Class 2007/08/13 (Mon)

An interesting class today, a bit physical. After the warm-up and conditioning with abundance of kicks and, oddly, no push-ups, we went to work with focus mints first, X-ray sheets next. The X-ray sheet is used in reaction excercises. They are suddenly unfolded or dropped and you have to hit them quickly. I think I did well, all the Tae Kwon Do conditioning came in handy.

Speaking of which, modern TKD is very, very speed oriented. They constantly modify the art to perfect the speed of punches and kicks, and I have to say, it brings results. The art is reasonably easy to study, and proper application can defeat the majority of ham-fisted opponents, as long as you stay alert and do not get suckered into a close fight or, god forbid, grappling.

The Ninjutsu, as I see it after a couple of months of study, is a sort of tricky or intelligent art. I noticed that Mr. Albrecht easily moves quickly and changes deep postures quickly, but he is deeply into a sort of tactical flexibility and general applications.

Anyone who studied car driving knows that a human has a range of reaction time. A simple reaction takes about 0.2s. This is what we try to approach with X-ray sheets. A complex reaction, when a person has to select a course of action, can take all of 1.2s. Naturally, we do not have that much time in a fight. So, how can one be flexible?

I think the answer is two-fold: reactions must be simplified, and they must overlap. We have drills for the first reason. Old Ninjutsu did not have any drills, pupils developed their own approaches with partners. But it was recognized by Dr. Hatsumi that drills can be more effective. It's a part of how he said to teach in 10 years what he learned in 15 years. About overlap, it's when you continue to react even as your body is in motion. It's a bit tricky and I am not good at it.

Anyway, after the X-ray sheets we started working with wide open stance and opening the door, then moving on. It goes against a vertical strike with a weapon. Not as easy as it looks.

This week, classes end at 6 p.m. on Friday and there is no class on Saturday because of testing.