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February 2011 Volume 14 Number 2

Providing information to Bujinkan members in 67 different countries around the world

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Kihon Posture.

Correct alignment of the body is essential if you wish to deliver a strike properly. This photo of Ishizuka sensei at the UK Taikai 1987 is one of my favourites when it comes to showing just how the body should look after you have completed a strike. As a lesson is self stuff I would like you to look at every point of the body, joint of the body, the angles of each limb, the elevation of his posture, the position of the knee over the foot, location of the hands, direction of sight etc. Then place yourself in this position the way you would normally do it, Look to see if there is a difference and if there is make it your goal to correct your posture. Kihon is Kihon and you will never escape it, if you really wish to excel in our art then you must have Kihon. This year is Kihon Happo, this photo shows the every end of the first kata. If your not looking like this then why are you doing the second kata. Walk before you run.

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The Five Strategies of Striking

The Five Strategies of Striking exist simply because as a warrior, you would not want to be without them. Lose one of them, and you are imperfect. Lose two of them, and you are at a disadvantage. Lose three of them, and you are lost. To improve yourself, honestly analyze your actions, and the results that those actions make toward your purpose. Attacks have a beginning, middle and end. Some of the Five Points deal more with the beginning, some with the end, and some with all. You will notice this once you start working with these ideas. In order to be good at defending, you must first learn how to attackand not attack in a wooden, artificial, ineffective way, but in a way that is devastating. Once your attack is so swift and so overpowering as to be dominating, then you will be able to see with total clarity what it takes to properly defend yourself as well, and you are not likely to be led astray into practicing fantastical and unrealistic techniques. 1) Speed You are attempting to strike or cut someone who does not want to be hit. Therefore, you must move faster than he can. Therefore, you must understand the nature of speedwhat means is to be fast. This is not about moving your hand or of your foot more rapidly. This is about transportation, about mechanics. Contemplate the initial movement. Perfect your postureyou are useless without it. Understand the way that you carry yourself on your legs. Dont just assume this. Feel the way your knees, hips, ankles and feet support you, and know where your spine is located. Especially understand staging, that is, how you prepare yourself before you act by arranging yourself in the best possible way; consider the way a runner prepares himself before the race. It is critical to master distancing and work the edge. If you do not work the edge, you give that up to your opponent, and you will be under his pressure. To work the edge, you must develop experience in judging the extent of your opponents reach. With any combat technique, there is a moment before it begins. There is a time when nothing is happening, and then suddenly something happens. This moment when nothing changes to something is what you should pay very close attention to. This moment contains the initial action of the technique, and so I will call it the Initiation. Techniques typically contain three phases, which are the Initiation, the Delivery, and the Execution, or the beginning, middle and end. You should study each with the intention of fully understanding them. You will have to think, and practice, and work hard for this. Also, the Initiation is critical because the success of your technique usually depends upon actions which succeed because of correctly formed motioncorrectness that is established in that first moment of Initiation. Discover what that initial action is by slowing down and thinking deeply about what you are doing, and then be direct. What is direct? As with all things, let me define it. All actions go toward the purpose. No part of the action does not go toward the purpose. There is nothing that goes elsewhere. This takes some thought: consider the path of force, aligning your joints and bones to the target, and the proper production and delivery of power. There should be economy of

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www.hanako.co.uk motion: no loss, no slack. There should be no wasted effort and no useless actions. Every part of what you do should directly contribute to your intention. If you find something that doesnt, eliminate it. This will allow for speed and effectiveness. 2) Protection Simply put, the more vulnerability you show, the more likely you are to be killed. This includes the use of your limbs for shielding your openings, turning vital points away from your opponents weapons, and having a strong base that cannot be easily unbalanced. You also use kiai for this. Keep your Kamae, even in the midst of attacking and moving. The key to this point is you should not attack foolishly. Advancing out from the safety of the castle is dangerous. Attack with due caution. Do not be reckless. You can be just as effective in your attack if you also keep defense in mind. It does not cost anything. Remember that one strike can finish you. Do not count on opponents not attacking you. Count on having what cannot be attacked. 3) Potential You never know how you must move in the next second. Therefore, you must develop a posture that can move in any direction, at any time. If you cannot change instantly, then you will not survive. This is about understanding body mechanics and balance, especially in your feet, knees, hips and spine--always carry yourself actively on your muscles. Do not lock your joints. This point is not about having to generate the momentum, but of having to hold it back. The key to this thinking is that one punch is not one punch, one block is not one block, and one cut is never one cut. Do not make your movements and then stop, settling down into some comfortable position. Never stop, even if you have to be still. You can freeze and still not stop, if you understand this principle of Potential. 4) Effectiveness Your strike must do the job. Develop the attack that does what you intend it to do, without your hands or feet becoming damaged and useless. This means conditioning. Have weapons that are equal to the task. However, this is not only about power. Power and effectiveness are not necessarily the same thing. A finger in your opponents eye is effective, yet it is not powerful. Know what area of the opponents body to strike. Know what fist or weapon to use. Know how to deliver it in the best way. This also means mastery of the weapon, be it your fist, your foot, your sword or your staff. You do not want to be in the situation where your attack is delivered with speed, in a protected way, with potential for anything, only to have it fail to deliver the expected impact. 5) Concealment You must conceal your intentions from your opponent for as long as possible. At some point, your intentions will be obviousyou cannot avoid that; but we must master that moment in which your opponent realizes what you are doing, because it is then that he can intercept or avoid your action. You must postpone this moment for as long as possible, to reduce the possibility that your opponent can repel your attack. Do not reveal yourself before you have to. Put yourself into the mind of your opponent, to see what he sees, and look for visual cues, or triggersthings that give you away, and then eliminate them. You do this by understanding what he perceives. This requires your imagination.

