Many martial arts make you conform to a certain way of doing things, everyone is striving to look like the art. Taijutsu, the basis of To-Shin Do and ninjutsu, is the opposite. It custom fits to you.

Last night was a review and test for this months curriculum and the magic of this art was on display. We had a five month pregnant woman, a couple of twenty something male collegiate wrestlers, four kids all around four feet tall, a six foot seven adult male, and a number of other adults with ages in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

Everyone looked great but someone watching for the first time might have thought they were doing different arts. When they defended against a cross punch using a water technique our very tall student dropped back lifted his arms and looked as if he was holding off the attacker with a long stick. One of the kids did the same technique bent their legs, got real low and pulled the attacker off balance with their positioning right into a strike.

During the defense against a side headlock our mother to be couldn’t get around behind her attacker to break their balance because baby was in the way. She made an adjustment and used her new condition to swing her forward to take the attackers balance with her knees. She and everyone last night did an amazing job using taijutsu their own way.

Taijutsu is the understanding of principles of nature and survival. How you use them “literally” depends on you.