Taijutsu video I thought was great

[HaydenMorison]

Yeah im so sick of hearing that ****, i totally agree with u Kreth.

Just train and strive to become better, who cares about politics, or its not 100% traditional. Adaptation and evolution in martial arts is a wonderful thing, times have changed, what you really want to ask yourself is - do i want to learn just an art, or do i want to learn real life self defence? and theres nothing wrong with either, its what you want martial arts to do for YOU that matters most!

Meanwhile, I think Mr Rodgers is incredible! I really need to work on my striking and this couldn't of come at a better time for me, i picked up some really cool ideas from his movies that I wouldn't mind trying

 

[Bujingodai]

Why would I be disappointed he wasn't Kan? He looked familiar though.
I couldn't agree with you more Hayden it is too bad more folks don't just wish to train save for the politics and so on.
OK well I was just stating and opinion. I don't care what his motives are, they are his own. I never read that part.

 

[Aiki Lee]

I don't know I think he has a sustainable argument, but he didn't word it very well. If you don't like the way a particular organization does things then it is only natural that one should leave. I don't consider what he did to be "throwing a hissy fit", but he could have been more tactful in his approach.

 

[Raynac]

Although there are many excellent Martial Artist within the Bujinkan, the Grading System is farcical. Frankly there are some very senior Grades who not only have no Martial Spirit but also struggle to put one foot in front of another. Who has ever heard of a 15th Dan? What is that all about?
If you are a good Martial Artist within the Bujinkan you know what I mean, although you probably won’t say, and if you are upset by this then sorry, but you are probably rubbish.

Omg im sorry but to officially state that kind of thing on your website... well I personally interperate that as "if you don't agree with me your wrong" maybe its true, I don't know but your personal growth is the only thing that matters to me.

the way i look at it. so what if there are 10 dan or somthing who can't fight their way out of a paper bag, thats not your problem, unfortunatly thats their students problems. your goal is to become the best you can be, forget about the others they will learn at their own rate and maybe be judged on a different level than you are.

it matters not how the other students are doing, you did not enter to learn for them, you entered to learn for you(if that makes any sense)

anyways sorry about that. where is emilzio. I haven't seen him on in a while. everyone made fun of him but... i found he really made things fun. =P and i want to know how the training is going. are his kids enjoying it? and so forth. the forums just seem quieter now.

 

[Aiki Lee]

the way i look at it. so what if there are 10 dan or somthing who can't fight their way out of a paper bag, thats not your problem, unfortunatly thats their students problems. your goal is to become the best you can be, forget about the others they will learn at their own rate and maybe be judged on a different level than you are.

it matters not how the other students are doing, you did not enter to learn for them, you entered to learn for you(if that makes any sense)

Well I agree partly with what you say, but the fact is that if someone is poorly trained and holds a high rank it reflects badly upon the art and the organization that awards the rank.

Now many of you will say, "who cares how others view us, as long as we train hard and realistically what others say is of no importance" Again I would half agree. There will always be people bad mouthing our martial arts or our teachers or our methods of doing things, but such harsh criticism can be lightened if we hold stricter standards.

A 10th dan in any art should move in such a way that there should be no doubt about his skill, a lazy 10th, 5th, or even 1st dan underminds what others work so hard to achieve. I realize there will always be weak and lazy martial artists (if indeed such a person can be called a martial artist) and such behavior shouldn't really bother us, but if they are put in a position of authority then I feel it takes away from those who work hard to be good at what they do.

 

[Cryozombie]

The fundamental problem I have with that Attitude, Himura, is that it assumes that rank MEANS something. It also assumes the metric for that rank can be judged across the board from the lowliest Sport Taekwondo school to the hardiest Combat hardened Modern Combatives school.

SHOULD a 5th dan Point fighter be able to kick the crap out of a Golden Glove boxer? Is he a "poorly trained" martial artist? Or are you applying a metric to the art based on YOUR expectation of what rank means, and not neccessarily what the expectation of what the organization he belongs to takes it to mean.

It's been explained on here to you already... you keep exploring these ideas with a "Western" mindset, trying to apply the standards we think of in terms of levels "ooh, 5 is higher than 3" to everyone, or fictionalizing that there is a measurable skill set i.e"a first dan can do perfect Sanshin, a second dan can do perfect Kihon Happo" that goes with those ranks like you might find in a Karate school.

IMO Rank is meaningless, but people won't let it go. I think it's used more as a Carrot to keep people going. I have always been content to train, and only ever ranked when my teacher pushed it on me. I wouldn't even be Dan ranked myself if he hadn't made me get it. I just wanna train, and rank be dammned. I judge the top people in our art not by whats in calligraphy on a piece of paper, but by the quality of what they can show me. That's why I trained under my instructor for years even tho he was only 3rd Dan, and content at the time not to rise in rank, when we had a 10th in the area.

 

[Aiki Lee]

Two ranks from different systmes can't really be compared in the same way that's true. But IMO rank SHOULD equate to skill. you ask if a 5th dan point fighter should be able to beat a golden glove boxer. If he is a 5th dan then he should at least be able to survive if the boxer tried to kill him, unless one could equate a GG boxer to have what could be considered a "5th dan" or higher in boxing. If a person can not competantly defend themselves I do not think they should hold a high rank. The higher a person's rank the more competent he or she should be at martial arts.

