Where/how to learn ninjitsu?
Sam Hulick
Are there places in the U.S. that teach ninjitsu? (ninjutsu, how do you spell
it?) I heard (rumor) that Steve Hayes was the only person in the U.S. who
could legally teach it. Also, what does ninjitsu consist of? What do they
teach, exactly? I assume the training is very vigorous.
--
Sam Hulick | "F_ck George Bush!!" --About half the U.S. population
shu...@indiana.edu |
(NeXTmail welcome) |
Mr. X
>
>Are there places in the U.S. that teach ninjitsu? (ninjutsu, how do you spell
>it?) I heard (rumor) that Steve Hayes was the only person in the U.S. who
>could legally teach it. Also, what does ninjitsu consist of? What do they
>teach, exactly? I assume the training is very vigorous.
There are quite a few persons that teach here.
Most of the ninjutsu instructors that I have seen are BOGUS. Among
those that are legit are Ron Duncan, James Loriega, Chadwick Minge,
and Rick Wigginton.
Loriega and Wigginton were Duncan's two top students. Minge is ex-
special forces with LOTS of experience and appears to know his shit
quite well.
Steve Weigand
Don't forget Bud Malmstrom of the Atlanta, GA Bujinkan Dojo! He's 8'th or
9th Dan by now and studies directly under Dr. Hastumi Sensei (grandmaster).
- Steve Weigand
(wei...@ee.udel.edu)
du...@losers.hacktic.nl
S> Are there places in the U.S. that teach ninjitsu? (ninjutsu, how do you spell
S> it?) I heard (rumor) that Steve Hayes was the only person in the U.S. who
S> could legally teach it. Also, what does ninjitsu consist of? What do they
S> teach, exactly? I assume the training is very vigorous.
Well actually, there are two other guys who are teaching ninjutsu in the
states, but they are with the CIA now. Arf arf, just kidding :-)
As far as I now, anyone can legally teach NJ. The problem is, that there are
a lot of people out there who claim to be teaching NJ, while they're teaching
a bunch of assorted techniques and allow you to wear shuko.
If you really want to learn NJ, your best bet may be to contact a teacher
who is teaching the togakure ryu system, but even then you can't be sure
you'll get a 'real' reacher.
And no, the training is not 'very vigorous'. It's just martial arts training,
and there's nothing magic about it. Training include:
- junan taiso body conditioning (lots of tretching, looks a bit like yoga)
- tai jutsu unarmed techniques
- ken jutsu swords techniques (you will use WOODEN swords, sorry)
- bo jutsu staff techniques
etc etc.
Training (in europe at least) is realistic, but not brutal.
People don't train in 'ninja-suits', and they do not wear swords, shuriken or
shuko during the training. You will not learn any 'magic death' touches or
tricks on how to become invisible.
Sorry to disappoint you,
Theo
PS: Try reading one of the books of Stephen Hayes, or from Dr. Hatsumi.
Don't read the ones about 'black messagers of death'. They're not
worth the paper they are printed on.
Stephen Northcutt - K31
>And no, the training is not 'very vigorous'. It's just martial arts training,
>and there's nothing magic about it.
:-) A year ago my son was receiving private instruction for an hour so
I was sitting around a doj* for an hour with nothing to do so I was reading
through this big old stack a coverless yellowed MA magazines, mostly amusing
myself with the women`s SD articles.....
There was this article on Stephen Hayes "the real thing(tm)". It said
that before he would accept you for training you had to do a shoulder
roll off the back of a moving pickup. Weee Oh, that is right vigorous
in my book :-)
> Training include:
....
> - bo jutsu staff techniques
I bought this ever so embarrassing paperback book once, Secret Ninja techniques
of bojutsu.... written by a student of and with a forward by Stephen Hayes.
The book doesn't have a single bo (if that is the correct word for the
6 foot cudgel or staff) technique, but is entirely about jo (if that is
the correct word for the 3 1/2 - 4' stick) techniques.
I bought the book after leafing through it and being impressed with a
series of moves in which the ninja instructor :-) was standing still
holding as a cane or walking stick in the natural and normal position
for such a thing... the book detail various defenses
to attacks such as, punch, kick, knife, stick, from this position.
