One of the pillars of the Japanese Shitenno is back in action. Seno Sensei is teaching Saturday morning at the Hombu again. He is currently covering the fundamentals in a way that most of us came to the Bujinkan too late to learn, but this is where we should have started our training experience originally. This training is in keeping with what all the Shihan here are doing. Hatsumi Sensei has asked all the Japanese Shihan to again teach the fundamentals as expressed in the waza from the densho. Seno Sensei has chosen to teach the inner details of movement unique within each waza. Details like the precise angle, timing, and distance required to make a waza work; spot on targeting with the kyusho; free, flexible movement with your body to be able to take the opponents balance without compromising your own. The idea being that through our movement within the waza, we discover the limits of our opponents movement by gradually taking the slack (yoyu) out of his body up to the place where he starts to fall. Knowing where this place is informs us about what it feels like to completely take someones balance. Through duplicating this experience with a variety of training partners we begin to see how this might apply to Jissen Gata (real combat) without having to rely on greater force to overwhelm the opponent. As we all know already, in the Bujinkan this experience starts with the Kihon. Seno Sensei feels that through focused training on the Kihon we should be getting the same results from the same movement every time, learning how to adjust the angling, timing, and distance to match precisely a variety of different size and shape opponents and still be able to get the same results without relying on henka. The only way this will happen is to train slowly to discover where each piece of the Kihon needs to be in order to take control of the opponent without needing to power through the movement. By taking the time to work slowly, smoothly, and precisely through these pieces of the original form we can then, over time, begin to discover the places of natural transitions (henka) which occur within it. Henka are meant to be a natural evolution from within the Kihon or waza not something that is forced from it into a new or different technique. It has been very interesting and challenging taking a magnifying glass to my fundamental movement, but I think this is the foundation of the subtlety and effortless power found in Hatsumi Senseis movement. Soke is forever reminding us, Dont meet force with force, instead by using natural power the opponent just falls away and the roots for this natural power are to be found in the movement contained within the Kihon.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 10:01:03 +0000
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