As some of you may be aware, the Bujinkan Meehan Dojo has a new website, located at www.happobiken.com and bit by bit, it’s been coming onstream over the last few weeks.

The new dojo logo

Unlike previous websites that the dojo has published, this is a far more professional affair built on a content management system that allows us to do all sort of interesting web 2.0-style things. One of them is host a blog, and for that reason we are moving the dojo blog from wordpress to our own server.

This gives us several advantages — we can publish certain blog entries that only active dojo members can see etc — but it also allows us to take the content created here and add it to the main site. It makes sense to do this for lots of reasons, so this will be the last post on this blog.

The new blog is located at the dojo’s main web address, and the title of the latest blog entry along with a link can be found on the main home page as well as via a link at the top of the screen. Please update your bookmarks to visit the blog there, and for those of you who subscribe to this blog via RSS feeds, please note we will have a feed up for the new blog shortly, allowing you to continue to use a feed-reader to stay in touch.

The address of the new website and blog is www.happobiken.com

Thanks

Alex Meehan

Ukemi practice saw us to do some low light-level rolling for awareness training. After a few weeks of the Ten and Chi levels of the art’s Ten Chi Jin no Maki syllabus, we started on the kata from the Jin level with Koku and Renyo of Gyokko Ryu. It’s worthwhile keeping an eye on Soke’s Unarmed fighting book when looking at these kata. The study of these took us to playing with gyaku waza. It was also observed that often peoples guards get a bit too relaxed as uke or indeed as tori especially with kicking etc. There was an interesting comparison between Ichimonji no kamae and old style boxing stances too.

After tea we looked at a few ideas with basic tanto tsuki. Mostly it involved taking distance, taking balance and securing the weapon arm with muso dori, oni kudaki and variations as balance was further broken.

Though provoker: How is your guard generally? Any bad habits? How can you combat a good guard?

- Ali Martinez

(I took Rex’s class at 7pm and we did the Sanshin no Kata warm-up and ukemi as well as various 2-man and solo drills on Zempo Geri)

In the main class we went straight into techniques without ukemi or warmup practice “for fun”. We dealt with punching/kicking with particular angling that kept us at safe positions with regard to potential counters. This led to variations of single arm throws. Some of the ideas here extended into playing with multiple attackers but other strategies were employed too – timing, obstacles, balance breaking and …..funneling.  

Though provoker: How was your kamae in the multiple attacker drills?

- Ali Martinez

The recent seminar with Thomas Franzen threw up a lot of ideas so we explored some of them in class. When looked at it closely, it really involved the idea of “koppo” as described at various times by Soke – of manipulating the structure behind defence/offence. Shizen no kamae is our natural structure as upright bi-peds, so this was explored initially.

With this we built upon some one-on-one techniques and extended that to San-nin dori or “3 man capturing”. Dealing with multiple attacks in a smooth and mobile manner. Everyone demonstrated this concept for the class. After break we studied a different type of “koppo” that we have in happobikenjutsu – with the use of the ninjato where the same light and mobile feeling allows us to deal with another extreme attacking situation. Rather than multiple opponents, we have the sword to contend with.

**Congratulations to Chris, Matt, Quentin, Ian, and Steven for their promotions last night!**

Thought provoker: Are you exploring the seminar idea of zero excess tension in class?

-Ali Martinez

Shane’s regular Wednesday class finishes at the end of October until further notice

Sat 18th Thomas Franzen Seminar in Clondalkin

Sun 19thThomas Franzen Seminar in Clondalkin

Mon 20th – No training, due to the seminar in Clondalkin on Sunday.

Tues 21st – 6pm to 8.00pm Beginner and intermediate training with Rex
Tues 21st – Alex’s Monday class shifted to 8pm on Tuesday

Sat 25th – UK Seminar with Alex Meehan and David Oliver (http://www.budotaijutsu.co.uk)
Sun 26th – UK Seminar with Alex Meehan and David Oliver (http://www.budotaijutsu.co.uk)

Mon 27th – 8pm to 10pm – no training due to bank holiday
Tues 28th – - 6pm to 8.00pm Beginner and intermediate training (RD)
Tues 28th – 8pm to 10pm Intermediate and black belt training (AM)

Angling, blocking and punching were investigated in drills that showed up any flaws in basic structure in both ichimonji no kamae and some seated techniques. Some happo geri from the Ten Chi Jin was practiced too along with some applications. It was found that angling plays a huge part here as well as the ability to recover form a failed kick and flow from there. All of these ideas of structure and angling continued when I was asked to show a technique. We ended on a throw coming off of an onki-kudaki / omote gyaku full body lock.

Thought provoker: Tennis-ball on a string….. Ever try striking drillls with this set-up?

- Ali Martinez

Basic ukemi practice was followed by a spotlight on ura gyaku and some interesting variations as uke hits the ground. The idea of “Sanshin” or 3 hearts was involved here to various degrees. There were many control mechanisms that were hard to see and care had to be taken on applying pressure to the gyaku.

We studied happobikenjutsu with the sword and Hanbo and in the end with some taijutsu. Everyone  was asked to demonstrate their understanding of this sort of intention training and capturing of the spirit with kamae.

Thought provoker: How was your striking within the ura gyaku waza? There was specific targeting. What difference did it make if you hit the required area well or not?

- Ali Martinez

The class began with some dynamic throws and locks based on grab/punch combos. Within them we saw how to interupt uke’s ukemi by  kicking, striking, changing their intended direction, throwing awkwardly etc Tori’s postion was such that a change in position could be taken if the need arises, say from a secondary attacker for example.

We then looked at some suwari gata form Shinden Fudo Ryu Jutaijutsu and played with various ways of messing with uke’s distance, using the feet adaptively, locking and holding. In the end we did some Happobiken tachi waza using the sword as a shield.

Thought provoker: Are you seminaring next weekend?

- Ali Martinez

I kicked off class with Ichimonji no Kata henka based on “earlier” timing. Alex took over and introduced some Kihon practice with a kicking drill that looked at various kicks given to us by the Happo Geri of the Ten Chi Jin no Maki. This led into all sort of variations and review of other basic drills as well as counter kicking techniques. By their nature there was some hefty breakfalling in here too.

After tea we spent some time on the Santo Tonko of Togakure Ryu with counters and fairly free flowing techniques that took advantage of timing, angling, capturing rhythm and indeed some of the kicks we saw earlier.

Thought provoker: When’s the next time that you’ll do basic kicking drills?

- Ali Martinez

Our taijutsu has a fundamental component of trying to upset uke’s balance so that they cannot continue the fight on a stable base. Last night’s class looked at various ways of doing this in a flowing non-basic manner. We started off with a punch/kick combination attack. For example….entering the space uke needs to recover the base, making them hang onto you for balance, striking them to knock their balance long enough to manipulate it, both physically and mentally, having them think they got you etc. Tom stepped up to show a technique using similar ideas of kazushi waza and we played with that too.

Thought provoker: Did you kick tori in a manner that made you think “gotcha!” (without cheating i.e. knowing they’d shift a certain way)

                                                                                                                                                     - Ali Martinez