Most of these defenses involve as the first move, merely turning your
wrist to pull the cane up till it is perpendicular with the ground
and then stepping forward into a fairly deep front stance so that
the point of the cane goes into the attacker's torso will all your
weight behind it :-) Anyway, I was very intrigued with this series
of defenses, since that is the natural position to have a cane or walking
stick in, time to deployment is very low (handy when you are surprised),
and it is subtle as all get out.
Stephen (ninja in my dreams) Northcutt
Richard Drury
>I bought this ever so embarrassing paperback book once, Secret Ninja techniques
>of bojutsu.... written by a student of and with a forward by Stephen Hayes.
>The book doesn't have a single bo (if that is the correct word for the
>6 foot cudgel or staff) technique, but is entirely about jo (if that is
>the correct word for the 3 1/2 - 4' stick) techniques.
"Jo" is the right word for a 4 foot stick, but the techniques
you describe make me think the weapon in question is the hanbo,
or half bo.
>I bought the book after leafing through it and being impressed with a
>series of moves in which the ninja instructor :-) was standing still
>holding as a cane or walking stick in the natural and normal position
>for such a thing... the book detail various defenses
>to attacks such as, punch, kick, knife, stick, from this position.
>
>Most of these defenses involve as the first move, merely turning your
>wrist to pull the cane up till it is perpendicular with the ground
>and then stepping forward into a fairly deep front stance so that
>the point of the cane goes into the attacker's torso will all your
>weight behind it :-) Anyway, I was very intrigued with this series
>of defenses, since that is the natural position to have a cane or walking
>stick in, time to deployment is very low (handy when you are surprised),
>and it is subtle as all get out.
I think I have recommended here before the "Techniques of
Self-Defense Stick Fighting" book by Masaaki Hatsumi and Quintin
Chambers. It covers the various uses of the hanbo pretty
thoroughly. No hooded wraiths on the cover or anything like
that, so nothing to be embarassed about ;-) In the world I live
in, there are a lot more hanbo sized objects at hand than bo (or
even jo) sized objects, so I consider these techniques to be
very practical. The other thing I noticed, after working my way
through the book with the help of some local ninjutsuka, was the
similarity between many of the ninjutsu hanbo techniques and the
the stick-augmented joint lock and control techniques we
practice in escrima. I guess the human body and short impact
weapons can only be combined in just so many ways. Or hey,
maybe ninjutsu is really Black Escrima brought to Japan in 2,000
B.C by wandering Fillipino monks, etc....
--
Richard A. Drury
dr...@helix.nih.gov
du...@losers.hacktic.nl
O> Most of the ninjutsu instructors that I have seen are BOGUS. Among
O> those that are legit are Ron Duncan, James Loriega, Chadwick Minge,
O> and Rick Wigginton.
Err, I've seen some stuff of Loriega, and a friend of mine saw him moving
at a Tai Kai in the states a few years ago. According to him, Loriega is
a great martial artist, and very well trained, but not in ninjutsu.
Not that other people mind, I heard Hatsumi held him on his arm, and
called him his son.
O> Loriega and Wigginton were Duncan's two top students. Minge is ex-
O> special forces with LOTS of experience and appears to know his shit
O> quite well.
Duh, what do the special forces have to do with ninjutsu ?
Dan Solli
>Higuchi sensei, in Mentor, Ohio, offers ninjitsu training that covers
>the ryus previously listed. While I cannot remember the exact name of
>the dojo, I believe that it is something like "Bujinkan Fellowship." At
>any rate, Higuchi sensei is a consummate martial artist, and I recommend
>his school to anyone in commuting distance. He is not really interested
>in teaching pseudo-SWAT courses :), but he is interested in teaching a
>traditional martial art.
>My $.02.
Of course ;) Bujinkan Dojo is strict traditional, of course, the contemporary
self-defence is also trained in some dojos, like the one I am training in, but
here is it just to show the difference between the traditional Ninjutsu and
how it could be used today. But mainly just traditional Ninjutsu...