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www.hanako.co.uk Conceal your action within other actions: do not hide a needle in a haystack, hide it in a stack of needles. This means that you should not stand perfectly still, and then suddenly punch-- the moment of your action is too obvious and will lead to failure. Keep your body in a constant state of motion. Concealment is a critical thing to understand, because in that moment when your attack is forming, your opponent can become aware not only that you are starting to do something, but he can even become aware of exactly what it is that you are intending to do. If this happens, you will fail. In full-speed sparring, I routinely avoid my opponents attacks because of this flaw. Conclusion All of these ideas are all about self-awareness and self-control. You must first become aware of your movements by bringing your mind down into your body. Develop your awareness so that nothing escapes your attention. I cant tell you how many times that I have told someone to correct an out-of-position limb, only to see them make the same mistake again and again. You must become completely aware of your movements and your positions at all times, and take control of them. You want to refine and perfect the actions of your movements by understanding them. Find out how to make them better by taking the time to find out exactly what is going on. Slow it down to a crawl, so that nothing avoids your detection. Once you have understood, then speed things up, faster than you even thought was possible. Integrate what you have learned into full speed motion. If your technique breaks down, then slow down to examine all the conditions and movements to find the mistake and reconstruct your method. If you are at black belt level, and you are not performing at absolutely full speed, then you have a serious problem. You cannot call yourself a martial artist if you cannot execute your techniques at full speed. This knowledge may give you more benefit than anything else. The number of the points is five because that is what they are. There is no overlap. You can be fast without being effective. You can be effective and fast without having potential or protection. You can have all of these without concealment. The goal is to understand and employ each of them. Just reading these points is not enough. Contemplate them deeply, and work them into every moment of training.

Ken Harding Instructor Missouri Budo Taijutsu Dojo mbdojo.com

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Old Enbu in Japan

For those of you who have read some of the original Books by Steve K Hayes you will recall him discussing a demonstration in Japan where as he played the part of a priest with a bald head etc. I have received these photos from a friend who has a book in Greek which contains photos from that event.

Oguri Shihan
Some of you may be aware that last year was not a good year for Oguri sensei. When I was in Japan in June I was told he was in hospital and needed an operation. At the time it was requested that as this was a family matter that it was not if possible to be published. At Daikomyo Sai it was wonderful to not only see him attend but also demonstrate some Kihon Happo at the end of the last day. Oguri sensei has since taught several classes at the Honbu Dojo. We hope everyone is as pleased as us to know he is doing a lot better with his health and he is still teaching

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For more information please visit www.budoya.org Hojojutsu: We have expanded our range of Hojojutsu items. We now have ropes with rings and also the hooks and tenouchi attached.

We also stock, Tessen, Kyoketsu Shoge, Jutte, Naeshi, Shuko, as well as 30 different historically accurate shuriken

TRAINING TIMES:

Tuesday 7pm 9.30pm

Ermine United Reform Church, Sudbrooke Drive, Ermine East, Lincoln

Hanako is the newsletter of the Bujinkan Lincoln Dojo (UK). This is not an official Bujinkan newsletter. It is also a free publication, and may be copied and distributed to anyone free of charge, no monies are to be paid for newsletters except for the cost of reproducing the copies. Anyone wishing to submit an article should e-mail it or post it to the addresses below Produced and edited by Paul Richardson (Shidoshi) Bujinkan Lincoln Dojo, 7 Torrington Road, Lincoln LN22DP, England. E-mail: Umaryu@yahoo.co.uk - Telephone: (+44) 07868298949 - Skype: Umaryu For information regarding the newsletter, training, any comments, or to be added to the mailing list (Mailing list is e-mail based only), please E-mail us at umaryu@yahoo.co.uk Bujinkan Lincoln Dojo 2011ad

Disclaimer. All comments and views made in the articles are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the personal views of the Bujinkan Lincoln Dojo or the Bujinkan Dojo directly. If you have an issue with an article please take it up personally with the author. We dont have time for petty childish Bujinkan Politics.

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Newsletter for the Bujinkan Lincoln Dojo