By Yossi Sheriff
Recent years has seen the number and spread of video and surveillance cameras on the rise.
We can safely assume that the number is going to grow. The current terrorist fright that effected the western hemisphere since the September eleven attack, has given a green light to the explosion of surveillance and surveillance cameras. The state sanctioned videoing, and the fact that many cellular phones have video cameras, leads to a level of transparency unheard of: in youtube alone, 523,000 videos tagged with the word "street", 15000 tagged with the word "neighbor", 97,400 tagged with the word "violence".
What we do can become visible and recorded. Exposed Recorded Action (ERA) will be a feature of modern life.
Last year has been dotted with minor scuffles with friends and relatives. These people know I have been training for many years in Budo Ninjutsu; they want to check my abilities, even if it's done jokingly.
Almost all the confrontations looked like this; a friend was talking to me and then suddenly charged forward with pushes and shoves that end with my back to the wall, meters behind me.
All these incidents happened in the gym I work at, and the machinery and free weights lying around make every throw an imminent danger for my opponent. Now, if this was a regular confrontation against someone I don't know I would deal with it rather easily, but when my fight vocabulary is restricted because of safety reasons my response will always be lacking. I did not mention this, but an important fact is the weight difference, all my friends are very muscular bodybuilders, and weigh at least 90 kilogram (180 pounds) that’s much heavier than me. The weight and strength differences are a major factor, because it makes "playing" the confrontation very difficult.
Koto Ryu is one of the Japanese martial arts systems learned in Bujinkan and the various X-Kans. It is an extensive martial art system that exits also outside the Bujinkan.
Problem:
Sparring between training partners tends to be more aggressive than one’s preliminary intention. Potential hazards:
Physical injuries, bad training atmosphere, and ill learning process due to a usage of unnecessary force, focusing on the “one big blow” instead of rhythmic, flow “multi hit“ combinations.
Possible reasons for a rigid sparring:
A lack in communication: verbal signals suggest that “all is well”, while body language orders you to be alert.
Escalation in violence due to misconduct: intentionally or not, one does not act according to what is considered acceptable; the partner reacts by escalating his reactions.
The AKBAN short chain, the one that Lior has made, is called Kusari Fundo. When I showed it to my friends from Kashima Shin Ryu in Japan, they told me that there it’s simply called Nunchaku. It may be most easily described as “Combat chain”.
I have been training with a combat chain for a few years under Lior’s supervision. After six months of practicing with a rope (imperative in order to learn not to be hurt or hurt others), I switched to a metal chain. Practicing without a target did not suffice, so I turned to metal poles. After a while, Lior asked to inspect my chain and found one link to be cracked.
