Does a Ninjutsu background mean koryu teachers won't accept a student?

This may be a bit of thread hijacking, but I don't know where else to ask the question, so moderators, if this becomes a sidetrack, please feel free to split it off of the thread.

Since this thread is about people with a background in the contemporary Ninja arts, I was curious: what sorts of technical proclivities/behaviors/etc., beer preferences, habits, or other background-specific "ghosts of the past" are associated with people with a contemporary Ninja background when they take up koryu budo?

 

Footwork, kamae, the nigirigata when they take up a weapon, the angle at which they hold it when going into kamae, etc.

Since you have quoted me on this, I'm going to rewind a few years back to when I first arrived back in the UK, with permission to teach.

In one of the koryu I am permitted to teach, there are a few sets of kihon; Breaking free from grips, locking joints and throwing. One of my students who no longer trains with me, instead of doing the technique (A version of ude garami) as prescribed in the ryuha, would keep on doing the technique ala oni kudaki in the Takamatsu-den schools (Quite a nice version and very effective to boot.) but just not the way we do it. Upon the first time he did this, I just said to him, "OK, but not so much oni-kudaki as this......." He came up to me after class and asked me how I knew about the name of that technique. I told him that I'm a man that does his homework and asked him how long he trained in the Takamatsu-den schools. Four and a half years I was told.

Like I said before, certain prior ingrained, trained physical habits can tell you a lot. When you can tell, you can tell.

When you go to Meiji Jingu Kobudo Taikai a number of years in succession, as an observer you can see the exact same koryu groups demonstrate again and again. When a group introduces a rookie via embu, you can tell sometimes - clunky footwork & cutting technique, uncharacteristic of last year's embu who did the exact same kata two years in a row etc. Jump forward a year later to the next Meiji Jingu embutaikai and you can see that exact same rookie's technique has transformed into something tangible that has the guts of the ryuha contained in it.

You can tell when student doesn't have something ingrained in their performance, just as you can tell when a student is carrying extra "baggage" from prior training. Something from which I am guilty of myself, which certain members of MAP will testify.

Now, back to that dram of Macallan 10 year old fine oak I was sipping on.

 

As a continuation of Steve's post (all of which I can only nod in argreement with), when I first arrived here and started training with my current teacher, we were introduced to Bujutsu and the first thing I did with it was the bofuri from Kukishin Ryu (a habit I had picked up training in the Genbukan) my teacher came over to me and said "aaahh..Kukishin Ryu ne"...
I stopped that habit shortly afterwards..
I now do Bofuri from Takeuchi Ryu only..And that habit would be easily spotted in any other Bo using ryuha that I chose to go to here..
Interesting how widely these habits are seen and recognised all over the place though..
Regards..

(as a further aside, Steve, got a Karaoke trip tonight and have the case you bought for me all filled with a Romeo y Julieta and some of that wonderful Macallen as well for finishers...Thanks for that Bruv..)

 

Indeed.

Instructors if they have had enough experience, can see when a new student is a total neophyte and when a new student has had some previous martial arts or pugilistic training of some sort. Certain ingrained physical and mental habits make that apparent. It's nothing magical really, it's just knowing what to look out for.

Enjoy, sounds like you're gonna have a hell of a time.

I'm working tonight. The last day of the Chelsea flower show. Boy has it ever been busy! Clicked in about 1500 customers on Friday alone.