What are both the pros and cons of training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu?

Would you say that there is generally an inverse correlation between skill level and how much they court publicity?

 

When you say failing, what part of your regular bjkn training involves the risk of failure?

 

But if you've started your own dojo, have no teacher apart from "the boss" and you have no self awareness, it's very easy to kid yourself, the failure in the system isn't obvious...... Hence van donk etc

 

Ninjutsu might be the worst offender of belts not counting for anything at the highest levels. It's downright unfair on people new to martial arts to discover for themselves what works and what doesn't.

 

And yet, what RVD shows in that clip is simply no worse than things I've seen demoed by Hatsumi. There is simply no disputing that. The difference is that people simply rationalise it differently.

 

True, except one of those B's stands for "Bujinkan" and the only instructor he's ever had was Hatsumi.

 

Always thought "Brian" was the worst name to put in a martial arts organisation.
"Welease Bwian!"

 

No, it counts for something: a sign of money and connections. If you don't have money to pay for the grade, you can't wear it. If you don't have proper connections (aka shihan) that will recommend you as deserving of the rank, no way will you reach that rank.

In the age of youtube, being stupid (to simply believe in it) and lazy (to not check it out and research it) is not an excuse to lament a newbie's task of discovering what is effective as being unfair.​

 

Well I was both then, because I was a student at the club referenced in my above post.

 

Well I can't really hold that against Ninjutsu. BJJ has its own share of fakers who we out.

I would like to point out though that one of the black belts done their grading in Japan under Hatsumi.

There is just so much that annoys me about Ninjutsu I don't even know where to start.

 

I think that's a bit harsh. A newbie has access to a lot of info in the internet age, sure, but that info is often contradictory and the newbie lacks the knowledge to sort out which is reliable and which is not. In my opinion, a lot of people won't be able to really analyze that info to separate the wheat from the chaff until they've trained for a bit and at least tried out a couple different styles.

 

I agree. I think it can be a matter of establishing 'fit' or taste and understanding what parameters exist in training and what you are prepared to make consessions over. Which can often only come through some experience.

I think dunc's post did a pretty good job of summing up the pros and cons and what sort of cost-benefit analysis you might be making as an informed prospective student.

With that said, it's also probably pretty easy to look at BJK training as someone without a massive ninja fetish or a romantic ideological perspective on the martial arts and give it a hard and emphatic 'no cheers'.

I doubt many prospective students are coming from that place though.

 

Wierdly though, Brian was given a 7th Dan, and helped set up the bujinkan in Europe, so you can see why he thought he knew what he was doing, (although he didn't) and at least the BBD used to spar, and do ground work well before the UFC was popular, I trained under the BBD a long time ago, and even though it was massively flawed, all the Blackbelts could fight, and were quite happy to spar anyone, which you can't say about the bujinkan as a whole.

 

I was there 96-98 and there was lots of it,
They called it kumite for kyokushin style no pads striking only, randori was judo style grappling, jiyu kumite was everything in, and ne waza randori was groundwork starting from kneeling.

Edit: and tanto defence randori, lots of that, lots of getting whacked hard by the wooden tanto, and success was either putting them down, or getting to the exit door of the room.

I went to four "matsuri" and clubs all over the UK and Ireland did the same, perhaps it came after the split.