At the latest seminar we continued to focus on Kukishinden Ryu Dakentaijutsu. This followed on from a seminar the previous month, during which Jack discussed the usefulness of being able to successfully take down an opponent in combat, be the situation military, law enforcement, or simply personal defense. And how, according to the environment, one or both parties may be wearing armor, weapons, or even bulky winter clothes that impact the Taijutsu employed. With this thought in mind we started to look at the nuances of the techniques in this particular school.
The techniques of Kukishinden Ryu Dakentaijutsu are overtly brutal, with many patterns designed to maim or incapacitate the armored opponent, heaping them onto the ground awkwardly, leaving them wide open and helpless for an accurate finishing counter attack. Of course, as Jack pointed out, for most of us this might simply be an opportunity to escape and seek the assistance of law enforcement. The important question was, as always, what can we learn from the basic forms in terms of developing better Taijutsu.
There are many recurring themes in terms of bad habits in my experience. Not bending the knees, curving the spine, reaching with the arms, pulling with just the arms, looking down at the floor, stopping the feet....the list seems endless. It wasn't a newsflash to notice these 'bugs in my system' creeping out, however, something did catch my attention. I noticed that when I physically have hold of someone with both hands, trying to execute a technique, it was much more tempting to try and use strength. As a result all the aforementioned Taijutsu flaws were dragged out into plain view much earlier, and much more clearly than usual.
As Jack deftly guided us through several variations, we started to see that these were all methods of causing the Uke to unbalance themselves, and then exploit that opening by controlling their attempts to regain their position. Of course the trick is, being able to 'see' and 'feel' what is happening spatially, and adjust accordingly, rather than have a fixated intention on what is going to happen. This takes practice to even develop basic competency, and so the day was hard but rewarding work.
During the seminar Jack "re-introduced" the importance of Katate-Hicho no Kamae. This kamae is not simply a Gyokko Ryu Hicho in armor, but was demonstrably used to great effect as a stepping stone while moving from one tactical position to the next in Kukishinden Gata. This gave us some much needed help, bridging some gaps in our Taijutsu.
Jack had opened the day by raising an important point from his mentor Robert Humphrey. I paraphrase here due to lack of phonographic memory, but it was along the lines of:
In order for society to truly work, everyone had to be able to fight. That is to say, in a place where people are not afraid to stand up for what is right, there will be far fewer problems.
I would say by the end of the seminar, everyone had worked hard to try and make this a reality.
Robert Humphrey's speech at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville April 10-12, 1997
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