One of my friends was asking me about karate schools in his area for his child. He had spoken to a number of schools but wanted to get my opinion. He knew I did martial arts for many years but not what I did so he asked. When I told him his honest response was, “What’s the difference?”

I told him that ninjutsu and To-Shin Do are not about muscle and memorization, they’re about magic. Ninjutsu is unique in the martial arts because it is about understanding the principles of nature and how to use them to be safe, that’s magic. This art is not about sports, competition or collecting belts its about survival, self defense and living a happy life.

I told him it could take forty years to see everything in this art but how that’s what has kept me training for so long. There’s always more to learn. He said that is very different from the others he had spoken to. Now he wants to train too.

I’ve been thinking about this thread for a while. Unfortunately I have been directly involved with knifes. This question is in fact why I went looking for ninjutsu. I didn’t know I was looking for ninjutsu at the time I just wanted an answer to all the knifes that were in the bars I was bouncing in.

From the time I started training with Mark Davis in ninjutsu we have always trained with the idea that our opponent was armed. If you think about it historically there’s more chance that they were fighting armed then unarmed and more than likely that weapon was some type of blade.

I am always interested to see that for most people there is a perception of difference in knife fighting and fighting. To me they are the same. I won’t deny there are concerns when a blade is involved but the defensive concepts should be the same.

I heard Dr. Hatsumi talk once about how many martial arts fight like animals (lion, snake, etc..) but how he fights like a human because when you go to a zoo the animals are on the inside and we’re on the outside. He talked about how we control animals by controlling the space around them instead of rushing head on and trying to over power them.

The same applies to our fighting system. At some point you have to give up on “doing” techniques and learn to control the space around your opponent. There are an entire series of evasions that allow you to move in on an armed attacker that are based on where the space is in relation to the geometric plane of attack created by the moving knife.

An example would be the tangent to a circle, a line that intersects a circle at one and only one point. This concept is the basis of avoiding a slashing attack. To start have your partner make the slash in a large arc toward your neck. First let them hit you to be sure of the distance. Then as they attack again move to either side from that point of contact and the knife should go right by. Don’t step back, move to the side or as you get more comfortable move in to the space along the arc of their cut. This lets you avoid the cut and bridge the gap to facilitate control.

This same concept can be used against a bat, a hook punch, a roundhouse kick or any circular attack. There has to be principle-based responses that work regardless of the weapon used because it is impossible to have a set answer for the infinite variations an attack can take.

We had a question about knee alignment in ichimonji no kamae (a defensive posture) from a student with knee problems. The angle of your knee for inchimonji no kamae is dependent on which classical school you’re looking at. Each has it’s own alignment for historical reasons.

But if you are looking at it from a modern perspective the alignment of your knee with your foot from side to side is more important than the alignment (angle of the knee) from front to back. The latter is determined by the situation and your personal leg and knee strength.

The alignment from side to side can be checked with a visual tool. If you imagine your foot creates a lane or line forward from the toes and backward from the heel, your knee should be over that line. If you dropped a plumb line from your kneecap down it should hit that line regardless of the angle of the knee.

Where I see most students having problems is that they’re knee falls to the inside of their foot. This puts pressure on the knee joint, which is a cause for concern for safety reasons and also puts and outward pressure on the foot which can cause you to loose your footing on a slippery surface.

The alignment of the knee and the foot should create a pressure straight down into the ground when landing back into ichimonji. Ask yourself if you made the movement back to ichimonji on ice would it work? If you’re using gravity to move yourself and landing properly aligned it does work.

Having had a number of knee surgeries (from football not training) may I suggest you take it slow. Our movement done well will actually help your knees become stronger. Good luck.