subject: Master The Ninja's Self Defense Method! Use The "fire Strategy" And Blow Your Attacker Away! [print this page] One of the most powerful things about the Ninja's self defense method is that the student is taught more than one strategic option for beating the opponent. In the art of Ninjutsu, many instructors use a system called the Godai no Kata, or the '5 elemental examples' to teach these strategic options.
This article focuses on the "fire element" and the strategy that it symbolizes for winning in a real-world, self defense situation.
While all of the so-called "elemental modes" contained with the Godai approach are equal - each is more appropriate against certain types of attacker-types. When the student shifts his or her focus from the step-by-step, mechanical perspective, to a broader, strategic viewpoint, a whole new world of possibilities, power, and control opens up!
In this article, I'm going to focus on the combat strategy known as the "fire-mode" of direct, committed response. When under the influence of the fire center of the body/mind, the Ninja uses preemptive, intercepting techniques to take the fight to the initial attacker - literally "attacking the attack - and ending the encounter before the assailant knows what hit him!
As a symbolic representation of the way that energy manifests in the physical world, the "Fire" element represents energy that is in an exited, stimulated, and combustible state, or having the qualities of "speed, directed-ness, and a charged, explosive quality."
As with the other four strategic modes, energy, matter, and skills are "fire-like" as their very nature - as opposed to some made-up, artificial classification.
In nature, the "fire element" is best represented by a laser beam - focused, charged, and targeted, and able to cut through the toughest materials. Unlike the scattered energy of typical, incandescent light bulb, the energy of the laser beam is aligned, with all of its particles in sync, and moving in the same direction.
The fire element is represented within our bodies as heat and our metabolism. On a psychological level, fire represents our direct-commitment and concentration. While on a spiritual or emotional level, it is symbolic of our intentions, passion, and feelings of being "awake," "alert," and "alive."
Acting in our own defense, we can see that "the best defense is a good offense!" Under the emotional state of the "fire element," we explode with speed and power - taking the fight directly to the attacker. He is overwhelmed by our intention to win, and finds that, the more he attacks, he is only fanning the flames of the raging bone fire that he ignited within us!
The footwork of this fire strategy sends us straight forward, while the limbs are targeted against his weak points with quick, direct blows that drive him back and put him on the defensive.
As with the other elemental strategies, we do not "choose" to react from the fire center, as much as we ride the feeling as it comes up naturally in response to his threat to harm us. We do not "choose" to be "fire-like" anymore than we choose to be hungry. It is a natural state that occurs as a result of certain cues and stimuli.
And...
While the truth is that really there's no such thing as a "Fire technique," there are certain techniques, tactics, and strategies that have a "fire-like" essence or method of delivery. And, being what they are, they make excellent examples for teaching this important strategic option to students new to the art of Ninjutsu.
Here's a sampling of some of the skills and tactics that might be listed under the "fire-mode" of action and reaction:
1) Piercing, jabbing strikes
2) Leaping and quick, light shifting evasive maneuvers
3) Combat throws
4) Explosive shouts intended to confuse and distract
5) etc.
Remember, the techniques listed fit this category because of their qualities of speed, directness, aggressiveness, or out of a sense of committed action - not for the sake of being included on a list.
Other fire-like strategies which fall under this element might include things like:
1) the use of firearms or other projectile weapons
2) the use of blades for self protection, and...
3) preemptive attacks where you simply charge in with a "go-for-it" attitude
Again, the elements which make up the Ninja's Godai, 5 element system, are seen by the Ninja as expedients - as aids used to speed up the student's ability to learn and assimilate these strategies at a deep level where they will be able to use them without thinking about them first - should they find themselves in a real-world attack situation.
