Taikyoku Budo Study Group at Seiya Dojo in Arnold, Maryland

[Robert Van Valkenburgh]

Hi,

My name is Robert Van Valkenburgh. I'm a new member to E-Budo, but I've been reading this forum for many years. I presently run a Taikyoku Budo study group at Seiya Dojo (www.seiyadojo.com) just outside of Annapolis, Maryland. Founded by Budd Yuhasz (www.taikyokubudo.com), Taikyoku Budo (太曲武道 Great Themes Martial Way) is a training collective inspired by Ellis Amdur's Taikyoku Kuzushi (Essential Principles for Unbalancing an Opponent) as a container for internal strength expressed through Japanese jujutsu (body-to-body grappling, aikido (arms-length grappling), and kempo (striking).

The Taikyoku Kuzushi were originally developed by Ellis Amdur as a set of solo exercises, based around five movement vectors or ‘themes,' with the intention of "[refining] training to facilitate the development of effective atemijutsu (hitting body skills) and kaeshiwaza (countering techniques), as well as effectively laying the groundwork for a more natural development of freestyle training and for the inclusion of internal training skills."

Seiya Dojo is a small group of training brothers/sisters from diverse martial backgrounds (aikido, hapkido, BJJ, wrestling, karate, etc.) dedicated to Taikyoku Budo as our main martial practice. Much of Taikyoku Budo is ‘open source' and we welcome practitioners from other arts to come in and explore what we consider to be universal themes of movement with us as we believe that you will find something relevant and useful to your practice. We encourage cross-training whether as a means of ‘testing’ these principles in more competitive arts such as BJJ, Muay Thai, or judo or simply as a means of refining the ideas further.

[Cady Goldfield]

Apologies for the belated reply... but, welcome to E-Budo.
And, thank you for the introduction -- you come from a very interesting background and area of study.
We hope you'll enjoy participating in the discussions.

[Robert Van Valkenburgh]

Thank you Cady!

Over the years, I have very much enjoyed reading the threads. They have had a profound impact on who I have chosen to (and not to) train with.

Is there a better place to post regarding our study group where it is more relevant than simply in my introduction?

Regards,

[Cady Goldfield]

Is there a better place to post regarding our study group where it is more relevant than simply in my introduction?

Probably the most appropriate place to post it would be in the Internal Power, Aiki, and Internal Training forum; however, we don't have a Dojo Finder section, at present -- though that is where study groups and dojo should be listed. I will check with one of the admins to see whether we might create a Dojo Finder for that forum.

[P Goldsbury]

Hello, Mr Valkenburgh,

Welcome to E-Budo.
I saw Cady's post, so I went ahead and created a Dojo Finder forum. As you see, your thread is now in this new forum.

Best wishes,

[Cady Goldfield]

Thank you, Peter.
We also have a dojo finder section in the Aikijujutsu forum, though it's expressly for that aiki/internal art, whether Daito-ryu or analogous systems. But this dojo finder in the internal training/aiki forum will be useful for any system that has an internal methodology or component.

[P Goldsbury]

Cady,

I have added a brief description borrowed from your last post.

[Robert Van Valkenburgh]

Mr. Goldsbury,

I'm not sure why I just saw this. Thank you.

[stancee]

Hello Robert. I'm somewhat new to martial arts. Spent 6 months in Kung Fu. then 2 months in Maui Thai kick boxing. Now I've been in Ninja for about 6 months. I wanted to learn to fight and thought I needed to spar in order to learn. Spent 6 months in Kung Fu, I'm 60 years old by the way, and needed to be a green sash to spar. They never asked me to test for green sash so I left for Kick boxing. The place closed after a few months so I researched and decided Ninja was my best option. Not sure if the Dojo I'm in is adequate. We don't spar or have very little contact such as sparring. I'm in Shanks Martial Arts in Edgewood. Can you please tell me if you know anything one way or the other regarding this Dojo. somewhat frustrated student: thank you.

[Robert Van Valkenburgh]

Hello Robert. I'm somewhat new to martial arts. Spent 6 months in Kung Fu. then 2 months in Maui Thai kick boxing. Now I've been in Ninja for about 6 months. I wanted to learn to fight and thought I needed to spar in order to learn. Spent 6 months in Kung Fu, I'm 60 years old by the way, and needed to be a green sash to spar. They never asked me to test for green sash so I left for Kick boxing. The place closed after a few months so I researched and decided Ninja was my best option. Not sure if the Dojo I'm in is adequate. We don't spar or have very little contact such as sparring. I'm in Shanks Martial Arts in Edgewood. Can you please tell me if you know anything one way or the other regarding this Dojo. somewhat frustrated student: thank you.

Stanley,

I don't know your dojo or your teacher nor is this the forum thread for discussing the effectiveness of that particular style. This is a thread dedicated to a specific area of study called Taikyoku Budo which blends classical martial concepts with modern training methods.

That said, if you simply "want to learn to fight and spar," I would recommend looking at some modern martial traditions such as BJJ or MMA. There is a well respected BJJ/MMA school in Bel Air, MD very close to you called Ground Control. I'm sure that they spar and you won't have to wait for sash testing to participate.

The question I'd ask myself is this: Aren't ninjas, by very definition, untrustworthy?

Regards,

Robert