When Stephen K. Hayes asked Dr. Hatsumi many years ago what ninjutsu was all about, Soke Hatsumi answered “katsu tame ni” roughly translated as “the art of winning”. From our western perspective this could sound like competition but its more about being successful in your life.
We often ask students what success means to them. One of our friends, Johan D’hondt, who runs To-Shin Do training in Belgium, recently answered this question in an article. I was so impressed with his answer that I wanted to share it with you.
We had a question about ukemi, which is the ninjutsu system of receiving an attack physically and mentally. The question was:
I feel that the physical aspects are straight forward, but I have been wondering about what kind of exercises one can do to improve on mental ukemi?
I don’t believe the physical aspects are as straightforward as one may think. Learning to roll and break fall are drills that teach you to be an uke. They change you, they are not collected things and then you move on to the mind versions. The question seems to imply (to me) that there is a difference between the physical and the mental or emotional. They are all the same. The physical ukemi exercises are the exercises you start with to control your mind and emotions and vice versa.
During a session at New England Warrior Camp my senior student Derek got to be uke for my friend Paul. Derek is a very good uke but Paul was showing some very intense techniques. It was clear that Derek was at the edge of his ukemi.
We had a quick discussion about his mental state. I told him he was fighting the pain too much. He agreed and (bravely I feel) said that fear had crept in because he hadn’t trained at this level for awhile. We talked about giving in completely to it as if you had fallen asleep or died. Not comforting thoughts but effective.
Derek went back to uke for Paul almost immediately. There was no time to change his “physical” technique, only enough to change his mind. Instantly he looked more relaxed and was able to handle much more easily. He came back from a crushing throw and lock smiling.
He changed his physical response in an instant by changing his mind. The physical training he has done for almost two decades has taught him to control his mind and emotions, which he used to control his body. They’re all the same. My suggestion to learn mental ukemi…punch in.
These are clips from an hour long private lesson Theresa Murphy took with An-Shu Rumiko Hayes on the Friday before SKH Quest Fall Festival 2009. Mrs. Hayes is one of the best kept secrets in the martial arts. Not enough people are aware of what an amazing martial artist and incredible teacher she is. Enjoy the video. For more about Mrs. Hayes please visit www.SKHQuest.com and as always if you’re in the NH area visit us at www.ShinobiMartialArts.com
It was 11:30 pm Friday night when the test started. We had been training at this year’s New England Warrior Camp since five that afternoon. The four black belt applicants were lined up with bokken (wooden swords) told to stand in Dai Jodan no Kamae with very bent knees and cut five-hundred times. That was the start.
New England Warrior Camp, for those of you who have never been, is a non-stop training event put on every year (for twelve years now) by Ken Savage. Training starts Friday afternoon goes late into the night then starts up at 7:30 am Saturday and continues through to Sunday evening. It is quite simply some of the best ninjutsu training available and participants usually leave very happy but exhausted.
During the breaks the four black belt applicants tested. Their final session, after night stealth training, ended close to 2 am Sunday morning. The test had taken over twenty-four hours. The four all passed. It was a demonstration of power of will and perseverance. I congratulate all my friends, Brian and Bianca from Boston Martial Arts and my partners at Shinobi Martial Arts, Darryl and Theresa for a well deserved promotion.
What is even more impressive about this group is that they accomplished this in their very busy lives over a long period of time. This took years to accomplish, more than nine in one case, but they never quit, they kept training. They weren’t in it for the belt not after that long. Many people today are in a rush to get a “Black Belt”. To collect another ego boost. These four showed it can be about the training. That perseverance does pay off all in good time. Awesome job all of you.
As you continue your training in taijutsu your focus changes from what you are to doing to where and when you are located in relationship to your opponent. Many martial arts move then do a technique. With us the movement is the technique.
This ability to see alignments and spatial relationships is what allows a great martial artist to transcend the limits of size and physical strength. It is the mythical power of the aging master who can still defeat the younger, stronger student.
This year at Ninja Festival I had the privilege to be an uke (attacker) for both Mr. and Mrs. Hayes. I am much larger than Mrs. Hayes and as you all know Mr. Hayes celebrated his sixtieth birthday this year. An age in our culture that many would consider as heading for retirement.
