Advanced Techniques in Ninjutsu

Video Transcript

"Hi everybody, I'm John Graden from the Martial Arts Teachers Association here in for a treat. Joining me today is Senior Master Instructor from the Tampa Quest Martial Arts Center Mark Russo. Mark is the number one student under the foremost Ninjitsu Expert, North America, Master Stephen Hayes. Mark, show us the advance techniques of Ninjitsu. Thank you. Okay, we will, what we want to do is discuss what makes Ninjitsu different from other Martial Arts. And the fundamental answer to that is one word, in Japanese, it's Tai sabaki. Tai sabaki translates to a body art or body magic. So fundamentally that's a reference to a different way of moving your body and overall body positioning. That includes things like footwork and a different way to create power. So helping me to demonstrate that is my partner Scott Bragg. And what we'll look at first is a basic strike. So whereas most other Martial Arts would actually use the leg to create some distancing and then hit with the limb this way, in Ninjitsu we're actually going to strike with our entire lower body. So using my limb almost like a battering ram, I will hit with my entire body. So now I've got body weight and gravity working for me rather than against me and I'm using my entire body weight as a part of the strike. Second part of Tai sabaki is pure avoidance. So, if a punch is coming to hit me in the face, rather than me doing some kind of a block; as that punch comest to hit me, I will simply move my body by using footwork which will then put me in a position to avoid the immediate danger and engineer a counterstrike. So a punch is coming to get me by falling back a certain way, I'm in a position to avoid being hit and immediately issue an effective counterstrike. Tai sabaki also has to do with being connected to my attacker's body. So if Mr. Bragg is grabbing me someway because he wants to hit me; again, by moving from my base and using my musculo skeletal structure in connection with my attacker's musculo skeletal structure, I can issue a very small movement that will cause this person to be unable to execute the strike that they had intended. Very simple example of Tai sabaki; so again I'm grabbed here, instead of doing something with my arm, where I lift up, I remind myself to be grounded. We're going to use body weight and gravity and line my bones up and render his strike ineffective. This is a simple example of Tai sabaki."