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Dreamt I was training here in Minnesota only in a much larger place than we do, and that the teacher, E.'s wife was sitting on the side and when he corrected me I fixed it immediately and when he (to my dread) kept talking, his wife told him off that I already got it. (You can tell what I really want to happen, huh?)
After about a month of his babbling though, I think I've finally pinned down E.'s philsophy vs Jack's. See, E. is training for that fateful day when ninjas drop out of his cieling and try to kill him, or when he's targetted by a mob boss and his martial artist thugs. I have no doubt he will overcome them should that happen. His philosophy is that if you're ready for that, then you're ready for anything. Jack's philosophy is that 99% of the time you're going to be fighting someone who is either an amateur or is trained in a lesser art. In point of fact, I don't think Jack plans for you to be attacked by other ninja at all since to get high ranking in Bujinkan you're either thoughtful and not going to be acting as an assassin or thug, or you're high ranking and you're not very good (*L*). There are other places teaching ninjitsu in this world, but they fall into the lesser art categories. E. thinks there are other martial art styles out there that can overcome Bujinkan style, while Jack is confident that there aren't any other styles that are better, though some styles have one or two specific moves that are hard for the human body to defend against no matter what you train in (this is why, though I have been taught to fight against a Muy Thai fighter, I will run very far away if I ever have to face one).
E. doesn't understand that his uke's are going to move as he would want them to because that's the role of the uke. You can fight back, but you're there so the sensei can show the rest of the class what he wants them to see. The sensei should be capable of demonstrating it no matter what, but a good uke will attack, fight back and reasonably respond as if they don't know what's going to happen. E. spent a lot of Monday's class cackling about how he like's fighting people like me who have good fighting instincts because we're predictable, but his basis of this was from when I was uke-ing for him. He did the technique which got him behind me, and the reasonable thing to do was to turn the other way to meet him. This isn't what I'd do in real life, but my role as uke is not to defeat the sensei, ne? (My actual reaction is 'shit, they got behind me.' *rolls forward, or kicks out backwards or does both*). Jack calls me tricky because I naturally, without thinking about it, tend to force people to do their techniques perfectly in order to do things or to change their techniques when my shoulder bends in ways most other people's don't. However, unless I'm fighting someone of a high rank or am told to fight back, I don't bother doing it deliberately because it's disheartening to never have your technnique work when you first start training. I basically let whoever I'm training with get the technique when they're reached a level of competence I think fits their rank. This is what good training partners do.
E. did make a good point on Monday that you should go with your second instinct in a fight. Discard whatever you thought of first because you probably telegraphed it, and go with whatever you think of second. That's hard to do in a high speed fight, but it's good advice and something to strive for.
Generally though, I think both E. and Jack are correct and approaching the same problem from different angles. E. will indeed be prepared for anything if he trains to fight other ninja. And Jack will be ready for anything because he trains to fight everything, though he is perfectly correct in assuming that you're not going to be fighting a competent martial artist 99% of the time. E. thinks bujinkan has it's flaws. Jack thinks it has it's flaws too, but he's altetered and adapted it enough that it doesn't, for him, have those flaws. Which is perhaps the thing that E. is missing. I remain convinced that E. isn't doing any favors for his students teaching this philosophy though. He has to constantly say, oh, you lower level guys won't be able to do this, or not throw people because their ukemi sucks. Of course, Jack's solution to this at this point in time is to just not train wtih lower level people or at least newbies anymore, but Jack's at a level of seniority where he can do that.
In other news, it rained and thundered last night and all this morning and it was lovely because I can sleep through rain and the lack of light it brings, hence the dream. I have high hopes it will break the hot weather too. *fingers crossed* Korean is going well btw. Aced the first final exam, though of course now we've entered the section of the course I'm not as familar with so it will take more studying to keep up.
After about a month of his babbling though, I think I've finally pinned down E.'s philsophy vs Jack's. See, E. is training for that fateful day when ninjas drop out of his cieling and try to kill him, or when he's targetted by a mob boss and his martial artist thugs. I have no doubt he will overcome them should that happen. His philosophy is that if you're ready for that, then you're ready for anything. Jack's philosophy is that 99% of the time you're going to be fighting someone who is either an amateur or is trained in a lesser art. In point of fact, I don't think Jack plans for you to be attacked by other ninja at all since to get high ranking in Bujinkan you're either thoughtful and not going to be acting as an assassin or thug, or you're high ranking and you're not very good (*L*). There are other places teaching ninjitsu in this world, but they fall into the lesser art categories. E. thinks there are other martial art styles out there that can overcome Bujinkan style, while Jack is confident that there aren't any other styles that are better, though some styles have one or two specific moves that are hard for the human body to defend against no matter what you train in (this is why, though I have been taught to fight against a Muy Thai fighter, I will run very far away if I ever have to face one).
E. doesn't understand that his uke's are going to move as he would want them to because that's the role of the uke. You can fight back, but you're there so the sensei can show the rest of the class what he wants them to see. The sensei should be capable of demonstrating it no matter what, but a good uke will attack, fight back and reasonably respond as if they don't know what's going to happen. E. spent a lot of Monday's class cackling about how he like's fighting people like me who have good fighting instincts because we're predictable, but his basis of this was from when I was uke-ing for him. He did the technique which got him behind me, and the reasonable thing to do was to turn the other way to meet him. This isn't what I'd do in real life, but my role as uke is not to defeat the sensei, ne? (My actual reaction is 'shit, they got behind me.' *rolls forward, or kicks out backwards or does both*). Jack calls me tricky because I naturally, without thinking about it, tend to force people to do their techniques perfectly in order to do things or to change their techniques when my shoulder bends in ways most other people's don't. However, unless I'm fighting someone of a high rank or am told to fight back, I don't bother doing it deliberately because it's disheartening to never have your technnique work when you first start training. I basically let whoever I'm training with get the technique when they're reached a level of competence I think fits their rank. This is what good training partners do.
E. did make a good point on Monday that you should go with your second instinct in a fight. Discard whatever you thought of first because you probably telegraphed it, and go with whatever you think of second. That's hard to do in a high speed fight, but it's good advice and something to strive for.
Generally though, I think both E. and Jack are correct and approaching the same problem from different angles. E. will indeed be prepared for anything if he trains to fight other ninja. And Jack will be ready for anything because he trains to fight everything, though he is perfectly correct in assuming that you're not going to be fighting a competent martial artist 99% of the time. E. thinks bujinkan has it's flaws. Jack thinks it has it's flaws too, but he's altetered and adapted it enough that it doesn't, for him, have those flaws. Which is perhaps the thing that E. is missing. I remain convinced that E. isn't doing any favors for his students teaching this philosophy though. He has to constantly say, oh, you lower level guys won't be able to do this, or not throw people because their ukemi sucks. Of course, Jack's solution to this at this point in time is to just not train wtih lower level people or at least newbies anymore, but Jack's at a level of seniority where he can do that.
In other news, it rained and thundered last night and all this morning and it was lovely because I can sleep through rain and the lack of light it brings, hence the dream. I have high hopes it will break the hot weather too. *fingers crossed* Korean is going well btw. Aced the first final exam, though of course now we've entered the section of the course I'm not as familar with so it will take more studying to keep up.
