Ninjas Take over Portsmouth

Ninjutsu has 18 different fighting skills ranging from weapons and psychology to hand and foot technique. This course zeroed in on one small aspect of Ninjutsu training. The ninja skills of throwing nage waza and ground fighting (kumi uchi) but in a sparring situation (randori).

gMany students from outside of Ninjutsu attendedh

One of Europe's leading Martial artists and Ninjutsu practitioners, Brian McCarthy, came to Portsmouth on Sunday the May 3rd to teach a course on Ninjutsu at the Mountbatten centre. The course was hosted by Andrew Thomas of www.portsmouthmartialarts.com in Highland Road. Andrew has been teaching Ninjutsu for over 20 years under the guidance of Brian chief instructor for the BBD.

The course took a student from basic grappling sparring in to ground work.

Wow this was physically demanding working on strength and cardio exercises and then jumping straight on to randori sparring to look for the throw or take down being taught and then repeat the process all over again with a new throw or take down.

Many students from outside of Ninjutsu attended. Tony Day 4 TH Dan aikido black belt found the course fascinating.h I particular liked the subtle ways Brian broke the attacks balance down. The way he did this with so little energy being used draw me into the classh

Russell Sayers a MMA student said gI was impressed with how easy Brian made it all look. I have never seen anyone in the middle of a ground fighting battle be able to hold a full conversation with the group about what he is doing it was quiet amazing. It will certainly help my MMA game. I will pop down and look at the Ninjutsu class as well now.

gIts these experience that make your training more realh

Time was taken to explain how to set the throw up. How to use the smaller less expensive throws (in terms of strength + cardio out put) and how to cross from striking to take down. Those above 2 short sentences took seconds to write but to be able to fully implement in real time will take years of dedicated practice back at the dojo.

Over the course of the day there must have been at least 20 randori bouts and kumi uchi bouts and the surviors finished on a high with one very long randori bout. What made this even more interesting is there are no weight categories in Ninjutsu you just have to deal with what you get. Which means I at 5'6h was in a bout with a guy called Simon who was 6'6h or on another occasion with a guy 3 stone heavyer then me. Its these experience that make your training more real and relatable to the street.

Classic technique from the Tagio Yoshin ryu was also practiced from traditional sitting positions. Gradually building the technique up in to a position of full Kumi Uchi ground fighting

A prise draw for early subscription to the course saw Marcus from London win a Ninja Ken (straight sword)

People travelled all over Britain to attend with people coming from London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Liverpool, Brighton and Newark. Brian said, gIt's always a pleasure to come down to Portsmouth. Andrew is a very good host a very good black belt and the Portsmouth Dojo is very lucky to have him.h

Brian says, gA lot of martial arts are too sport orientated, I try to give my students what it was like to live as a practitioner of Ninjutsu six, seven hundred years ago.h

Of the 60 people attending the course the ages ranged from 12 to 56. Mark Street, 56 a builder from Portsmouth said gThat all the exercising and stretching has improved my health, and my doctor said I am in the top ten percent of the people that walk through his door, and I'm in my fifties.h Mark said that he attends several course each year all over the country as well as a trip to Dublin for the annual course there. gSeeing people that you've trained with from other parts of the country who have become deep rooted friends make these courses such a pleasure.h

gPhysical strength is not going to save your life in an endangering situationh

The course ran from eleven until four o'clock and was an intense session giving Brian's students the chance to train with him. Brian was extremely approachable and very happy to talk to and help students, from his senior black belts to someone who is having their very first lesson. Brian has been teaching Ninjutsu since 1983. Brian says ghe is still learning as we change and others change, so you always learn new thingsh Also this struck a cord for me gPhysical strength is not going to save your life in an endangering situation, it's not going to pick you up when you have crushing results in your personal life, so spiritual strength, the mental strength is equally important. Ninjutsu tries to find that balance for both of them. Physical strength on the outside, yes, but spiritual strength, mental strength is probably more important.h

Keith Sinclair, 31 from Edinburgh said, gI thoroughly enjoyed the course. It's a chance to see techniques that you wouldn't normally get to see, even as a black belt. It's an intense course and can be demanding physically, but it's always worth it to train with Brian.h

For info on Ninjutsu training go to www.ninjutsu.org.uk .Many thanks to Brain for his time and knowledge, the Portsmouth students for hosting the event, to everyone who supported, to Roger Harris and Simon Baughan for the photos