Dan A Solli
me...@solace.hsh.se
(IF you are going to do Ninjutsu, do Bujinkan ;)
Steve Weigand
>In <Bwx40...@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> kem...@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (katherine emblom) writes:
>
>
>>Higuchi sensei, in Mentor, Ohio, offers ninjitsu training that covers
>>the ryus previously listed. While I cannot remember the exact name of
>>the dojo, I believe that it is something like "Bujinkan Fellowship." At
>>any rate, Higuchi sensei is a consummate martial artist, and I recommend
>>his school to anyone in commuting distance. He is not really interested
>>in teaching pseudo-SWAT courses :), but he is interested in teaching a
>>traditional martial art.
>
>self-defence is also trained in some dojos, like the one I am training in, but
>here is it just to show the difference between the traditional Ninjutsu and
>how it could be used today. But mainly just traditional Ninjutsu...
>
>Dan A Solli
>me...@solace.hsh.se
>
>(IF you are going to do Ninjutsu, do Bujinkan ;)
>
And let us not forget Bud Malmstrom of the Atlanta, GA Bujinkan Dojo. He's
one of the finest ninjitsu practitioners around today. I believe he has
at least 8th dan, although he may have tested for 9th recently.
Ciao,
- Steve Weigand
(wei...@ee.udel.edu)
ba...@ocvaxc.cc.oberlin.edu
and to post his responses. I did forward the questions, and have not yet
gotten the responses. As it turned out, most of the questions were of the
nature "Where can I study near Xyz location?" I'm going to try to get him
to give me a list of teachers around the world. I'll keep you all posted.
Terry Pinotti
Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
bidder.
Learning Martial Arts is a different thing altogether. Are there any
real Ninja's in the US that teach it????
--
Terry L. Pinotti | Compuserve = 76357,746
Pinotti Consulting, Inc. | uunet tp0...@medtronic.com
2832 Laport Dr. | Purveyor of collectors cards
Mounds View, MN 55112 | sport and non-sport
Sam Hulick
>From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
>Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
>Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
>and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
>bidder.
Yeah RIGHT. Maybe you've been watching too much TV. A friend of mine studied
a little ninjutsu. he said it's nothing to get excited about. He said his
instructor was "some guy from England;" he couldn't recall his name at the
moment.
--
Sam Hulick | "" --Nobody
shu...@indiana.edu |
(NeXTmail welcome) |
Nicholas P Palmer
>In article <1992Oct30....@medtron.medtronic.com> tp0001@srilanka (Terry Pinotti) writes:
>>From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
>>and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>a little ninjutsu. he said it's nothing to get excited about. He said his
>instructor was "some guy from England;" he couldn't recall his name at the
>moment.
Well sam, you are descibing the martial art of Ninjitsu (actually isn't
ninjitsu a combination of 2 forms one open hand and the other the study
with weapons?). The art of the Ninja as described by terry would be the
same as if I said 'The art of the Painter' You would have to become a
painter, get the whole deal, etc... He was not wrong describing it that way.
Now, I have a friend who studies Ninjitsu in Toledo. From what I have
seen and heard (i know 2 people , and know of 1 other who trained there), it
is a reputable school taught by a Master Liu(sp). I respect the mans martial
arts capability and his teaching style (from what I've heard). He teaches
it as a functional art, not as an assassination form, or a fighting style.
Nik
Corey Joseph Schumacher
This is not a flame:
Where did you get an idea like this? I didn't train in
ninjutsu very long (not enough time for two arts :( ), but
this doesn't sound right to me.
Corey
Larry Watanabe
>From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
>Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
>Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
>and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
>bidder.
Do you get black-listed by the ninja union if you hire out
to the second highest bidder? I agree that this would
indeed be very hard to put up with.
-Larry Watanabe
Charles Yeomans
>>From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
>>Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
>>Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
>>and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>bidder.
>
>Yeah RIGHT. Maybe you've been watching too much TV. A friend of mine studied
>a little ninjutsu. he said it's nothing to get excited about. He said his
Gosh, is it possible that perhaps he didn't see everything?
Warren G. Anderson
> In article <1992Oct30....@medtron.medtronic.com> tp0001@srilanka
(Terry Pinotti) writes:
> >From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
> >Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
> >Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
> >and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >bidder.
>
> Yeah RIGHT. Maybe you've been watching too much TV. A friend of mine
studied
> a little ninjutsu. he said it's nothing to get excited about. He said his
> instructor was "some guy from England;" he couldn't recall his name at the
> moment.
