subject: Ancient Ninja Tactics To Defend Yourself In A Modern Self Defense Street Attack [print this page] I'm assuming that, if you're reading this article, that you are interested in one of two things - either real-world self-defense training, or real-world self-defense using the Ninja's martial art of Ninjutsu. If not, then may I suggest that you find a different article to read.
Still here? Okay. So, it's self-defense, and you're okay with the fact that I'm talking about Ninja!
Excellent! So, here goes...
When you think of the Ninja, images of a dark-clad figure rolling, leaping, and doing other wild maneuvers against his opponent's attacks comes to mind. And while these moves may seem to be merely "cool" or, in other cases, completely unnecessary, there is a method to the madness, so-to-speak. This article examines the Ninja Taihenjutsu body movement skills and why you should seriously consider adding each and every one of them to your self defense arsenal.
But, before we discuss the defensive application of the Ninja's "body changing skills," we should list what those skills are. So, within the Ninja's taijutsu ('body skills"), there is a sub-science known as taihen-jutsu. This is the classification for the different skills that are not directly related to self-protection, but that can be used to increase your effectiveness and advantage in a self-defense situation.
These body movement skills include:
1) Rolling
2) Leaping & lateral shifts
3) Walking & running
4) Body drops and breakfalls, and...
5) Vaulting
Of course, before we can even look at the defensive application of these skills in a situation where your life is in danger, we need to be able to do these skills correctly and effortlessly. That being said, we can then look at not just the skill, but what it "DOES" for us when we use it at the right time, and in the right context, within the confines of a fight or attack situation.
While rolling is seen as a sign of agility, the Ninja sees it as a "distance amplifier" or "distance extender." What that means is that, since we can roll farther and faster than we can walk, rolling is used to "bail-out" and escape quickly from an encounter.
Leaping and lateral shifting movements used in Ninjutsu, are not the same kind of bounding actions that you might see from gymnasts or cheerleaders. Instead, these tactical maneuvers allow for light, quick, escapes from straight, piercing, speed attacks where stepping would be too slow.
And, where most people take walking for granted, the Ninja knows that what most people call "walking," is instead actually a controlled state of falling! So, the Ninja student works to retrain him or herself to be able to deliberately control the positioning of the feet, legs, joints and the shifting of the weight from leg to leg throughout the movement. The legs carry the Ninja's body, rather than merely slip under the pitching body during movement.
The Ninja uses walking steps as the default method of attack evasion, but running methods are also taught to allow the defender to run faster, farther, and with less energy needed to accomplish the task. In addition, there are also methods for running up walls and other vertical surfaces. The point here is to be able to get farther up a wall to be able to grab hold, or mount a wall that is higher than the Ninja can reach by merely leaping.
On the other hand, quick body drops are used to get under swinging attacks, whether unarmed or from an attacker wielding a clubbing or other weapon. Of course, these tactical self defense moves are also the saving grace when an attacker has grabbed you and is throwing and dropping you toward the ground on your spine, ribs, or face!
And finally, vaulting - while it looks cool - is the tactic that intimidates more students of Ninjutsu. Even more than rolling. In fact, this is the skill that most students of all ranks (yes, Black Belts included) try to avoid. But, if we can see that it's not about gymnastics, or looking cool, but rather about being thrown or flipped over and not being able to use conventional rolling skills - or having to cross an area that doesn't allow for rolling like a board in your path that has a nail sticking straight up out of it - then we can actually see the importance of such a skill in the overall picture of self defense training.
Remember, unlike most martial arts or self defense systems, where the student must take on and adapt his or her body to the movements of the system or "style," the student of Ninjutsu is trained to see their techniques and skills as correct answers to specific attack and combat scenarios. Each is the answer to a situation where the other skills would not work, or would cause the Ninja more injury in the process.
Understand that the more options you have, the greater your chances of success. This doesn't just apply to how many blocks, kicks, or punches you know, but also in the number of methods that you're adept at - methods that will allow you to counter, defend against, evade, and escape from an attack...
