Bujinkan Taiken Dojo - Budo Taijutsu

The aim of our training is not to learn lots of techniques, it's to learn Budo. That is, in the Bujinkan, we learn Budo through technique.

Techniques are a snapshot containing something of importance about Budo, but the techniques themselves are not budo. They are a means to an end, - one way of learning Budo.

In the past many of us have been trapped by the mistaken idea that collecting or knowing, (I use the term loosely), more techniques, or things would make us better at budo. Almost all of us have proved that theory wrong, but we didn't have a better one to take its place, and so progress has been very slow.

Now it's time to change.

Budo exists only when there is movement, if there is no movement, there is no Budo. As soon as there is movement there is Budo.

The techniques give us a place to start from, not to end up. The idea is not to perfect the performance or memorization of 20, 40, or 100 techniques, rather it is for our bodies and minds to gain an awareness and a working understanding of how timing, distance, alignment and application are constantly changing and how they can be used by us or against us at every moment.

From any one technique we must be able to sense many things.

Techniques exist to enable us to learn, and in order for us to learn we choose, (both uke and tori), to temporarily limit our actions to the given script only. Once we have enough of an idea of the order of the movements, so that we don't have to think of what comes next, or what goes where, we can then begin to look at the technique as a whole.
There will be changes in timing, distance, alignment and application before the technique starts, during each of the movements, and after the technique is officially over.
Without an awareness and understanding of these things, we will be like a mime artist, - entertaining enough, but something will always be missing.

We should perform the techniques correctly, carefully, and not too fast, so that we can learn to see and react to changes as they occur (both in ourselves and our opponents), then our movements can become more appropriate to what's actually happening at each moment.

We should never stop moving during a technique, real fighting isn't like that (except in the movies); it doesn't make sense to train ourselves to develop such bad habits. Most of us have too many faults and openings already. If you need to slow down your movements to do the technique correctly then do so, (but don't stop).

"Changing as change is necessary"

In this way our Budo becomes alive.

I think this is probably going to take me years to understand fully, but there's no hurry. I enjoy good training.

I may be right, I may be wrong, but neither of us will know for sure unless we train and become more than we already are.

And have fun!
This isn't a life and death struggle, it's only training.
Enjoy, and don't get too excited.

"Keep Going"

Paul Harper - Student and Shidoshi February 2002