About the Shinobi Science instructors.

Dennis Mahoney

Late in 1981 while playing football at Boston University on a full athletic scholarship, I blew out my knee and had to have surgery to replace my ACL. After a year of rehab I wanted to get some of my flexibility back so I started martial arts in the summer of 1983. For the next five years I studied Kenpo and a little bit of Aikido while working as a bouncer and realizing that what I was learning didn’t always work in the bars of Boston.

In 1986 I became interested in ninjutsu through the books of Stephen K. Hayes and in 1988 found my teacher Mark Davis, who I still train with to this day. Through Mark’s generosity I got to meet, train with and get beat up by many of the senior practitioners of ninjutsu in the world—Dr. Hatsumi, Stephen and Rumiko Hayes, Muramatsu-san, Moti Nativ, Oguri-san, Seno-san, Bud Malmstrom, Nagato-san, Jack Hoban, Shirashi-san, and many others. It has been an amazing journey which led me to receiving a Shidoshi teaching license from the Bujinkan while in Japan in 2003, being awarded the To-Shi warrior name of Fuutoshi, "Warrior of The Evil Repelling Blade," and becoming a member of An-shu Stephen K. Hayes' To-Shin Do Shihan Kai Master Instructors Board.

While these honors were wonderful to receive, it has been the never ending discoveries while training that has kept me going for more than three decades—finding them, trying to understand them and using science and humor to help others see them, too. There’s nothing better than watching one of our students, in Shinobi Science, LIVE, or Ninja Sports, discover a hidden lesson inside a technique and come away with amazement and joy at having done so.

Theresa Murphy

I began training in the martial arts in 1984. I studied Shotokan, Taekwondo and Kenpo mostly as a great way to stay in shape that was far more appealing than running or lifting weights. I was owner and head instructor of a martial arts school from 1991 to 1997. In 1999 I attended a Mark Davis Seminar and started looking for a place nearby to train in Ninjutsu.

I found one of his senior students (Dennis) and left the other arts and my black belts behind to train full time in this art. It was the first art I had trained in that had an answer for what to do when attacked if you are smaller or at a disadvantage. I was hooked the first time I tossed a big guy over my shoulder and it didn’t feel like I did anything!

Over the years I have become a student in the Togakure Ryu leadership class with Mark Davis and have spent over ten years taking privates lessons and training with Rumiko Hayes. Because of our relationship, I hosted the only two Seminars taught exclusively by An-shu Rumiko Hayes.

In the first several years of training, Dennis and I researched, tested and created LIVE: Lessons In Violence Evasion, a program designed for women to evade and escape violence. LIVE has been taught at seminars, classes, colleges, crisis centers and other events. I am passionate about teaching women how to live safer and happier lives through LIVE.

I am thankful every time that I am able to teach and see students realize there are alternative answers to protecting themselves other then what is currently provided by the martial art industry. I still continue my training with Dennis Mahoney, Mark Davis, and An-shu Rumiko Hayes while teaching at Shinobi Science and laughing joyfully every time I take Dennis to the floor—“because tossing a big guy never gets old!”

How Shinobi Science Began: Evasion, escape and the skills of the Ninja

Ninjutsu, the traditional art of the Japanese Ninja, is all about evading, escaping and surviving violence, threats and volatile situations. And while Shinobi Science is a training system not a separate martial art, these life-saving principles from the ninja form the basis for every lesson, exercise and technique.

As the founders of Shinobi Science, together we have nearly six decades of professional training in the ninja martial arts, and continue to practice and teach Ninjutsu at Shinobi Martial Arts, our dojo in Plaistow, New Hampshire. We are proud members of Mark Davis' New England Ninpo Society, Stephen K. Hayes' To-Shin Do Kasumi-An Organization, and the Bujinkan Dojo of Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi.

LIVE Ninja Safe

As the owners and instructors at Shinobi Martial Arts in Plaistow, New Hampshire, we specialize in taking the lessons of the ninja martial arts and combining them with modern science to make them easily understandable and customizable to the unique needs of individuals and groups. 

Shinobi Science, our martial arts learning system, provides a scientific method for students to accelerate understanding and skill acquisition. This program is the source of all our customized programs. Shinobi Science is part of the growing collection of LIVE Ninja Safe programs designed to meet specific needs of groups and individuals. 

Other LIVE Ninja Safe programs include:

• LIVE: Lessons In Violence Evasion was designed specifically for women, however the concepts can be used by anyone who wishes to evade and escape a violent situation. 
• The Ninja Brain: Combining ninja awareness and focus techniques with modern science to explore how your mind creates your daily reality and how you can take charge of that process to live the life you want to live.
• Ninja Sports: Using the emerging field of biotensegrity and ninja body science to provide enhanced performance and safety for athletes of all ages.

Future LIVE Ninja Safe projects:

• Move Ninja Safe for those of any age who wish to prevent injury and improve balance and mobility.
• LIVE and Work Ninja Safe customized programs, which apply violence evasion concepts to specific needs of different occupations like EMS, Medical and Healthcare, Realtors, etc. 
• Children LIVE Ninja Safe which adapts LIVE to a younger audience and includes injury prevention.