For one reason of another, I missed Daikomyosai celebrations for many years straight. But this time, Austin Bujinkan joined with the event hosted by the Bellaire school in greater Houston. The O-sensei is turning 95, or so I heard.
It was quite low key, primarily a seminar. Just the way I like it, actually.
I've got to handle the gold medal. I knew that they existed, because Jeffrey Prather was awarded one for hosting the 1995 taikai. But I've never even seen one until now.
The Austin Bujinkan dojo had a cutting day right ahead of Christmas. We rolled tatami mats and soaked them in a tub, then cut them.
The Austin dojo does not have a traditional Web presence, only Instagram and other social media. So I can only link to a photo of myself holding a tatami roll.
One of the fundamental ideas in taijutsu practice is to take it slowly and build the muscle memory, and only speed up later. However, there is an area where it's not practical to slow down as far as we do elsewhere: ukemi, or rolling and falling. At some point, when you roll, you have to do two things at once while moving. That is because your own inertia is part of the technique.
Still, you can break it down to elements, and practice that way. Also, some rolls are simpler than others.
We went out to the park today and rolled to our heart's content on the grass. Usually at this time of year, Fudou Myou migrates indoor. But the weather was great, the grass was dry (mostly).
I thought to try and spring a surprise, but Shihan posted an update to our Facebook page, so the cat is out of the bag: Fudo Myou dojo is moving to a new location. Hours and contact information remains the same (find them on the website). We remain in town, and with Albuquerque being a sizeable city, the new place still a leased office. It would be cool to have a plot of land with a training hall and area for outdoor activities, such as sword practice. In a typical training room, I'm liable to hit the ceiling with a bo. Our old place had exposed day light tubes along the ceiling and bofuri required unyielding vigilance there.
This one came somewhat unexpectedly. It's a rule in the Yamaneko system, or in the whole Bujinkan actually, that tests are not announced. It makes sense: one has to be ready at all times. But usually one can tell that it's coming, even if not the exact date.
One feature of classes in Fudo Myou was new for me that we have regular classes in a park. Before, I only got outside for "special training" that black belt candidates did in Ernie Reyes' system.
Typically we take a break from the park over the winter. Not so much because of the cold, but because ground gets icy and that is conductive to injuries. Of course as ninja, we are equipped to use kamae properly and will not slip and tear up ligaments unless we make a mistake, but we do it according to the maxim of "training in most ideal circumstances for most un-ideal circumstances". This winter, however, was very mild in Albuequerque and we did not take the usual break. So, the image above is of Mr.R. (tori) working with Mr.G. (uke) on the bleak winter grass.
Barely made it, honestly, but I'm 7th kyu now.
Also, I was helping out testing Chris-sempai for shodan (1st degree). In our school it includes things like 2 mile run and 2 minutes of push-ups. I need to step it up.
Sensei started talking about staging a more focused recruitment effort recently. Although Fudo Myou was a fixture of Albuquerque for years, it does not seem to be very well known.
Sensei's idea is to put up posters around town, but I'm starting to think that we really should be getting on various electronic lists for ninjutsu schools, such as winjutsu.com, ninjutsu.com (neither currently lists our dojo).
One practical question is how to have any kind of listing labeled. In general, we do not talk about "ninjutsu" much, since the term have become loaded in the popular culture. The dojo is a place where you study Bujinkan Taijutsu (武神館の忍術). But I suspect that most people looking for a school would start searching for "ninjutsu". I know I did.
Not sure what was at fault, perhaps not warmed up enough or just overstrained it while trying throw Chris, but I pulled a muscle in the back. It happened while we did some nage. Perhaps cool weather was a factor.
I'm just back from a seminar, to which Mr. Jeff Prather, head of Yamaneko, invited his colleague (also a Shihan), Mr. Bud Maelstrom. Bud, as he insists on being addressed by students, headed a dojo in Atlanta that he took over when Stephen K. Hayes moved on.
After the meeting, I heard Shinans reminiscing about training in Japan with Japanese Shinans under Soke. It included stuff like "being hit by Nagato is like being hit with a rebar". Bud is excellently controlled, however. Senior instructors of Tucson dojo were too, so I excaped with minor damage and a lot of practice time.
Not sure if I left a good impression about ABQ dojo. There was quite a bit to incorporate and improve before from the subject matter of the seminar. I should've expected it, but I am still too shallow, for instance. Thought I fixed it, but apparently not.
Fudo Myou Dojo (of Yamaneko Hall) is the smallest school I attended, ever. Current cohort is only 3 students, including myself. This offers me a certain advantage, as Lees-sensei does not have to delegate teaching.
Also, I never heard of after-class tea before. It would simply be impractical for a school of the size of Mr. Albright's, let alone the KJN Rick's massive operation (putting aside different discipline).
Almost exactly 4 years since the last entry, I went for a class in my new school, one mentioned previously: Fudo Myou Dojo. I am not entirely clear how Yamaneko comes into the picture: is this a parent school? Anyway, it is a Bujinkan school.
The class itself it was quite a disaster. For the warm-up, the heart rate goes up and blood vessels expand, but as we move on, the rate collapses, and so does the blood pressure. If I keep standing, it ends in blackout. So, I spent most of the class laying on the ground, where sensei placed me.
What to do? Training, I suppose. I know from experience that typicall conditioning helps very little, because it focuses on handling the exertion. But my problem is what happens thereafter. But perhaps something may be found.
Now that I am in Albuquerque, I am searching for a school. But the first thing I've done was to look up Tracy at Networker. Surprise, we have a virtual dojo: Tracy Bujinkan Buyu Dojo ran by Mr. Jim Kruse. And they meet at my old school, Traditional Martial Arts. What's more, Mr. Albracht is one of the instructors in Buyu. I saw Mr. Kruse many times, giving mysterious classes which were never on the schedule or talked about. Now I know.
The only entry at WIN for Albuquerque is Fudo Myo Dojo, ran by Mr. Domonic Lees. It is also a virtual dojo, meeting at a local community center.
General search unearthes a number of references, the most prominent is Jubunnaai. Their blog wasn't updated since December of 2007, but it's not like this blog sees regular updates. Mr. Lees trained with Jubunnaai before he founded Fudo Myo.
