Ninjutsu Uncovered

Over the last few years I have been finding out and training in the 10 th planet jiu-jitsu, headed by Eddie Bravo; I have subscribed to his website, bought his books and DVD’s and tried to do his amazing system. I have just had the pleasure to be graded to blue belt under one of Eddie’s first black belts, Sean Bollinger, who is an amazing grappler and has been coming to England for the past 2-3 years to spread the 10 th planet system. Grading to blue belt made me think of how I started in ninjitsu many moons ago, lol. I was a young kid that loved the shadow warrior cult long before the ninja boom in the mid-eighties - 1980’s not 1880’s, if you must know. I fell in love with the art and this was before DVD’s and the internet (I can hear you laughing). I had to wait for ‘Ninja no Shuri’ to come out quarterly, it was about 8 to 10 pages of paper sent out from the European Bujinkan Ninja society and it was like reading the holy grail. I would read it over and over again and try to do th...

Do you ever go upstairs at home get there and forget what you were looking for or do you go to the shops and come home with things but not the thing you went for in the first place? Yes that happens to me too! As I do different arts both training and teaching, people often ask if I get confused about which art I am doing at one time. The answer is not much as I put them in their boxes; let me explain. In my head I have my arts that I train in put in little shoe boxes in a little storeroom and whenever I need a certain art I will go along a corridor into my storeroom (like in a old shoe shop) collect the box, open it and use it. When I have finished with it I will return it neatly to its shelf in the storeroom - O.C.D! Most people are audio or visually minded people, that is, the way they take in information and process it to gain an answer. I like being visual, I put on a little film show above my head to gain the answer - I just have taken this a step further lol. I use the storeroom ...

I have often been told I don’t take a compliment very well and it is true, I feel sometimes uncomfortable when someone tells me I have done something well or that they are proud of what I have achieved (I feel that awkward feeling coming on as I write) but for one time only I am going to boast about me… (Gulp) 2013 marks 20 years teaching martial arts full-time and that is a very long time to be beaten up, choked, kicked and dropped on my head, in no particular order. As I sit here writing this, my back is sore all of the time, my knees are a purple colour, my elbows are the same and I spend a lot of time trying to stretch my shoulders and neck so it sometimes feels like a lot longer. I have been training for 30 years. Over the years teaching and training I have always given 100% to everything I do; I hate not being committed to anything, I feel that if you are going to do something you must do it with your whole being! I am proud that I have made a gym to be proud of. The AFC was the ...

As I teach the art of Ninjutsu I have come across a problem: most people can’t sit down. The Japanese sit on the floor, like many cultures, in formal settings and in the martial arts the seating stances of seiza, suwari gata and fudoza are adopted, all of which are used in both unarmed and armed attacks. We do not have this floor sitting culture so for anyone who has sat in seiza (legs folded beneath you) will know what I mean; the pins and needles as your legs go numb and the pain as you try to regain your feet - like bambi on ice. I live in the North East of England were people rarely sit on the floor; in our culture we stand (i.e. pubs) and sit at tables so we find it hard to get into these seated positions. We should have started an art called Geordie jiu jitsu based on pub fighting (oh wait I think we have already LOL) everyone knows a person that I would class as a social hand grenade i.e. explodes in every social setting. I will let you know when I have the art up and running LO...

Do you ever get the feeling that someone is lying to you or they are not telling the truth? In life one of the things I hate people doing to me or the masses is lying! It might start little, a private class might say they are running late (at least they’re running, it saves the warm-up) when they have just left the house knowing they are going to be very late. I don’t mind if you are late just don’t lie! When classes don’t turn up and they tell you a story so wild even they don’t believe it why the hell should you believe it! Just to get out of paying the class fee sometimes they don’t think it really matters, but to me I could have put another private class in their place and I have to listen to bare-faced lying to get out of paying the money. I am a full time professional Martial Arts Instructor and have been since 1993; this is my “proper “job. How many people do you know that will go to work and not get paid for the hours they spent there, not many I don’t think. Everyone lies some...

It is Friday night at 8pm, I have just come in and eaten a king prawn stir fry washed down with a pint of orange juice. My two daughters are running riot around the house due to a combination of no school tomorrow and a game that is acted out with military precision using their imagination; they have in turn inspired me to write about it! When you have trained in the martial arts for as long as I have (30 years next year) as Geoff Thompson says: I am two days older than water … no laughing! You would think that the arts would become boring doing the same old training the same old way to polish your technique; you would be wrong I am even more inspired to train now than I have ever been even if my body can’t muster what my head thinks I can (jumping kicks are off my Christmas list). When I am not training at the gym I am sitting at home watching DVD’s about training or reading books about training or watching the dreaded YouTube about training! (What a nerd I hear you cry, I am, I am). ...

YouTube has a lot to answer for as I have said in some of my older blogs (please read them! lol) People think that Ninjutsu is a weird art that is so detached from real life that it is out of date with modern self-protection. I am here today to put a stop to all that nonsense. Jumping out of trees in the dead of night might be someone’s idea of fun, but learning an art to get you home safely is what ninjutsu is all about, or should be. The YouTube culture of today fills the site with less than perfect self-protection and advice to dazzle the viewers making them believe in the footage being taught will happen as planned in a real-life fight. I would hate to rain on anyone’s parade but no they won’t wait in line to give you a kicking, and no they will not be happy to jump to the floor and stay there while you wrap you gi around their neck ( they wear a gi at all times so they remember to use it during every fight!). Self-protection should use any method that you deem appropriate to save ...