January 5, 2024

What Is The Best Martial Arts To Study?

What is the best martial art to study?

Given all the different martial arts one can practice, are they all just as good?

These are natural questions when one begins the journey in the martial arts.

New students are eager to learn and discover, and want to make sure they are not wasting time with studying the wrong art.

So which is the best martial art to study?

It comes down to opportunity and the individual.

Disciple, style, and school are important, but not as important as the teacher your teacher in the martial arts

Sensei, coach, shihan, professor.

The correct martial arts mentor to help you unlock your movement and potential is what is needed.

This is the opportunity- who among the greats can you train under?

Second is the individual.

Your drive, dedication, and ability to learn correctly is what is important.

There are top and capable students in all martial arts styles, what are they doing is the focus, not the style itself.

The aim of the Bujinkan Shinmyoken dojo (war god hall school of the life giving sword) is to understand nature and the movement of being zero through taijutsu- martial ways of using the body. The school exists to create and transmit this feeling and method through the experience of isshi soden- one to one transmission.

Located in Westchester New York, the Bujinkan 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 movement lessons of the Bujinkan dojo and the expression of budo taijutsu.

Classes are held on Saturday Mornings from 9-11 AM at a local park in Yonkers New York easily accessible by car, train, and bus. Additional training times are held for workshops and seminars each quarter.

Training is supervised by Fred Feddeck (shidoshi) who has been studying Bujinkan budo taijutsu since 1993.

The transformative effects of the Bujinkan come from the purity of its warrior movement, the movement-philosophy found in taijutsu (body art). This art offers the tools of movement to assimilate the skills needed to meet the challenges of life and prevail against those changes, a movement guide to take control of one’s destiny.

Questions, feedback, and inquiries may be directed to the group here: bujinkanshinmyoken@gmail.com.

The Bujinkan Shinmyoken Dojo practices the Japanese martial art of budo taijutsu as passed to us through Masaaki Hatsumi sensei. It is through the movement-philosophy of taijutsu, as passed down through eight hundred years of warrior movement that we explore these lessons for the here and now of today.

But what is taijutsu?

The easiest and most natural explanation would be to come and participate in a class so one can experience the transmission directly (isshi soden).

With that framework what can be understood intellectually is expressed through s system of movement, used as a vehicle to understand self through martial movement.

Training begins with junan taiso, martial arts stretching, and the re-alignment of the body to a natural state. Methods of undoing the defects of time that one has “learned” and accumulated incorrectly along the way through life. Increasing body capacity and taking stock of where one is currently in order to build and improve on the body’s natural movement capabilities.

The next level of movement development transmits how to generate and use correct body alignment and mechanics in a martial way- it teaches one how to move the body correctly using our unique movement of taijutsu. Methods to illustrate this include ukemi taihenjutsu, kyu kamae, kihon happo, and san shin no kata, illustrating the path of heaven (sky).

Once one has a firm grasp of how to use the movement-philosophy of taijutsu correctly the study of the path of earth begin, how to prevent correct movement through the use of distance, timing, rhythm, and balance. Methods use to show this anti-movement include the gyaku gi, nage waza, hajutsu, and shime-waza.

Those two path lead to the path of man (human), the blending and interplay of the dragon (ten) and the tiger (chi), the interaction between people in a martial arts situation. This jin ryaku no maki section of training offers us glimpses with what is possible, making the impossible possible, as expressed through koku, renyo, seion, gekkan, musan, etc.

The integration of these three aspects of training (tenchijin ryaku no maki) leads to the complete human begin (tatsujin) and the ability to navigate situations in a natural manner.

Yet again, these are just words trying to capture the movement-philosophy of taijutsu, the best way to feel and experience this expression is to take up the training and commit to the warrior path.    






 email contact: bujinkanshinmyoken@gmail.com