OFB 6 Feb. 18th and 19th 2006

[m harper]

Everyone,

Mark Your calendars.

The Bujinkan Houston Dojo is proud to announce the OFB6(Old Friends of the Bujinkan),2006

When: Feb 18th-19th Sat. 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Sun. 9:30 am - 4:00 pm

Cost: $75 if prepaid by 2/7
$100 at the door

Where: Gymnastics USA
10903 Tower Oaks
Houston, TX

Host: Mark Harper

Guest Instructors:
Rich Cearley, Joseph Adriance, and Brian Tritico
Items to bring:
training gun, 3 ft. rope, training knife, rubber shuriken,
hanbo, bo, shoto, and bokken.

We will have dinner on Saturday night at 6:00.
For more info and questions contact:

Mark Harper
bujinkandojo@houston.rr.com

We will have some books, tapes, DVD's and training equipment for sale during the seminar.

[m harper]

I spoke with Joseph last night and he said to bring a Bo for the afternoon and we will do Taijutsu in the morning.
Some will be from his recent trip to Japan.

Mark Harper
Bujinkan Houston Dojo

[m harper]

I spoke with Brian Tritico about the OFB6 and what he had in mind. He said:

I am going to cover some of the concepts that I have been talking about in the last few seminars,.. doing the actual technique the instructor is showing, the idea of the sphere, and also some on Shinden Fudo Ryu.. the whole idea of being 'natural' and some insights into those ideas from that ryu.

Brian


Mark Harper
Bujinkan Houston Dojo

[m harper]

Rich said to bring a yari, bo or nag. He will be teaching taijutsu and yari at the seminar. It looks like it will be another great seminar.

Mark Harper
Bujinkan Houston Dojo

[m harper]

Beto from the 400 pound gorilla company will be there with all of his products for sale. He also has some new padded hanbo/bokken, jo/tachi, and staff.
I have made a huge war hammer and some training spears for sale also.

Mark Harper
Bujinkan Houston Dojo

[m harper]

I would like to thank Brian Tritico, Rich Cearley and Joseph Adriance for teaching and sharing their years of training and knowledge of the Bujinkan. Their generous donation of time to help us all learn and to help Nicholas is what true Budo is all about. My son, Nicholas is nine, blind, has CP and seizures. All the proceeds from the seminar go to help improve his life and I want to thank the 40 people who came Louisiana, Mexico, Del Rio, Austin, Corpus, Laredo and the Houston area to learn.
Brian started us all off with effortless throwing by moving naturally. He stressed the natural movement all day when teaching and helping others get what he was talking about. With Brian's help I am beginning to understand that body position is what unbalances the opponent to enable you to throw without wearing yourself out during a fight. Watching him throw several huge guys easily was great. He used natural movement to finish and pin/control the downed uke as well. He also shared a recipe for colds that I will try next time I get sick.
We took over the local sandwich shop for a quick lunch then back to training with Rich.
Rich started with yari training mostly against a sword welding opponent. He stressed moving your feet to move around your uke and control his reactions. His accuracy was scary when he came close enough to graze my eyelashes. Rich finished the day with taijutsu, with the same thoughts in manipulating the opponent. Rich also used double strikes to rattle the uke allowing you to take him down quickly. Distance and timing were also stressed and discussed.
We all went to dinner at Jason's deli for some hot soup and sandwiches as it was cold and raining all weekend.
Joseph taught all day on Sunday. He started with fast action Taijutsu, Texas Tiger style. Joseph has been a student of Nagato and Hatsumi for many many years and it shows. I was amazed at the real world effectiveness of his technique. He went over a lot of different methods to take out the uke fast.
After a short break to buy some great training equipment and clothing from Beto at 400 pound gorilla we got our Bo's.
Joseph used almost everyone as uke to show how to adjust your bo to hit and control the uke from a "safe" distance. He focused on a different type of unorthodox bo movement by keeping it close to your body while moving up and down to hide. His striking skills are so accurate he hit me 4 different times during training hitting the same Kyusho. He finished the day with more taijutsu stressing hiding from the uke while destroying him. A few lumps and bruises and 1 broken leg later and we were ready to go have a delicious sushi dinner at Ten Shi.
I think this was the best OFB so far and we will do it again next year.
We have a great family of teachers and students in Texas and we get together all year to train and learn from each other.
Next month Brian is doing a bo seminar from the Kukishin school and in April will be the 2nd Houston Shidoshi seminar featuring Rich Cearley, Brian Tritico, Dave Bolin, Kurt Haines, Beto Frausto, Cory Froelich, Raj Yadev and maybe 1 or 2 others.
July we will have the 2nd Texas Shidoshi seminar with a dozen Shidoshi teaching.
I had a student do some of the video taping so I got to train more this year. Tapes will be available soon for $35.00 plus shipping.
Thanks again to everyone,
Mark Harper
Bujinkan Houston Dojo
bujinkandojo@houston.rr.com

[El Guapo-san]

Is it near a swampest place? Any flipping out? (Over here all our seminars are in a swampy place, but since most of NL is below sea level, that's not hard) :rolleyes:

Josef Vlach

[m harper]

We have had a drought since hurricane season so no swampy places and the only flipping out was from the uke in pain:) Come down to the sunshine and warmth sometime and I will take you to a swampy place.


Mark Harper
Bujinkan Houston Dojo

[El Guapo-san]

Were I only to be State-side, would be fun! (Y'all think about coming over to the Kaigosuru in Sweden or the Shi Tenno gig in June....)

Still, I'm sure Texas must have some swampest places. There are so many neo-ninjas there that they have to hang out someplace. (Or the mall, maybe?)

Josef Vlach

[darkthrez]

The OFB was pretty sweet! I learned lots from the instructors that taught, but my only regret was being unable to attend on Sunday to train with Joe A. He is a grand martial artists and instrutor. He has my admiration. Thanks again Mark for hosting the event and I also wouldl like to thank the rest of the guys and gals for giving me the opportunity to traini with you.