Martial Artists: Please evaluate?

After watching the video, there were so many things he did that rang warning bells in my head that I don't know where to start. Having been trained in Suwari Waza as part of our advanced belt curriculum, the first thing I noticed was the fact that he did all that while seated in seiza. In Aikido, you never perform a technique while seated in seiza(seated on your calf with your instep flat on the ground) because this makes you immobile. To perform Suwari waza, you need to be seated in keiza(seated on your calf with the balls of your feet on tiptoes) this gives you the ability to push off your feet and propel yourself forward if needed to generate power. Secondly, an Aikidoka would never block, nor stay in front of an attacker when on their knees, we were taught to always shift forward to the side and deflect or pivot, then redirect, we never block an incoming strike. The fact that he had to lean forward to apply an atemi is already a big mistake as the attacker could just grab and pull him off balance towards the incoming knife and basically make him fall against it. Further more, while he had a tight grip on the Uke's knife hand, he did not control Uke's elbow, which leaves Uke free to counter and redirect his grabbing arm and hit him with either a punch or even a kick from that position, not to mention ramming his body against his and pinning him under. But the most glaring mistake of all was the break of flow in his movements, if you notice, he actually has to stop every second or two to readjust his grip and switch from striking to grabbing and twisting while his Uke just watches and lets him, if the Uke had been fully resisting, he would have a harder time catching his hand much more keeping him down and avoiding getting stabbed or cut. I really can't judge whether that is the actual extent of his skills just from watching this video, I would have to assume he is just not used to applying those techniques while kneeling and should therefore not be teaching suwari waza as he is clearly not in his element. Suwari waza after all requires special training and conditioning(we were required to do 100 laps around the dojo forward and backwards while walking on shikko or walking on our knees to condition our legs as part of training) and it takes sometime to get used to, before you feel comfortable moving and pivoting while on your knees. Though the reason we were taught suwari waza was not because we planned to fight on our knees, but because it was a supplemental training regimen designed to teach us how to use our hips and proper Tai Sabaki by using angles and leverage to power our techniques instead of relying on upper body strength, by depriving us the use of our legs. After years of suwari waza training, applying a throw or joint lock just by a simple twist of the hips or a pivot of the body becomes second nature.

First wrong thing. You more often than not, will not 'see' the knife. Lesson number one.

Second thing, I personally don't like the defenses he's using, and I don't think they will work. I've seen training like this numerous times, and it looks great in a choreographed world. However, in reality, when things are moving much faster than that easy choreography will only get one stabbed. There's too many moves that are separated, which makes it too slow, and not enough focus on the plane of the edge, wounds abound.

I did like how he mentioned using the ground, which conceptually could apply to a car/table, etc.

I also liked how he mentioned getting in before the attack has time to develop, though that is a difficult skill, and when fighting somebody in a random situation, it's highly unlikely that you will be able to see a particular attack coming early enough to stop it's development. But, he mentioned the strength of the attack from the point of origin, and near completion, which was where I am with liking this point.

I'm not really a big fan of discussing knife defenses, especially here, because of the little impressionable minds etc

EDIT -

LOL guess I could have just read what the others posted first! Eh. It's been a while since I've been on here. All in all I don't like the video, the techniques are dangerous, he doesn't have good martial ability, because he isn't even rooted while kneeling, and makes a mistake while demonstrating what was obviously a choreographed demo video.

Remember the Choson Ninja guy? This guy (though seemingly genuine) reminds me of him, dangerous to the public.

Hi there

Good Points

They guy demonstrates 2 or 3 techniuqes.

Bad points

All the above and more. I could go on and on here.

Firstly this is a demonstration dvd yet things are done and explained in a rather pipe and slippers way which in a way is probably the target audiance for this dvd.

Intent? Wheres the intent? The attack moves like he's offering an icecream and the defender defends as though its a banana! They both would have been better with a pointed stick! lol

My biggest concern is the sheer lack of any body movement other than whats going on in the arms. No waist, no feet, no knees. Nothing not a zip of any taijutsu what so ever from the waist down.

What about the use of the toes? Every single japanese art i have ever seen makes the point of keeping the balls of the feet and big toe in contact with the floor when moving from seated to standing. Its one of the main focal points for control. However not here. lol

One of the best quotes ever! "first footwork, then spine work, then handwork." Shiraishi Sensei. :)

Im sure you may have come to the same conclusion as i have in that there is no ninjutsu in this dvd other than whats in the title. There certainly isnt any suwarigata techniques from shinden fudo ryu jutai or dakentai shown here. Nor are they any from takagi yoshin ryu either!

At best its a half arsed kihon happo done sitting down which anyone can do after only a few classes.

This is one of the reasons why i hate youtube for martial arts.

If your after suwarigata stuff check out manaka's ryu ha dvds or his tanto stuff. You wont find any clips of them floating around the web though.

Manaka's dvds are proper densho stuff done in the correct order. No Deviation just whats written down.

Wouldnt it be nice if youtube had a flush button built into it? This one seriously needs to go down the crapper!

Best wishes

idai

First of all they are on there knees for convenience sake. I have a major problem with knife defence. Not once have I seen a defence class that does not rely on your attacker being this static dummy that stops all movement when a block is made. No-one considers the forward momentum of an attacker (except maybe aikido and judo) and furthermore an attacker is not going to leave his hand in there when a block is made. A knife attack is almost always frenzied so you would not have time to slide down the arm after a hit for a wrist lock. The attackers reaction would be either to bring his arms up to block or if it is a decent hit, his arms will flail and will not stay in the same place. He will then keep stabbing over and over with the knife. The best course of action is deflection and run. But if you are cornered you should try and deflect and and incapacitate the attacker with the hardest punch to the jaw you have ever thrown. Wrist locks and arm locks are all well and good but I would never try one unless I had already overpowered and dazed my attacker.

