Shinmyoken Dojo: Why Martial Arts Stretching Is Important

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Why Martial Arts Stretching Is Important

What does your martial arts stretching routine look like?

You do have a routine?

First the routine, followed by the why.

Waking up in the morning, followed by a light series of stretches. Starting with the head, neck, shoulders, spine, hips, legs and ankles.

Get the blood flowing.

Before martial arts practice for the day, five minutes of stretching to warm up and prepare for the class ahead. After class, five minutes or so to cool down and limber up.

During the evening, usually before bed, a finishing routine of stretching, this time starting with the ankles and working my way up to the neck and head.

Why?

Certainly stretching as a way to reduce injury in the martial arts, a warm up and cool down in practice- paying close attention to the joints of the arms, ankles, and hips to get ready for throws and locks.

Starting and ending the day with a light routine as a way to increase flexibility each and every day in the martial arts, as a building block in the toolkit to have supporting skills and routines to help one grow in the martial arts.

Become a little bit better in body and mind each and every day.

See you on the mat.

The aim of the Shinmyoken dojo (school of the life giving sword) is to understand nature and the movement of being zero through taijutsu. The school exists to create and transmit this through the experience of isshi soden.

Located in Westchester New York, the Shinmyoken dojo is a martial arts training group founded in 2005 with the aim of coming together as martial arts friends to study the Japanese martial arts of Masaaki Hatsumi through the lessons of the Bujinkan dojo.

As friends (buyu) we come together to grow, learn, and share our individual potential in this wonderful martial art. In our group there is no beginner or advanced classes, as we all have the capacity to learn the martial arts in great stride.

No previous martial arts experience is needed, new members, and out of town or traveling Bujinkan buyu are always welcome.

The focus of the group is to make progress each week in learning the martial arts, developing skill, self-defense ability, and an understanding of how and why people move.

Training is supervised by Fred Feddeck who has been studying the Bujinkan dojo martial arts since 1993.

In 2003 he was honored to take the godan shinsha with the training group later forming as a vehicle to study what he has been taught and experienced in the Bujinkan dojo martial arts.

Joe Maurantonio, dai-shihan, is and continues to be his teacher and mentor.

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Training in budo taijutsu through our dojo is offered in three class formats.

The first is our weekly Saturday morning classes from 9-11 AM at a local park in Yonkers which is accessible by car, bus, and Metro North train.

Second is our regular weekly zoom class as a way to build on the physical practice-paired movements explored in our Saturday classes.

Third is our monthly discussion class exploring martial arts philosophy, history, tactics, and kuden.

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Membership in the dojo is open to those eighteen years of age or older and who can abide by the rules of the Bujinkan.

Those interested in joining the dojo will be asked to fill out a brief questionnaire as an introduction and meet with the head instructor before an invitation to watch a class will be extended, general martial arts questions and other training inquiries are also welcome.

Questions, comments, feedback, and inquiries may be emailed here: BujinkanShinmyoken@gmail.com.