Ninjutsu Uncovered

How many hours do you work in a week, is it 20, 30, 40 or more? What do we do with our time when we are not at work; some people come to learn martial arts. I see it as my duty to give 100% to each class I teach whether it is a private class or group. Firstly, I have a system set up in my brain that makes me remember the class I have previously done; It is my shoe shop. In my mind, I run a shoe shop where all my students have a shoe box full of the techniques, and things they have done and are currently doing. As the student comes in for their 1-hour private class my little shop owner pops into the back of the shop to retrieve the box for that student, and we carry on from the last class. I have no idea how my brain does this as I don’t even worry about it not being there when I need it (but I can’t remember what I go upstairs for). This one hour out of everyone’s busy life full of family work dramas and chaos becomes very important and It is my job to make it special. I t...

Sitting waiting for a private class to come in and my mind drifts to how many times I have sat on the floor waiting for people to come and learn the arts I teach. My mind drifts back to all the people I have taught in my martial arts career, when I made the leap to teach fulltime, there were very few instructors making a living at doing that unlike today; martial arts have become so like the consumer culture of today;   A toyshop of Martial arts. I think back to when I started the arts, I had to travel all around the world from a very young age (gaining my black belt in Ninjutsu at the age of 20 years old) to gain the knowledge I have, and the 35 years of practise has helped to develop me as an artist and a human being. People nowadays seem to demand that you pamper them, and if you can’t give them (in their eyes) what they want you are thrown away like an old broken toy. I know the development of martial arts have grown, but has it grown into a “pot noodle “culture? Were ...