Become A Part Of The Legend....


















Ninpo Library::Ura & Omote::November 1995::







































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BECOME 

A 

PART 

OF 

THE 

LEGEND....







Ron Blackwood







One of the more interesting phenomenon I've observed over my martial arts career (15 years) is how a well-conducted seminar takes on legendary proportions. This seems to occur with each telling of who did what, what was taught, and where it took place. 



I recently conducted a two-day outdoor seminar. The Mountain Warrior seminar was held at a regional wilderness park. The county will not allow anyone under the age of 18 to stay overnight in the park due to some recent predations by mountain lions! 



We camped on the periphery of the campground. The camping area is a small section of a 20,000 acre wilderness area. There is a river that has dried up during the summer to the point where it has just a trickle of water running down it. We crossed the riverbed and hiked up into a remote area to begin our training. 



The first morning session consisted of instruction in escape and evasion techniques along with instruction in camouflage and concealment techniques. After the instruction period, the students were split into two groups. One group was to "escape" and the other group was to track them down. The "escapees" had only a short time to find a place to hide and had to stay within certain boundaries. The trackers had a limited time to find them. By the time we broke for lunch, everyone had some kind of a story to tell and an entirely new perspective on what it takes to hide and what kind of effort it takes to track someone down.



The afternoon session consisted of exotic weapons training. These weapons are some of the traditional ones that were utilized by the ninjas of feudal Japan. We trained with the Kusari Fundo, Kyoketsu Shoge, Kusari Gama, Naginata, and Yari. Some of the students had trained with some of these weapons in the dojo, but had never used them in an outdoor environment. We then tried attacking with and defending against each of them. Everyone had a problem with the large oak trees that spread over our heads. Techniques that were so easy in the dojo suddenly became major undertakings when your attacker forced you into the brush or under an overhanging tree. Corded and chained weapons now required a lot of thought and planning before you started swinging them! This became a major "eye-opener" for everyone.



The night session was just incredible. There was only a sliver of a moon so the visibility was almost nil. All of the students were wearing the traditional outdoor uniforms complete with hoods and gauntlets. In the dim light it was impossible to tell one student from another. Our training became a randori session. One person would stand in the middle of a clearing about 20 feet in diameter. The other students would conceal themselves in the shadows or in the surrounding undergrowth. One by one they would roll out from their place of concealment and attack the person in the middle of the clearing. When the defender had finally dealt with all of the attackers, he would roll into the brush and disappear. One of the others would take his place and the session would continue. Throughout all of this session there was very little talking. Everyone was impressed with how easy it was to disappear at night and everyone agreed that it was almost impossible to see anyone even in the moonlight. We finished up the session with a 45 minute meditation session. During the meditation session you could hear the "critters" sneaking up through the grass and brush to check us out. There was one large animal that we never saw but everyone agreed that it probably was either a coyote or a mountain lion. With each telling the animal seems to get larger. We finished up around 9:30 and sat around afterwards telling lies about what great martial artists we were. 



The next morning everyone rolled out of their sleeping bags in various stages of disrepair. Some complained of being cold during the night (apparently they didn't read my article on sleeping bag selection). It didn't get that cold but some of the students didn't have sleeping bags or had summer weight bags. By 9:00 everyone was up, fed, and ready to go again. We hiked back into the wilderness area again and trained in armed and unarmed techniques until noon. At that point, everyone agreed that while we had a great time, a Big Mac and a Coke was sounding better than trail mix and water. There was a lot of bonding and lots of "Wait until next time...." as everyone packed up their gear and headed for home.



The one common element that everyone agreed on was that this training works. Dojos are great for learning the basics but the outdoor training really brings home the validity of the art. When you train outdoors, you realize that those high kicks just don't work. You learn that it is extremely difficult to do a backward roll uphill. You also learn that if you are going to roll downhill, you will develop an amazing amount of velocity before you stop. In short, your perspective changes significantly.



After we returned home and were back in the dojo, those who didn't attend were extremely envious of those who did. The stories have been told and retold until you hardly recognize the events and the participants. For those who have never participated in this type of training, I urge you to try it. Become a part of the legend! 







Ron Blackwood is a Shidoshi teaching in Irvine, CA. He is an avid shooter, SCUBA diver, backpacker & rock climber. He can be reached at (714) 559-1766 or by E-mail at  ohoko@aol.com.