If rank shouldn't be awarded on the basis of skill why do people get upset when 10 year olds are given black belts? A higher rank signifies a position of authority within an organization. And such positions should be based on merrit and nothing else. They should be used as a marker for progress. So of course all arts would have different requirements for their ranks, but they should at least have the same requirements within the same school. If a martial art wants to be loosely structured, then it should have ranks other than.

I thought that Kano created the belt ranking system to give his students a sense of where they were at within the structure of his system. Even if seniority or some other measure is used to promote rank, surely you must feel as though skill must at least accompany it. Otherwise you would have cases of being instructed by people who were weaker than you.

Because rank is handed out it takes on meaning. If rank has no meaning it shouldn't be awarded in the first place. Just because I may be looking at things through western eyes doesn't mean I'm wrong. There is no "wrong" here only what we believe to be better.

When I studied Isshin ryu and would be awarded rank I felt nothing. I wondered what I did to become a better martial artist that let me move from 1st dan to 2nd dan. The rank was meaningless. In the Jizaikan it is not the rank I aspire to but the skill sets that come along with it. As a 2nd dan in this system I know that the rank signifies that I can do things in this art that other people below me are not yet skilled enough to do. This belt itself is nothing, but what it means is everything!

 

[Cryozombie]

Whatever works for you I guess. I guess I look at it more like this:

Your (not you, but you take my meaning) PHD means you spent more time in school, or had an education board decide that your knowledge on a subject was great. It doesn't mean you have a higher IQ than me. Just that you spent more time "book learning".

A 20 year veteran on the mats with a 4th Dan holds more meaning to me than a 10 year 10th dan, unless that 4th dan just cant cut it which is why he stopped at 4. Is it wrong that his rank UNDERESTIMATES his skill any more than someones might overestimate theirs?

 

[Aiki Lee]

Whatever works for you I guess. I guess I look at it more like this:

Your (not you, but you take my meaning) PHD means you spent more time in school, or had an education board decide that your knowledge on a subject was great. It doesn't mean you have a higher IQ than me. Just that you spent more time "book learning". ?

If we use this analogy, I would think that if you and the professor in question were in the same field of study, then it would be the one with more knowledge who should be given more status. The man who earned the PHD shouldn't have more influence on the field of study than the more knowlegeable person does IMO.

A 20 year veteran on the mats with a 4th Dan holds more meaning to me than a 10 year 10th dan, unless that 4th dan just cant cut it which is why he stopped at 4. Is it wrong that his rank UNDERESTIMATES his skill any more than someones might overestimate theirs?

If a person who didn't know the true difference in skill met both of them he would naturally assume that the higher ranked person had more skill and information (at least I would). I wouldn't underestimate the 4th dan. I would consider a 4th dan to be an expert. I just don't think that the 10th dan should hold any position higher than someone more skilled in the art he is ranked in. They could hold the same position, but I think to allow him to hold a position higher than a better martial artist in his own organization could confuse students. Do they defer to the higher rank, or do they defer to the more powerful and knowledgeable MAist?

Think about the military. You wouldn't want a general to be less competent than a 1st luitenent. That creates disorder in the group. If the 1st Lt is better than his superiors he should be placed above them because they shouldn't hold a higher status than he does.

I'm not trying to change your mind, I'm just presenting my beliefs on the subject.

 

[arnisador]

A Ph.D. doesn't "just" have more book-learning--her or she has also demonstrated the ability to do original, publishable research in the field, and hence is in a sense a craftsman in that area. It's qualitatively different than the typical B.S. or M.S. degree.

Rank implies the existence of a hierarchy--an organization. How someone got to the top is always somewhat arbitrary but usually reflects popular opinion that the individual is skilled in some way.

 

[Cryozombie]

A Ph.D. doesn't "just" have more book-learning--.

You mis-read what I said, I said "Book Learning vs IQ" perhaps "Education vs IQ" would have been better wording.

Trust me, I know some pretty stupid doctors who couldn't reason their way out of a Paper bag.

 

[arnisador]

I wasn't disagreeing with that part of it. I was saying that when you wrote "PHD means you spent more time in school, or had an education board decide that your knowledge on a subject was great" that it reflects more than just knowledge of a subject. It reflects an ability to do original research in an area, and just as that doesn't indicate an exceptionaly high IQ necessarily, a high IQ doesn't bring it with an ability to perform research necessarily. I think there's relevance here--a high-ranking martial artist should know more than what he was taught; his study of the martial arts should have borne more fruits than memorization and demonstartion of techniques.

 

[stephen]

Rank implies the existence of a hierarchy--an organization. How someone got to the top is always somewhat arbitrary but usually reflects popular opinion that the individual is skilled in some way.

Maybe it implies it, but it doesn't exist. This is why, I think Soke says that we're all his students after 5th dan. Clearly we're not really 'students' in the sense that we shouldn't have a direct, regular instructor, but rather that we don't 'answer' to anyone else.

 

[stephen]

Back on topic:

Another good (and therefore rare video):

Thomas Franzen is good.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Back on topic:

Another good (and therefore rare video):

Thomas Franzen is good.

Hey Stephen thanks for the clip!

 

[Aiki Lee]

Here are some videos of mr. Maienza the founder of aiki ninjutsu.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.Channel&ChannelID=115531820

 

[Shizen Shigoku]

re: video posted in OP -

fine hapkido, but when does the ninjutsu start?