Are you serious about mastering Ninpo-Taijutsu – the unarmed self-protection method of Japan’s ancient Ninja warriors? If so, then you must learn to control several aspects of body movement that are often overlooked – even by advanced practitioners of the art.
This article outlines the root skills that must be developed if you are to truly learn ninjutsu. These lessons and skills won’t be found on any list. You won’t find them in the sets of kata examples that everyone clings to as “Holy” things to be worshipped – as though an attacker is going to let you do your preset technique on him anyway!
Fail to learn these core lessons of the Ninja’s body art, and you will never get very far!
What are they? What are these skills that, if you aren’t aware of your inability to do them, will prevent you from ever succeeding in your quest to master the art of the Ninja?
I’ll give you hint.
With rare exception, you were probably never taught to do these things correctly – even though you learned how to stand and walk as a very young child!
Do you know what they are?
They are your:
1) Posture – Your ability to effectively stack the parts of your body atop one another so as to neutralize the effects of gravity. Your posture, or lack there-of, is the primary element in your ability to control your balance and move effortlessly from point to point.
2) Walking method – For most of us, we were never taught to walk, so much as to control the act of falling. When you look at the lessons that a child receives – or learns on his or her own – they do not learn to carry and transport their upper bodies on their legs. Most of us learned from the very beginning to lean our upper bodies forward or backward and then fall to a leg that we placed under ourselves.
For most people, walking is more like “controlled falling.” Mastering the Ninja’s taijutsu, is mastering your ability to control your legs in a way that effortlessly “carries” the torso from place to place.
Without these two vital skills that have everything to do with your ability to maintain balance, move gracefully and easily, and to move with speed and power without fighting yourself – you will always have to work harder to defend against a bigger, stronger, more intent attacker!
And THAT…is NOT very Ninja-like at all!
If you really want to master the ninja’s art – to learn ninjutsu – then you must learn the core principles and concepts that give the art, and the master Ninja, it’s power and ability! How? By getting the lessons that lie within the lessons.
If you’re serious about your training, whether you’re a beginner or someone who’s been training for a while, you need to read my ninja training book, “Becoming the Master!” It’s available free at: https://onlineninjaacademy.com/becoming-the-master/