This is a very interesting discussion because I think it touches on a broader
issue. Specifically, Terry was discussing what was required to become a ninja,
while Sam confused this with studying ninjutsu. If studying ninjutsu qualifies
one as a ninja, then certainly there is a legitimate (IMHO) difference of
opinion. However, studying ninjutsu may very well *not* qualify one as a ninja.
It might be that one must *master* ninjutsu to truly be a ninja. In my opinion
even that is not enough, since ninjutsu (the martial art) seems to me to be but
one aspect of being a ninja. In fact I believe that traditionally, one had to
be born to a ninja family to become a ninja (corrections welcome) so that one
might say that to become a ninja in the traditional sense one had to be born
into it.
The broader issue is this: oriental martial arts do not seem to me to be
stand alone concepts. They are too involved with eastern philosophy, religion,
and esthetics for that. In fact, that is one of the attractive features of them
for me (and I suspect for some others). I personally feel that karate is not so
much something I do as something that I am striving toward. As sensei says, if
you just want a good work out, aerobics is down the hall :-) (perhaps there is
an aerobics "do" too, but sensei clearly hasn't experienced it). Karate is not
just a set of techniques, but a way of approaching life (of course, I would
say the same of physics). So what is the point? Simply that both Sam and
Terry are saying the same thing to me. If you've studied a little ninjutsu, it
may very well be no big deal. If you are a ninja, it may very well require the
type of dedication that few are willing to commit to.
--
########################## _`|'_ ##############################################
## Warren G. Anderson |o o| "... for its truth does not matter, and is ##
## Dept. of Physics ( ^ ) unimaginable." -J. Ashbery, The New Spirit ##
## University of Alberta /\-/\ (ande...@fermi.phys.ualberta.ca) ##
Lauren Radner
>Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
>Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
>and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
>bidder.
>
... this is, no doubt, your understanding of 'ninja training'. It is
not accurate.
>Learning Martial Arts is a different thing altogether. Are there any
>real Ninja's in the US that teach it????
Yes. On the other hand, it's not the sort of thing that gets advertised
in the Yellow Pages.
-Lauren
ba...@ocvaxc.cc.oberlin.edu
> From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
> Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
> Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
> and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
> bidder.
>
> Learning Martial Arts is a different thing altogether. Are there any
> real Ninja's in the US that teach it????
Yes, there are. And one of them is Stephen Hayes in Ohio. I'm not sure
anymore, but at one point in time, I think he was the only "real" one.
I'll ask him that, too.
The "hiring out as an assassin" part is nonsense. Ninjitsu is a whole
way of life, not just a physical activity or martial art.
Dennis P. Chan
This is directed to all those who keep asking about where one can learn
Ninjutsu. The Warrior Information Network (WIN) has just recently (July '92)
published the Ninja Training Directory - USA. It is organized in alphabetical
order by state and gives detailed listings of each school, it's location, the
trainers, the school philosophy, training times and days! States include:
Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, N. Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and other Networks. Most of the schools
listed are associated with the Bujinkan System directly/indirectly under
Soke Masaaki Hatsumi.
<Logistics>
Cost: $5 which includes tax and shipping.
Mail To: WIN Network
P.O. box 30338
Stockton, CA 95213-0338
Good luck and have fun.
Dennis
Ninjutsu is everywhere ... and now it can be found!
Ad absurdum per aspera
>> 8 to 10 hours a day and make your money by hiring out as an assassin
Still beats what you have to (apocryphally) go through to become a
true artist in some other styles, such as chopping your way through
wooden-armored infantry, or fighting barehanded or with improvised
weapons against cavalry, doesn't it? Or have we carried this line
of argument jussst a bit over the threshold of absurdity?
Seriously, the "8 to 10 hours a day" business brings to mind
something I've wondered about for a long time. Among those of
you, or people you know, who have achieved mastery or at least
a high level of skill, was there a period when you basically set
your non-MA life aside and jocked out from sunrise to sunset?
Does this seem to be a prerequisite, a means of reaching a level
that we in the Tuesday-and-Thursday-nights-when-convenient crowd
will never see? Did you have to go to the ends of the earth to do it?
