiom, it must be consistently true to be a principle. For example, in math we might use the formula “if A+B=C, then C- B= A”. This is a mathematical principle; it is always true.

Much like the use of muscular force in Budo Taijutsu, if you never retrain the body’s natural “flinch-reflex”, then every time tension or force is applied to your body, you will react with tension and force, which creates a vicious cycle of increasing forces, wherein the person able to generate the greatest muscular power or force, at that point, is going to “win” in that technique.

Therefore, one of the main principles (as constantly suggested by Hatsumi Soke), is rewiring your nervous system to respond differently to force or tension being applied to your body (and by extension, your mind).

So let us agree that, for the purpose of learning Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, the basics (kihon) must model Hatsumi Sensei’s current movement, and that any deviation from these principles is inefficient, and thus to be avoided.

What are the pieces that make up the kihon?

Now that we have defined the basics, we need to take a closer look at the individual elements that can be considered kihon. Take care not to confuse the set of techniques known as “kihon happo” with the kihon, which are foundational movements and methods of body and weapon use.

As it has been explained to me by the top Japanese Shihan here in Japan, and constantly taught by Hatsumi Soke, there are several areas we all need to consistently be training.

1. Taihenjutsu (body changing technique) This falls into 3 main phases;

A) Whole-body Mobility and Strengthening.

B) Solo Ukemi (more than merely “rolling around”, it is receiving and translating the force of gravity as we fall from all possible positions).

C) Partner Ukemi (receiving and translating the force of an attack from a person; kicks, punches, pushes, and pulls)

1. Distancing; Learning how to consistently be in the place where your opponent(s) cannot damage you, but you are free to do whatever is necessary in that moment.

A) Muto dori (Unarmed against a sword)

B) Uke kata (jodan uke – upper receiving, chudan uke – middle receiving, gedan uke – lower receiving)

1. Striking; with and without weapons, beginning from the closest distance possible then working your way outward.

We will look at these 3 areas a bit more in-depth.

ZP Training Begins at Mabashi Jinja

Saino Kon Ki

The theme for this year is Saino Kon Ki – translated as “talent or ability”, “spirit or soul”, and “capacity”.

One way of looking at this concept is seeing how they are all connected, each aspect building on the previous one.

(This is related to the other overriding theme for this year – 繋がり　- tsunagari or connection.)

This seems to be true regardless of the field of endeavor. Whether you are a professional athlete, musician, or an entrepreneur, it just seems to take the human brain and body 10,000 hours to thoroughly understand AND integrate the skills associated with your chosen endeavor.

What does this mean for us as budoka? Well, if you’re training twice a week for a two hours each time, then about 50 years should do the trick!