For those of you who saw his demonstration Saturday night you know I held nothing back when I tried to hit him with my sword. I have to wait for the video to come out because I have no idea where he went. All I remember is flipping over him with a sword running up between my legs.
Mrs. Hayes did a private lesson for Theresa Murphy and I was the uke. We’re editing the footage so you all can see it soon here but for now let me say that she looked like the greatest puppeteer in the world as she made me dance around completely at her will. I never knew where she was or when she was going to hit me next.
So as you look at your training. Try not to just do your techniques. Techniques are not things they are lessons about cause and effect. They are answers to where and when.
I was sitting in the Dayton Airport with my luggage Sunday night after Festival talking to one of the TSA people because my flight to Washington had been delayed and I was not going to make my connection. He noticed my Boston Martial Arts shirt and asked if I was in town for training with Stephen Hayes. The conversation was interesting, it went something like this:
“Yeah, we just finished up our annual festival. Do you train?”
“He’s through here a lot and I’ve spoken to him a couple of times. He’s kind of a martial arts celebrity…”
“Yes he is.” I said smiling.
“I met his wife too. She is a very nice lady.” he continued.
“She’s an amazing martial artist also. She can throw me around easily.”
“Really?” he said, “No offense but you’re a pretty big guy. It’s hard to believe she could do that. I never would have guessed it by looking at her.”
I told him she was very capable, he nodded said it was nice talking and went back to his job.
The conversation made me think about how much television and the movies control our perspective of what is. You can always find a match on tv with two hulking men trying to beat each other in some cage or ring. Martial arts stars in movies all look like they are right out of the gym.
When did our perspective of the martial arts change from learning the principles of ancient fighting systems that are universal and can work for anyone to martial prowess being determined by the genetics of bigger and stronger?
I am happy to say that there are still people like Mrs. Hayes capable of demonstrating and teaching those forgotten principles. Youth and strength will fade away, knowledge can continue to grow.
New England Warrior Camp is only a month away: October 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Join us this year at this twelfth annual gathering of Ninjutsu practitioners for the best training opportunity around. Friends from as far away as California will be joining us. Three days of non-stop training with six of the senior Shidoshi instructors in the area. Click the picture or here for more information.
“An-Shu Kanreki 60-Year Celebration”
Stephen K. Hayes’ 29th Annual Fall Festival
September 12 & 13, 2009
Join us for An-shu’s 60th birthday Kanreki celebration with knife, short baton and gun, along with taijutsu and the enlightened warrior mind science yogas that only An-shu can deliver – at Stephen & Rumiko Hayes’ Super 29th Annual Fall Training Festival at Dayton, Ohio, Holiday Inn Dayton Mall. 10 am Saturday September 12 to 3:30 pm Sunday September 13. Special Black Belt showcase Saturday September 12 evening – $299 tuition includes 2 full days of training and lunch Saturday and Sunday. Click here or the picture for more info!
This June ends my twenty-first year studying ninjutsu. I wanted to take this chance to say thank you to the teacher’s that have and continue to help me on this journey. Thank you all!
My teacher Mark Davis, owner of The Boston Martial Arts Center, is one of the most formidable martial artists I have ever met. It is not however his amazing skill, incredible martial arts knowledge, or his somewhat intimidating physical size that stands out most about Mark. It is his heart. Webster’s dictionary defines the adjective “patient” as calmly tolerating delay and confusion. I can never repay the debt I owe Mark for the infinite patience he has held in his heart while I worked through my confusion over the years. I have learned more from him then anyone else in my life.
Stephen K. Hayes. Without Stephen Hayes we would most likely never have been introduced to the wonder of ninjutsu. He is the proverbial adventurer who brought back the hidden treasures of the East. Mr. Hayes is among other things an actor, author, ordained Buddhist priest, security expert (protected the Dali Lama), teacher, founder of To Shin Do martial system, husband and father. His accomplishments could fill the biographies of five lifetimes. Yet he is one of the most humble, honest and giving people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. It was he who blazed the path that the rest of us have followed.
Dr. Hatsumi
Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi is the head of the Bujinkan Dojo and the source of all our knowledge. He is the link between over a millennia of martial tradition and the current generation of practitioners. The immensity of having been able to meet and train with this man is hard to put into words. It would be like having studied the theory of relativity with Albert Einstein or studying meditation and spirituality with the Dali Lama. We are eternally indebted to him for sharing his arts with the world.
