I began class with 風盂 Fūu. Muto dori that borders on mystical. But I shared a trick I learned recently from Soke to use your shako ken like totoku.
I began class with 太刀討 Tachi Uchi or 太刀討之位 Tachi Uchi no kurai. In this kata you destroy your opponent's tachi. Or break the form of his sword attack. But it happens at a specific position in the kukan.
my Bujinkan video exploring the Bujinkan kata 跳火 Hanebi. I began class by describing a day when Hatsumi Sensei asked me to teach at the Bujinkan Honbu Dojo. He did this right after he painted isshin denshin on a scroll for me. But the kanji he used was a form of 会 to read 会心伝神 (knowing the teachings of kami). I decided to demo Hanebi, so I got to learn about this straight from Soke.
11/07/13 Warmed up with the 基本八法型 Kihon Happo Gata flow drill. One student observed that the kata work better when they are done in a spirited manner. So then I suggested that this starts with the attacker delivering a committed and substantial attack. So we repeated 骨指基本三法 Koshi Kihon Sanpo with this feeling. Since we...
A preview of my Bujinkan video exploring the technique 放擲 Hōteki. This kata makes good use of 要 kaname and juppo sessho. For me, it gets most dynamic when the kaname doesn’t remain fixed.
video transcript: Hello, my name is Michael Glenn. In this episode of the dojo show I’m thinking about 過去現在未来之術 Kako Genzai Mirai no Jutsu. That’s a mouthful, but what it really means is past, present and future. I’m looking here at some old Bujinkan membership cards and they really bring back some nostalgic memories of...
Thursday 3/28/13 Warmed up with ukemi and taihenjutsu including:zenpo kaiten, koho kaiten, sokuho kaiten, zenpo kaeru kaiten, koho kaeru kaiten, oten, and mute oten. We did shoshin gokei, looking at two different variations from different dojos. I began class showing a deceptively simple defense against a sword tsuki. As we receive from daijodan, we allow...
Thursday 11/01/12 Warmed up with basic bojutsu jodan uke. Began class with a quick review of the kata 雪耀 Setsuyaku from Tuesday night. I asked a student who hadn’t attended Tuesday night’s class to then do the kata as he just experienced it when it was done on him. He did a henka from his...
Thursday 4/12/12 Switched to three different nagare for warmups. Zenpo nagare against a punch, ushiro and gyaku nagare against a kick. Next we did Shoshin Gokei. I started class off with a simple pivot movement against a mid level tsuki. Then using the attacking momentum to redirect, you move through the space and the uke...