Day 7 - More Self Defense

Not too much out of the ordinary stuff happened at Ninja Lessons. Actually, that isn't quite accurate of a statement. Everything so far that has seemed out of the ordinary at Ninja Academy really is pretty common activity. Ninja Students bow at the door when entering Ninja Academy. Then Ninja Students bow when walking onto the Ninja Training Mat. Then Ninja Students, Ninja Instructor and Ninja Assistant Instructors all bow at each other to start the lesson. Ninja Class then circles around Ninja Instructor as he picks out an unlucky Ninja Assistant Instructor to demonstrate that day's Ninja Techniques on. (As an aside, "Technique" is the official name for the skills we have been learning. From time to time, I have inadvertently referred to Ninja Techniques as Ninja Moves, Maneuvers, or Skills and will continue to do so, but I wanted to make sure that my Ninja Audience knows what I'm talking about). Ok, back to the topic at hand.

So yesterday's Ninja Demonstration was a carryover from last week's self defense lessons. Specifically, we started with what one might do if your attacker grabs you in a Bear-Hug over your arms from behind. I wanted to stop (again) and make 2 comments about this technique. First, during these Ninja Demonstrations, Ninja Instructor presents a very specific scenario with a very specific maneuver to escape. In this case, re-read the second sentence of this paragraph. Several things needed to happen for this Ninja Technique to even be applicable:

1.) The assailant needed to grab you from behind (grabbing from the front is a whole other technique).
2.) His grip needed to be extremely tight (if he loses his grip, you apply a whole new technique)
3.) He needs to grab over your arms (if he grabs you under your arms, it's a different move which we did cover last night).

Point 2 that I would like to make regarding this technique -- it was a review from last Wednesday's lesson. The same lesson where Ninja Newbie dropped me and I screwed something up in my back. That injury still isn't quite healed, so I was pretty nervous that I'd screw it up again. My partner was a familiar foe -- a guy who I drilled against in the first or second lesson. He was coming back from a two-week absence due to an ankle injury playing some basketball. Ninja Chef (he works on campus as a chef at a local eatery). Before our lesson, he told me that his weight ranged anywhere from 220 to 240, meaning he has 40-60 pounds on me. This knowledge did not help alleviate my apprehension that I was going to screw up my back worse than it already was. We came close to re-injury, but never anything that couldn't be handled. And I didn't get dropped. Ninja Chef knew what he was doing.

The next Ninja Technique was how to deal with an attacker who bear-hugs you under your arms (see, I told you we'd talk about this technique). It did not involve any flipping. Just hooking your leg around the bad guy's so he can't throw you around without tripping himself and then grabbing his leg and falling on top of him. Pretty easy, pretty effective.

The last two Ninja Techniques for the night were what to do if somebody grabs you from behind with the intention of dragging you into their van or whatever. If you are on your guard you literally flip the dude over your shoulder (My back didn't particularly appreciate flipping or being flipped). If you are off your game and start getting dragged away, distribute your weight, lock your leg with his, and throw him over so that you're standing and he's flat on his ass. If necessary, punch repeatedly.

Again, I stayed for the extra "Black Belt Training" Technique time period without paying for it because I wanted to chat with Ninja Instructor about the additional training. I don't know that he was used to a student asking so many questions, not just about the Black Belt Training, but about training in general. For example, 2 weeks into lessons and I'm already asking about competitions. For the record, I can start those in about 6 months after I know enough basics. I also asked him about how much additional gi's cost. Again, for the record, Ninja Academy sells them for much cheaper than the internet has available. That was actually really surprising to me. Finally, I explained to Ninja Instructor my frustration at being one of the older students yet being a significantly lower rank than people my own age (Ninja Instructor included). I'm really not sure what I was expecting for a response -- after all, one does not learn jiu jitsu overnight. But I was shocked that Ninja Instructor understood where I was coming from. And it was definitely not a canned response like I got from some of my other questions. Ninja Instructor explained that the more I train, the better I'll be. Now while that seems like an obvious thing to say, he expanded -- training is not just learning the techniques, but also teaching them. Showing up on days that I do not have lessons to start offer advice on how these techniques should be performed. It was much more genuine than I expected and was well received by the Great White Ninja.

Needless to say, I ended up purchasing the black belt training program. It was at a price I couldn't refuse. And I got a sweet new blue gi in the process. That being said, I'm still interested in learning from those not involved in the Ninja Academy, so let's figure out a time to go to the gym.

We're continuing Self Defense on Wednesday. I'll tell y'all about it on Thursday. Until then, have a good one.