subject: Want To Master The Art Of The Ninja? Then You Must Understand That You Can Only See What You Know! [print this page] Part of martial arts and self defense training is to increase your knowledge base. That's obvious. But, in reality, that's not why you need a mentor - a master teacher - to guide you through your training in the art and practice of ninjutsu. That's why no amount of reading or watching videos can give you the same depth of training that you can receive when you train -face-to-face with an authentic teacher of the shadow warrior's art.
Don't misunderstand me. In the beginning of your training, when everything is new and unknown to you, your teacher is there to show you the fundamental lessons of the art. And, at this point in your training, the delivery method used by your teacher really doesn't matter.
In the beginner phases of your training, it is quite possible to learn the mechanics and basic strategies from books, articles, and video demonstrations of the techniques, tactics, and strategies being learned. But, as you progress through the intermediate and advanced levels of the art, this will become less and less true.
You see, through the course of your training, your teachers job is to "open your eyes." But, what are we opening our eyes to, you might ask. And the answer is that, your teacher is helping you to transcend your own limited, narrow vision of "what-is," and exposing you to the alternate realities that exist of both:
1) What you might run into - this includes not just on the street in a self defense attack situation, but also in the course of living. And...
2) What options you have - for handling the situations that occur in #1.
The point that I'm getting to here is that, you don't need a teacher to show you things you already know. And, while he or she may be able to help you with your questions about things you know about but don't have answers to, a true teacher's purpose far exceeds this limiting role.
No. The reason you need a mentor is so that he or she can show you "what you don't know!"
A mentor, guide, teacher, master - whatever title you want to give this person - is there for the sole purpose of opening your eyes to those parts of the world - of self-defense - of combat - of life...
...that you NEVER even knew existed.
Here's a quick example of what I mean. On the thumb-side of your hand, at the webbing between thumb and hand, there is a nerve that can be triggered by applying pressure and crushing it against the second metacarpal (hand-bone). This pain response effects not only the attacker's hand, but his elbow-shoulder alignment, spine, and also his ability to move his feet.
If you already know this, you'll need a different example. But, if this knowledge is new to you, you just learned something that a minute or so ago, existed in your own personal realm of the "unknown-unknown." What that means is this: before you learned about this point, you could never have recognized it as an option or possible target in a self defense situation - even if you had a hold on his hand!
The truth is that, you can only see what you know. If you don't know that a certain country exists in the world - you will never think about or want to visit it.
If you don't know that certain body postures, phrases, and vocal tones de-escalate, while others trigger negative responses in human beings - you won't control your actions and voice to use or avoid using them. And...
...if you don't know that a pressure point effects more about the way your body moves and operates - if you only focus on the pain response - then you will never be able to control an opponent with the same level of skill and mastery that envy in your teacher.
The thing that books, videos, and articles like this can never give you that you must have to succeed is DIRECT FEEDBACK.
You can "think" that you're doing what you saw in the video, but the reality is that, without an authentic teacher of the Ninja'a art being there to help you to see what you cannot - you will never reach very far beyond your current state.
