Ninjutsu School to Avoid

I saw this on Facebook and thought it warranted a repost here for safety reasons in case anyone's looking for a place to train in that area.

The school in question is calling itself the Ninja Order of all things, and was founded by Travis Maxson, who claims to have received a Menkyo Kaiden. He currently teaches the classes based on his style's syllabus, which includes the following:

• Aiki Jujitsu
• Yawara Jujitsu
• Kano Jujitsu
• Kodokan Judo (aka Kano Jujitsu, incidentally)
• Yoshi Te-Geri Ryu Karate
• Okugi No Jujitsu

None of these are ninjutsu, of course, so presumably he's claiming to teach these as add-ons to his main system. Five additional systems seems a little unlikely.


As with all bad ninja schools, there's some terrible swordwork. And naturally they put it on Youtube thinking it would actually be in their favour:


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRL0ahZ0Qe0"]Chotan Ichimi - YouTube[/ame]


I think anyone who has been to even one iaido lesson will be able to analyse how bad this looks - for those that haven't it's utter garbage. It's literally like he only picked up a sword for the first time that day. Part of me is really hoping that this is a parody of his school and that he's not actually this bad, especially since the website indicates that they train with live blades.


All of this is bad enough, but the worst parts are truly awful:

• There's a women-only class being set up
• The founder is a convicted sex offender, having forced a female student to perform oral sex on him as punishment for touching his black sash without permission.

Full details of the case are available here, though it makes for some fairly harrowing reading. It's possible to cross check the profile against the sheriff's department profile page if you're in the area.



Now, he may well have served his time, but I wouldn't want any female friend or relative of mine to train in his school based on both his criminal record and his history of essentially setting himself up as a cult leader. Couple that with the fact that he's clearly passing himself off as something he's not and apparently teaching stuff he doesn't have a clue about, and you have one of the worst schools I've ever even heard of.

 

Serious question, although I think I know the answer already.

Is there a stance in any system of martial arts like the one at 20 seconds? Or the weird bow stance with knees collapsed like at :51?

I can't even past the stances to look at what he does with the sword. But maybe it has some validity in another system?

 

At 20 seconds, yes, in a sense. Kendo competitions begin with both fighters squatting like that. (If your knees are such that you can't or shouldn't squat, then you drop your sword tip to the ground as the other guy squats.) But they rise up very suddenly and smoothly in kendo and boom, attack immediately.

Edit: Like Dean said, the kendo term for that squatting pose is "sonkyo."

At 51 seconds, I don't know, but regardless he appears to be off balance in his thrust, so it was done poorly even if that stance is legitimate.

 

I scanned the syllabus page. I want to learn "Thunderbolt stick tactics." I'm picturing Thor's hammer, and lightening coming out of it. :jester: