If you read my other blog, you know that my wife is fighting breast cancer, so this is a trying point in our life. During this, I spent times being angry, depressed, hopeful, distraught, and lost. I had already lost some focus during my transfer from the Marines to the Bureau, as it wasn't where I thought I would like to be, and I childishly railed against that for a while. After a few years, I accepted it, embraced it and now I am truly thankful for where I am in all aspects of my life.
So here I am now, I'm growing as a man and a father. I started to look outside of work where to define myself. My faith has grown, and now I am finding my center again.
I looked at the center of this man, and found that the love of the Martial Arts was still inside.
This actually started a few months ago while I was looking up Toshishiro Obata online, trying to find a replacement copy of a book of his that I lost during my PCS from California. It was a Five Dollar Copy of The Naked Blade that one of my friends (who shall remain nameless) borrowed, and I never saw it again.
As it was, I found the webiste for Shinkendo, the Martial Arts style that Toshishiro Obata started, and I sent him an email, thanking him for witing the book, as it was a turning point in my martial arts journey. To my surprise, he responded to me.
He told me thank you for the email, as it was humbling to know that something he had written had effected me, as we had never actually met in person. That email steeled my resolve to get back into the martial arts.
Now it was just finding a school.
I often wish that while I was stationed in California and Maryland, I would have spent more time really taking advantage of the fact that there were literally good schools everywhere, but instead I only dabbled. I chalk that up to misguided youth. But the fact is, I am back in smalltown Pennsylvania, and there just isn't as much in the way of decent martial arts schools. Master Golla's school had closed while I was away (something I'm still sad about), and the other school (that I knew of) in my town was substandard.
So the search began.
Some things to think about when you are looking for a school:
- Type of school: There are, in my opinion, two types: Sport and Survival. The sport schools can easily be identified by the number of trophies in their windows or on their website. The are also prevalent due to MMA being so popular. MMA an jujitsu schools come right out and say they are sport oriented. Survival schools (as I call them) are the ones who look at Martial Arts as a way of life and a serious study.
- The Instructor. Talk to them. Feel them out as a person. If you don't like them on a personal level, there is usually a reason for that. And their personality will come through in their Art. (think of the Cobra Kai in Karate kid)
- Ask to watch a class. If they start blowing smoke about secret techniques and etc., question that. You will end up paying your money to train there, you want to see past waggly fingers and 'secret sword techniques' to see if there is any actual substance there. Plus, you can see what type of students they have. Master Elmer Golla always said that last one was paramount, and it hasn't steered me wrong.
So I began to look. I found a few good schools, one was very close to what I'd done before, as it was a Shotokan dojo. There are several similarities between Shotokan and Tang Soo Do (what I started my Journey in) and I was looking to move outside of my comfort zone. So I kept looking.
One day, when I was coming back from taking the kids to the park to play, I saw a sign for Mountain Winds Budo in the Plaza near my old recruiting station (Semper Fi) so we stopped in to check it out.
It was closed, (I came to find out later that it was because Keith was in the process of actually reopening the school after closing it while he was finishing his grad school) but the sign on the door listed the website and some information about it.
It said it was a Ninjutsu school. Bullshit Flags went up.
(DISCLAIMER: the aforementioned BS FLAGS in no way represent my current view of the school. They came, at the time, from being a child of the 80's during the Ninja Boom, and having seen schools, books, and now, websites all claiming to teach you "The Secrets of the Ninja", "Ninja Killing Techniques", "Ninja Love Techniques", "Secrets of Ninja Mind Control", and assorted other crap. There is good info out there, but at first, take it all with a grain of salt)
So, not really sure what to expect, I went home and looked it up on the internet. There, I found a quiet website. No black suits, no shuriken, no trophies. What I found instead was a treatise on his philosophy, and how studying in the lineage of the Takamatsu-den arts as taught by Masaaki Hatsumi had influenced him. And, I found out that the Dojocho (owner/instructor) of the school, Keith, was also a Marine. Not that I'm biased, but I am. So I emailed him.
The next week, after talking over email, I brought Meghan by to see about the children's class. After talking with Keith for roughly an hour (sorry honey) I decided to enroll myself and Meghan. I have no regrets.
I do find myself feeling like a beginner again, which I love/hate. It is a different style, or, really nine different styles. I find myself fighting old habits, old training, and the realization that my conditioning is not what it once was. (really? not a surprise)
What is similar, though, is the way I feel being back on that road. It feels good. It feels like me.
So, I started studying the works of Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi with The Essence of Ninjutsu: The Nine Traditions, and I like where the road I'm on is heading.
I'm sure the Ninja's Night Journey leads to daybreak.
-Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi
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