Seems to be a recurring theme: so-and-so really made that quantum
leap in his art while (dropping out of school and wandering through Asia)
(stationed on Okinawa with some stone boring job) (sublimating demise of
ill-advised relationship) (insert your story here). Thoughts?
--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"
Dan Solli
>From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
>Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
>Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
>and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
>bidder.
Hehe... Of course, of course. The ninjustu training today doesn't USUALLY
teach you all fancy tricks out in the woods, about drugs (Yogen), and other
of the ninja_warrior_ techniques. At least not anywhere in my association.
>Learning Martial Arts is a different thing altogether. Are there any
>real Ninja's in the US that teach it????
Noway... I wanna meet that dude who is a, what you call, 'real' ninja, and I
suppose you mean those who were assasins in the ancient Japan. I really doubt
there is. There is no reason to be taught all the stuff, since there are no
religious wars anymore...
Dan A Solli
me...@solace.hsh.se
Steve Gombosi
>
>This is directed to all those who keep asking about where one can learn
>Ninjutsu. The Warrior Information Network (WIN) has just recently (July '92)
>published the Ninja Training Directory - USA.
The only problem is that the pages and the printing are both black, of course ;-).
Steve
Mikel Evins
>Seriously, the "8 to 10 hours a day" business brings to mind
>something I've wondered about for a long time. Among those of
>you, or people you know, who have achieved mastery or at least
>a high level of skill, was there a period when you basically set
>your non-MA life aside and jocked out from sunrise to sunset?
>Does this seem to be a prerequisite, a means of reaching a level
>that we in the Tuesday-and-Thursday-nights-when-convenient crowd
>will never see? Did you have to go to the ends of the earth to do it?
In the style that I study, Master is a rank. It is conferred
on people who have demonstrated a certain level of competence
in a certain specific set of material before a panel of people
who have already attained that rank.
I only know three people of this rank personally. There are
three others that I know of in the United States, and maybe a
half dozen more in Indonesia. All three that I know personally
have spent certain periods of their lives doing martial arts
more or less exclusively; I don't know about the others.
The most extreme example I know of is Sin Kwang The', who is
the Grandmaster (that is to say, the chief instructor
of the system) of his lineage in Shao-Lin martial arts.
I am told that he began study at the age of seven and trained
several hours every day for about 20 years. His younger
brother Hiang, who is a master himself, has said that Master
Sin was 'fanatical' in his training, often spending twelve
hours a day on it.
More moderate examples are my instructors, David Soard and
Sharon Harris Soard, who, after 10 years or so of training
opened their own school in Denver and devoted several
hours a day to their training.
My own experience suggests that teaching in itself affords
certain benefits that are hard to come by in other ways.
Running a school provides both the opportunity and the
incentive for a very rigorous training schedule. I will say
that there seems to me to be a fairly direct correlation between
the amount of time and effort spent in practice and the
level of proficiency of the practitioner.
Dan Solli
>Sam Hulick writes:
>> In article <1992Oct30....@medtron.medtronic.com> tp0001@srilanka
>(Terry Pinotti) writes:
>> >From my understanding of the art of the Ninja, I doubt that many
>> >Americans could, or would, put up with the training. To become a true
>> >Ninja you would have to live at the school, train 8 to 10 hours a day
>> >and make your money by hiring out as an assassin to the highest
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> >bidder.
>>
>> Yeah RIGHT. Maybe you've been watching too much TV. A friend of mine
>studied
>> a little ninjutsu. he said it's nothing to get excited about. He said his
>> instructor was "some guy from England;" he couldn't recall his name at the
>> moment.
>In fact I believe that traditionally, one had to
>be born to a ninja family to become a ninja (corrections welcome) so that one
>might say that to become a ninja in the traditional sense one had to be born
>into it.
Just to be picky... ;) There were exceptions, rather often too... As you might
know, giving birth to a girl in the ancient Japan was a disgrace, and the
children sometimes was brought out in the woods, to get eaten by the wild
animals, those kids were sometimes picked up by ninjas and taught to be the
warriors they were.
Well... To perhaps put an end to the disscussion. There are a lot of ways to
study ninjutsu, and martial arts in general.
