im thinking about 5 or 6 feet long.. but yeah, it is a real technique lol. it basically just gives you a little higher jump... and since i cant jump, it is pretty helpful for me lol brick walls and skateboard shoes or sandals are good for practice too. just make sure the bottom of the board is secure.
Okay, went to Home Depot yesterday, got 3 pieces of pipe insulation. The smooth black foam type. Cut one in half and slipped it over my older shinai, and viola' a home made fukuro shinai. Perfect for whacking your uke "just a little bit harder" than you would with a regular shinai. Took another full length piece and slipped a bamboo bo into it and now have a decent padded bo. So far, have homemade practice yari, naginato, fukuro shinai, kunai, kyoketsu shoge, leather shuriken, kusari fundo, padded bo and hanbo. All safe for training. But makes me kinda wistful for the days when we didn't have all this safety gear and went at it pretty hardcore. If you didn't go home with a bruise of scrape (or rope burn) you weren't training hard enough. Of course, I was younger and able to bounce back (read "heal") faster.
Uses for foam pipe insulation: http://kihon.com/dojo/more13.txt Make a couple and give them away as holiday gifts for your buyu!
Walking on noise Any ideas on how to practice walking in really rough ground (bark-filled gardens, deep gravel) quietly. If not I guess I'll just keep out of the garden.
OMG! Now you tell Me! ...could somebody please get a medical dictionary and look up "Sword" and "Head"... time is a factor.
try different things, roll your feet, keep a lot of your foot in contact wth the ground, etc. take your time and keep trying.. look for places that look flat or smashed down.. gravel like that is harder to move, so it should make less noise. wood chips and soft stuff like that is a lot quieter in rain, since it is softened a lot. (also rain makes movement harder to pick out visually, and covers any sounds you do make.
the only thing i've found is to go waaaay slower. slow enough so you can feel it before it creaks much and pull your foot back to try another path
wow..i tried that and it is kinda difficult... Im sorta new to ninjutsu, did alota different martial arts... what do they teach you in ninjutsu that is not hand to hand (taijutsu) or weapons combat like other martial arts?
ehh.. im not entirely sure.. it depends very heavily on your instructor or shidoshi. i havent gotten to anything but basic taijutsu in my formal training.. everything else i have read on my own or found by experimentation.
yeah i've got that problem too, i'd wager that i have the most squeaky floors in the entire united states. good for intruders, bad when your trying to walk around without waking someone up (as i'm on 3rd shift as of late ) hey kage, you joined that dojo in blountville already??
yeah a few months ago. shidoshi left for japan, and they rescheduled for a while, so i missed quite a few classes because i didnt know when they were training, but im back in the rhythm now, and i just got invited to join the Bujinkan. i so happy lol
Squeaky floor or stair hint, walk close to the wall or joints, where the floor rests on the supports. Less movement of the floor boards, therefore less noise. This is also one of those instances that you might want to put the toes down first, test the floor and then roll the rest of the foot down. Just the opposite of how one would normally walk, heel first roll outside edge of foot to toes.
You can also practice observing other people using peripheral vision. Make a mental note to yourself what they are doing. Make sure you are looking somewhere else and not at the person! I do this alot when I'm at line at a store.
Used to have to walk on squeaky floorboards all the time. It takes actually walking a lot on the floorboard to at least judge whether it will make noises or not. These skills are normally developed during childhood or teenage years, used to sneaky out at night from third floor down to first floor past over 10 people most nights Oh yeah, the years of youth
Buy some tennis or racquetballs. Face a wall and turn around. Throw the ball behind and wait for the sound of the balling bouncing of the wall (it is crucial that you don't anticipate, but wait for the noise). As soon as you hear the noise, turn around and catch the ball. This drill helps develops faster vision, and therefore quicker reactions. If you want to make it harder you could throw two balls (one in each hand) or change your distance from the wall. I got this from Flash Focus
