There are many reasons schools advertise as why you should study the martial arts. The most often quoted is self-defense but in actuality very few schools teach real self-defense. There is a self-defense delusion in our industry that says, I teach martial arts so I teach self-defense but it’s just not true.

The problem comes I believe from trying to be all things to all people. In martial arts today you can get in shape by taking a cardio kick boxing class, train to win an Olympic Medal in Tae Kwon Do or Judo, compete in a cage for cash prizes with MMA, practice precise movements with Shotokan Karate to improve your concentration, or increase your flexibility and health with Tai Chi. All of these use tools of self-defense but that doesn’t mean they’re teaching self-defense.

Punches and kicks are tools like a hammer or saw. I own both a hammer and a saw. I know how to use both of them to fix things but that doesn’t make me a carpenter. I don’t have those skills.

My friend is a doctor, he learned to read and write in school, got all the tools necessary to go to college and get his doctorate. I wouldn’t want to have him operate on me his doctorate is in economics.

You need the right tools and the right knowledge to do the job right. Self-defense is more than punching and kicking. What if there is a knife involved, there is more than one attacker, it’s a surprise attack, you’re with your child, you have an injury, or you don’t want to go to jail for defending yourself? These are just some of the concerns that must be addressed if you are learning self-defense.

All martial arts offer some benefit be it health, getting in shape, competitive advancement or just an escape from your everyday toils but if your priority is learning self-defense you have to search for a school that specializes in that.

Ninpo or Budo Taijutsu is not just a martial art, especially by the definition of what most people think martial arts are today. Taijutsu is a process of using your body along with the laws of nature to defend and protect yourself. Actually it is following the laws of nature, of which you and your body are a part of, to defend and protect yourself.

The understanding of taijutsu seems to happen in stages or layers. The first stage is usually a combination of confusion and often disbelief at how effective taijutsu is. The preconceived ideas we have of martial arts from movies and television come crashing down when exposed to the reality of taijutsu.

Once students start training their understanding shifts to what I call forced movement. They see the actions of the teacher but can only translate them as gross motor movements that use the muscles of their body to create force. This is often a frustrating time in training because taijutsu utilizes a different method to create force.

After awhile students begin to understand taijutsu as natural movement. Gravity becomes the force that moves their body through space. The alignment of their physical structure in combination with gravity creates the devastating knock down power associated with taijutsu. This understanding takes a student to the level of black belt, graduation of the basics and the beginning of studying the art.

As years pass students gain an understanding of time, space and alignment between attacker and defender. The concepts of where and when you are in space to create an effect replace the idea of how to physically do a technique. The taijutsu techniques seem to be effortless to practitioners at this point.

As years turn into decades the duality of attacker and defender disappears into a single energetic dance. Thoughts and intentions affect the outcome as much if not more than physical technique. To an observer the defense looks like the attacker made a mistake and had an accident.

There are levels beyond but with just over two decades of training I’ll have to wait quite awhile before I post on them.