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[Summer]

Edited January 28 by Summer

[Summer]

Edited January 28 by Summer

[EFreethought]

There is something similar in a school of ninjitsu. The late Glenn Morris wrote about it in "Path Notes of an American Ninja Master", although now they use a wooden sword.

 

I don't know if they closed their eyes, but the master would attack from behind, and they had to get out of the way at the right moment.

[thelerner]

8 hours ago, EFreethought said:

There is something similar in a school of ninjitsu. The late Glenn Morris wrote about it in "Path Notes of an American Ninja Master", although now they use a wooden sword.

 

I don't know if they closed their eyes, but the master would attack from behind, and they had to get out of the way at the right moment.

Right, but by Morris's time they used either a shinai or bokken, no longer a real sword.  

 

There is some controversy about how 'real' his master, Hatsumi's lineage is.  Morris's teacher was undoubtedly amazing but in Ninjutsu history is very contested.  I greatly enjoyed and recommend Path Notes book for those interested in esoteric martial arts and mysticism.  

[Nungali]

9 hours ago, Summer said:

Anybody?

 

I've got a body !  

 

I have seen a film of a test similar to this , some martial arts school , sorry I cant remember . They had to sit on floor and be randomly attacked from behind with a boken  and be able to sense the moment and apply a well times technique . They could not do it every time , but some times they managed to pull it off .

 

My first karate karate instructor ( Japanese style ) would stand against the wall and invite us to strike and stop before contact at either the back of his head, middle or lower back, and  he would call out what we had aimed at . That might have been  a trick .

 

years later , one of my aikido instructors did a similar thing , but hos was more to do with a sense of the timing , with his back to us . We where able to test this one a bit more :   he can hear us  ... so we where sure to be quiet .  he is seeing shadows or light change, so we turned out some lights and made sure the street lights coming in the window where the only lights and got him to face them ... we tried this and that but he was still able to do it  

 

( it ended amusingly , like some scene from a Jackie Chan movie  ;  " Try and get me ! "  close all the blinds and curtains and turn off lights - at night -  turned into a class rumble , we thought we had him , where all piled on . Then the lights go on and he is standing over near the door at the light switch ....  with some guy from the class being squashed at the bottom of the pile    ) .

 

After years of training AND  years of motorcycle riding  and still being alive   its a valuable skill .  The beginning of it seems to come from what I call 'spherical awareness ' being aware of the space all around you , all at the same time . Ju waza / randori is a great practice (if done right ! ) to help develop it .  There are other exercises ... I was doing some yesterday  ( but for another reason ) :

 

observe your sight and the way you use it . You might notice your eyes move around all the time , scanning little bits of detail, you still have vision all around the small area you are focusing on , but it is sort of vague . This small area will be focused on and switch to being focused on movements .  try to not do all of that , dont focus the eyes  and scan little bits , try to take it all in at once , try to get information from all those 'other bits' in the field of vision that are normally 'vague' but observable .

 

Also you can try this . get a friend to stand behind you , close your eyes  and get them to randomly , after  an unknown time , point their finger at that point where the back of your skull meets the top of the spine , from a distance and then move in closer .

 

See if you can feel it  and then see if you can tell when it is pointing at that spot and when it is  close to that spot .

 

The trick is :  you might not be able to move out the way , faster than a sword can cut  .... BUT

 

you might be able to move out the way (evade ) from the time the other makes the mental intention to attack,  the message gets to the arms and body, and the attack begins .  At first one  can panic and react to an attack , over time one learns to be calm and RESPOND TO an attack . After a while 'specific types of attack' sort of have their own energy field associated with them ... its as though you can feel some form of a specific technique coming before it gets there , I suppose it could be a 'mental projection ' from the other .

 

I suppose that as at times , I have experimented with projecting an attack mentally ... you really gotta make your 'own self' believe it ; 'I am gonna come in with a front kick so hard  ...  right in the chest . ... and then nail em with a right cross  and the other   was  " Where did THAT come from , I was SURE you where  coming in with a kick then ! "    

 

 

 

There are also 'tricks'  :  friends went to some demo . Some dude claimed he  would just sit there on the floor and he could stop anyone even hitting him with a sword ... with no contact from him .  First guy took up a boken, took a few practice swings at his head , stopping them ... then 'wound up' for a hit ... but didnt do it .   the second went to hit him but went off to the side . The third looked mystified by it all, just walked up and bonked the guy on the head with the 'bonken'   . friends asked the first two later about it , they said  "  I wasnt gonna smash that guy over the head , he was a sitting duck !   I was expecting something else to happen or stop me . "  The third said , " Well, I hit him didnt I , I wasnt going to smash hois skull ." They asked the guy doing the demo about the third one and pointed out he did get hit , response was  " Well, it doesnt work with everyone  ! "  he probably imagines he is mentally  repelling them .

 

Dont try this with real swords folks ! 

[Nungali]

8 hours ago, EFreethought said:

There is something similar in a school of ninjitsu. The late Glenn Morris wrote about it in "Path Notes of an American Ninja Master", although now they use a wooden sword.

 

I don't know if they closed their eyes, but the master would attack from behind, and they had to get out of the way at the right moment.

 

That could be what I was thinking of,  when I was trying to place that youtube .

[Nungali]

By the way .... there where no traditional Ninjas .  Its a bit of a story concocted ... sure they had assassins and 'undercover agents' and practiced all sorts of stuff . But the traditional ninja as we think of them is a fallacy .

 

yeah ... I didnt like that either .   But a historian   tanned my arse in that argument !

 

The traditional 'Ninja'  'look'  was taken from 'Koroko ' ... what we might call 'stage hands' :

 

 

 

[Taomeow]

4 hours ago, Nungali said:

By the way .... there where no traditional Ninjas .  Its a bit of a story concocted ... sure they had assassins and 'undercover agents' and practiced all sorts of stuff . But the traditional ninja as we think of them is a fallacy .

 

yeah ... I didnt like that either .   But a historian   tanned my arse in that argument !

 

The traditional 'Ninja'  'look'  was taken from 'Koroko ' ... what we might call 'stage hands' :

 

 

 

 

Hokusai didn't know...

 

[RobB]

It's the Bujinkan Godan test. You can find videos on YT.

Edited October 16, 2023 by RobB
Missed a word out

[Summer]

Edited January 28 by Summer