I would not spend a dime on his videos or wast much time watching this on youtube. One defense he did that actually might work some of the others would get him severely cut with a determined opponent. Clearly he is not working with masters who are his skill level or higher, or he would never ever pass a knife in front of himself.

Weather it is ninjitsu or not is debatable as wrist locks were taught to me in Taekwando, and Wing Chung Kung Fu.

I don't claim to be a master. I am just an instructor with some years of experience. I regularly train with masters so that I know what I don't know. A problem I see often in some schools is the master gets overconfident and starts to use things on students who do not know any better and the master begins to believe in his own techniques un tested against his equals.

Edit:

I absolutely agree JW the gun technique would get you killed more often than not. Again passing the gun toward his body....Not a good thing. We always pas a weapon overhead whenever possible. There are other flaws in this one too.

He has some good "take away" notes from his spoken messages, like never take your hand off the weapon or the arm/hand with the weapon.

However, he was seated in seiza in "dead toes" - on the instep. As Shienaran pointed out, he should have been on his toes, what we call "live toes". That allows him to move better from suwariwaza.

In all of his blocks - which may have been appropriate for ninjitsu, I don't know - but the strike responses he should have moved off the line AND blocked. That would have been easier had he been in live toes. But he was in dead toes, and he made no attempt to get off the line. If his intention was deliberate, he should have said so. Self-defense 101 is "get off the line".

Also, in most of his atemis, he reached forward for the strike, placing himself out of balance. That's fine if your opponent is weakened - particularly in his free hand. But he was not entitled to that assumption, and so he should have assumed the attacker's free hand can play a pivotal role in the strike.

In his kotegaishi, his circles were too large - they exposed his center to attack by the attacker's free hand or to counterleverage if the uke moved.

The quality of the video was high - good sound, good video. But the staging was amateurish, the conversation with the cameraman should have been edited out. And uke's reaction to the strong wrist locks should have been muted. He should have edited out the smiles and non-essential commentary. That takes away from the seriousness of the techniques. It also gave the impression that nage was not the instructor. He didn't seem to have control over the video.

I get the concept of Japanese styles practicing suwariwaza, however, I don't get it when uke is also seated. Were uke to be standing, that'd be fine. But, in our Aikido school, only the lower ranks practice sawariwaza where uke and nage are seated. The higher ranks do it when uke is standing and nage is seated.

Qman pointed out that the block might have been good enough to stop the strike, but not of uke's forward momentum. This is absolutely true: maybe when everyone is seated in suwariwaza then it's fine, but for uke to be in suwariwaza is a training exercise. Nage is not entitled to uke being compromized in this fashion, either.

I don't like the video at all. It's nothing to do with his style - which is unclear - but more about principals.

I'm not particular impressed with the teaching methods. There were some good thing as it went along. I do not like the first techniques when he blocked with one hand, struck with the other, then released the block and re-gripped to do the take down. That would be difficult to accomplish in my opinion. It was better to me when he blocked, struck, and then used the opposite hand to assist in taking the guy down without repositioning the initial blocking hand.

Of course the kneeling aspect of the training is not going to happen this smoothly in a fight. You should never stand still in front of your attacker like this. I hope this is just being done to initially teach the principles but you have to move out of the way even when you are on your knees.

Edit:

I have gone back and looked at a couple of other videos, One I thought was pretty good. He also explained that he was teaching the basics of the technique(principle). Then he showed the application. But I also saw one on weapons. The guy had a gun pointed at his head while he was on his knees. I believe his defense would have gotten most people killed including himself.

http://youtu.be/WLEZE0F1uig

Edit2:

@Tiffanny

The problem is not that he is on his knees. We train to defend ourselves on or knees, sitting in chairs, etc. The problem with him being on the knees is that he never moved out of the way. You never should teach students especially beginners to stand or kneel in front of an attack.

But I'm guessing he is just trying to begin with the principle of the technique. He is not done with the lesson. At least that is what I'm hoping.

I also noticed that in the video it says ninjitsu, but in one of his video he states he is teaching a form or style of aikido.

Edit3:

It's good to see Aaron J back. Great answer by many that responded in my opinion.

I do NOT practice ninjitsu so I dont really know much about the system. However it seems very odd to me that they are kneeling down almost the whole time. You would probably never be kneeling down (at least not like they are) if you were attacked so I dont understand why they are practicing this way.

I would defiantly not learn from a film like this, but the choice is yours.

i dont think it was that good but the guys answering your questions are being dumbasses... it doesent matter if there on their knees (although it is a little odd) most of the techniques showed could be used standing up in the beginning he was just swiping his hand out of the way, grabbing the attackers arm and bending his hand back

also people on here need to understand what ninjutsu is its not a new self defense class ninjutsu is friggin ninjas of course theyre going to train differently

i mean it was an ok video not the best

its good that he wen ton the inside of his hand alot of people for some odd reason try to swipe ther attackers hand away from the outside so that the knife is pointed towards their stomach and closer to there body but i think when he had him on the ground he couldve just taken the knife away

someone answer mine?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Al5B8...

The techniques appear to be legitimate jujitsu or perhaps ninjitsu. However, anyone can learn basic jujitsu moves from the internet. The people in this video are not well practiced. perhaps the have a legitimate claim to a good lineage, perhaps the do not, but they are by no means masters, and it is genially masters who teach. When the instructor is obese, lacks grace in his movements, moves inefficiency, is off balance, is slow and in a general sense weak, I would not trust him.

I could be wrong, this is just my interpretation. Masters ought to teach, students ought to learn. My judgement would not be that he is, by any means, a master.