Bujinkan Saka Nagare

In our Jin Ryaku no Maki section of taijutsu training we have a collections of waza (skills), transmitted through an arrangement of patterns and form, with Saka Nagare being the one we explored in this week’s class.

Some of these forms are very straight-forward, direct and to the point, one or two moves, while other are a quite-bit-more complicated five, six, or even more moves. One is not better vs. the other, but learning the ones with longer patters take a bit more.

So, within that framework how do we approach learning the waza-forms?

Often the teacher (coach) will demonstrate the form while the students watch, pointing out some of the more complicated footwork points, or drawing attention to key gateway movements, after which the group pairs up and practices back and forth.

The first few times the form is done, maybe the first ten minutes of practice, the focus is on unpacking the movements and putting it together. At this starting point, while we are all trying our best to move correctly, don’t worry about doing so.

Work on assembling the steps of the movement and putting them together.

It is “OK” if your distance, timing, rhythm, and balance are off, we will work on that later in the second half of studying the form, for now allow yourself just to work through it without worrying about looking good or getting it “correct”.

Allow yourself the grace-period of learning and making mistakes, and from there we will build up end eliminate the mistakes in your taijutsu.

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