1. To develop 'rokyu' (Just physical training)
2. To develop 'shin' and 'rokyu' (Spirit and physical traning)
3. All of the above and 'ki'
4. The more traditional training, with the arts which were taught in the dojos.
(This is almost just about Japanese martial arts, as I don't know much about
other asian arts)
With Ninjutsu also Hensujutsu (impersonation and disguise) comes, and is a
neccesary part of it to become a 'real' ninja.
I don't think there are any 'real' assasin ninjas today, since there is no need
for them to learn all the warrior/survival techniques.
Dan A Solli
me...@solace.hsh.se
Mr. X
No Steve... the Black Pages (tm) are solely the work of Loriega.
-Andy V.
garry hodgson
>>> To become a true Ninja you would have to live at the school, train
>>> 8 to 10 hours a day and make your money by hiring out as an assassin
>Seriously, the "8 to 10 hours a day" business brings to mind
>something I've wondered about for a long time. Among those of
>you, or people you know, who have achieved mastery or at least
>a high level of skill, was there a period when you basically set
>your non-MA life aside and jocked out from sunrise to sunset?
Sort of. I started when I was 14. For a period of ~ 4 years,
through high school, I was *seriously* hooked on martial arts.
I was at the dojo Mon-Thurs nights, class on Saturday, tournaments
on Sunday. Once I went away to college, I found other things that
required my time. I still worked out a lot during summer months.
After college, work and then family ate up still more of my time.
I tend to go through phases. I might get seriously into sports
(ultimate frisbee) for a year or so. Then I burn out on that
and return to MA. I'm at a stage in my MA career where I don't
need to attend the dojo to maintain a level of "mastery".
I do miss teaching, though, and I've moved far enough away from my
dojo to make t difficult to attend. I tend to work out at home,
on my own, perhaps more for entertainment and personal
fulfillment than for development of combat skills.
>Does this seem to be a prerequisite, a means of reaching a level
>that we in the Tuesday-and-Thursday-nights-when-convenient crowd
>will never see?
I don't know. It certainly was for me. I don't think I could possibly
have attained the levels I did with a once-or-twice-a-week commitment.
Most of the folks I know who are really good had heavy commitment
at some point, with it tapering off after some higher level of ability
was achieved.
Your mileage may vary.
--
Garry Hodgson A slow winter day
AT&T Bell Labs A night like forever
ga...@alice.att.com Sink like a stone
att!alice!garry Float like a feather
Aaron Emigh
>a high level of skill, was there a period when you basically set
>your non-MA life aside and jocked out from sunrise to sunset?
>Does this seem to be a prerequisite, a means of reaching a level
>that we in the Tuesday-and-Thursday-nights-when-convenient crowd
>will never see?
I don't advertise my skill level as particularly high, and I certainly
don't pretend to "mastery," but I do know that a number of years ago,
after a couple of years of study, I reached a sticking point of sorts,
where I felt a diminishing return from going to my classes three times a
week or so, and felt I had to decide either to make a serious commitment
and really start learning, or resign myself to mediocrity at best.
I worked out for 30+ hours a week for the next couple of years, getting
over that plateau and much more. Seven years later, I still work out 15
hours a week or so, though there have been a few months in which I've
slacked off a bit. I think this level of commitment is a necessary,
though most certainly in my case not a sufficient, condition for
mastery.
>Did you have to go to the ends of the earth to do it?
Well, I dunno. I wouldn't call Providence, RI "the ends of the earth."
Though possibly if I had gone to the ends of the earth for training, I'd
be demonstrating my mastery by reciting incomprehensible epigrams
("harmonize your chi!") and throwing people about like baseballs. :-)
Also, much of the time I've trained I've been largely on my own. While
I think my progress was much slower during these periods, it's certainly
possible to do.
This is an interesting question, really. Are there people out there who
just sort of dropped into the spirit of the training immediately and
didn't need a lot of hard work to get to a high level of proficiency? I
know it hasn't always come easily to me. (It still often doesn't, when
working in an unfamiliar style.)
>--Joe
>"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"
Aaron Emigh
aa...@iit.com
aa...@cse.ucsc.edu
DG LEGROS
:
: This is directed to all those who keep asking about where one can learn
Sounds great but does anyone know of an equivalent work for the UK??
Please mail or post answers.
Dom
INTERNET D.G.L...@bradford.ac.uk
JANET D.G.L...@uk.ac.bradford