Ninja Combat Training

The Ninja are mysterious figures of legend. Most people are familiar with Ninjas from their appearances in Hollywood movies, as sinister black-clad assassins whose martial arts prowess and stealthiness make them equal parts objects of fear and admiration. Real life Ninjas are less fantastical, but they have their own fascinating and unique approach to martial arts and self defense.

Ninjutsu

The many schools of ninjutsu teach ninpo, the art of the Ninja. Of these, the most well established is the Bujinkan Dojo led by Masaaki Hatsumi, who inherited the title of Grandmaster in nine separate styles from Toshitsugu Takamatsu. Many of the other schools of ninjutsu have their origins with the Hatsumi's school, including the American-based To-Shin Do, led by Hatsumi's student Stephen Hayes. Other examples include the Genbukan school led by Shoto Tanemura, who studied under Hatsumi before falling out with him and seeking out others who studied under Takamatsu.

Bujinkan

The Bujinkan Dojo teaches a system of combat known as the Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. Taijutsu refers to body movement, or the unarmed combat applications of ninjutsu, which incorporates other aspects as well such as stealth. The nine schools of the Bujinkan focus on different aspects of combat, with a different focus selected by Hatsumi every year. There are 18 different skills taught by the Bujinkan, including armed and unarmed combat skills as well as things such as spiritual refinement, stealth, strategy, espionage and other such Ninja style skills.

Taijutsu

Taijutsu is unarmed combat and can be divided into striking, joint holds and chokes and throws. In addition to learning these kinds of combat techniques, you will also need to learn body movement principles that make ninjutsu uniques as a style, with a special emphasis on skills such as rolling, leaping and moving as well as how to fall correctly and condition your body. This is normally practiced with partner drills, with one Ninja applying a technique to a passive opponent, or with one Ninja countering a technique that is applied on him. Most of these techniques focus on maximizing leverage and balance so that a smaller Ninja may counter a larger opponent efficiently.

Armed Combat

Ninjutsu emphasizes many kinds of weapon training. The Bunjinkan Dojo focuses on traditional weaponry such as the the Ninja sword, as well as staff or stick fighting, spear, throwing weapons and explosives. The To-Shin Do led by Stephen Hayes has a different emphasis, as part of the reason that Hayes founded a school separate to the Bujinkan was that he felt that ninjutsu should be adapted to a modern environment. Consequently, To-Shin Do also places emphasis on self defence against combatants armed with knives or firearms.