Parkour... Ninjutsu...?

Jordan and I made the trek into Toronto today for a very special occasion. Dan invited a disciple of Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi over to the Monkey Vault. Hatsumi is the last living ninjutsu grandmaster and likely the only person in the world who can rightfully be called a "ninja." Our teacher for the day, Bud, is a 10th degree black belt under Hatsumi, teaches ninjutsu at his own dojo in Atlanta, and has been a marine and an instructor of various things for things like the police force, SWAT, etc. The result? A man who knows, truly and honestly, how things work in the real world. Of course, for those of you reading this on PKTO, I didn't need to go into all of that.. But I also post this at four other locations, so it's for their benefit. ;)

There was a lot of interesting things that occurred at this workshop. Bud had us do a sensitivity drill that may seem a little bit odd. We would get into a circle and face away from the center with our eyes closed. Bud would stand in the center with a stick, and approach one of us at random.. If he got close enough, he would smack us in the head with said stick. Our task? To sense him. I should make mention that the man is QUIET. There was no way to hear him coming. The first time, a few people got hit, and a lot of people turned for no reason. After he explaine dsomething to us (half of us would be watching as the othe rhalf participated), we began to understand a bit more. The body seems to react to negative energy. Bud's negative energy involved thoughts of killing us. I assume they're real thoughts of killing us. When he focused on one of us, the reaction is to lean forward. Some people leaned more than others. Some people didn't seem to be aware of anything at all. But the first time I felt something... it was really weird. My body nearly toppled forward (probably not too noticeable to anyone but me), and there was a sensation on the back of my neck. It felt like it was cold and warm at the same time.. but my body was basically screaming, "DANGER!" at me, and I turned.. sure enough, he was behind me by two or three paces, and the stick was right there. Honestly, I couldn't contain my excitement. I had FELT his THOUGHTS. How fucking weird is that? The second time wasn't half as dramatic, though. I don't know if this is because my body was more used to it, I was distracted, or because Bud wasn't thinking nearly as violent thoughts as the first time, but this time, I didn't feel anything on the back of my neck.. just this sensation that I should turn around and my body leaned forward unconsciously.

Another thing that Dimmonk and I both noticed rather dramatically was that if Bud was directed at the person opposite us in the circle, the two of us felt like we were being pulled at the torso backwards. Some kind of feedback to the energy, maybe? Those who know me know that as much of a spiritual person that I am... I am also an extremely scientific person. I don't put much stock into things like "chi" without a scientific explanation (I believe that some forms of chi exist, but they do have physical explanations). This is something that went beyond my physical understanding of chi. Bud didn't go so far as to say it was anything of the sort, but he did make mention of auras or just personal space in general. I had learned to read auras (with a bit of effort) some time ago thanks to Brittany, though I didn't think to try to see Bud's.. but it makes sense that a negatively charged aura being directed at someone else's would result in some kind of receptive feedback. Either way, no matter how you slice it... really cool stuff.

We did a lot of reaction drills involving rolling out of the way of an attacker. Pretty useful stuff. And the last thing we did involved vaulting over a block and immediately reacting to a swipe of Bud's stick from a random direction. Then two swipes. The real danger is in trying to predict what he's going to do, and then reacting before there's something to react to.. Every time I paused after a moment to take in what's going on, I succeeded fine.. But one time, I assumed he would swipe one way, so I tried to roll out of its way.. only to get smacked in the Achilles tendon with the stick. Let me tell you.. that was painful.

After the workshop, we ate and then played a fun game with a 45lb sandbag involving throwing, squats, push-ups, cleans, etc. Definitely super super fun. From this day alone, I'll have a lot - A LOT - to take back to Virginia once the summer's over.