Ninjutsu sessions for this week, 21-23/9/2014

This week, because of the Rosh Hashana holiday, we will miss some sessions. Training will be usual at Sunday, in the Jerusalem group, Monday, the Ramat Hasharon group, and Tuesday the Tel Aviv group. We will not train in Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We will continue with our main subject during the last month - the role, in kata, of the preliminary moves before the crux of the kata. The preliminary moves in Ninjutsu techniques are rarely understood inside a methodical frame of reference. For us there are at least two reasons for these moves: preparing for the chaos in the Randori level and practicing awareness in a mutual skirmish that is not rhythmic. We will work on immediate reaction to an opponent's attack using punching gloves. I am attaching here some relevant videos. The first one explains these preliminary moves in Hane Taoshi kata, the second video shows Roger Maywater Junior teaching the same principle using distances that are closer then we use, and the third is another kata we are going to drill into - Tatsumaki.

Video of Hane taoshi

Video of close syncopation reactions

Video of Tatsumaki kata