Combat Rules
The best fight is the one that never happens. Three rules of ninjutsu, from mental training to mastery of the body, and nine pointers for when a fight cannot be avoided.
- Chapter
- 3, Body Training
- Sections
- 4
- Reading time
- 4 min
In the film Hero (2002), Qin Shi Huang Di (played by Chen Daoming) describes swordsmanship as a path in three stages: first even a blade of grass in the hand becomes a weapon, then the warrior wins with bare hands because the sword lives in the heart, and in the end the warrior gives up both the sword in the hand and the sword in the heart to bring peace. The combat rules of ninjutsu follow a similar idea. Their aim is a life in which conflicts never arise, because fighting is only the last resort.
First Rule
Life should be arranged so that an enemy never even thinks of confronting you. This goal is reached through mental training.
Sometimes your mental presence is not enough to keep a dangerous situation from arising. Then there is still the option of successfully overlooking the danger. In practice, this means you suppress your feelings and take in the threat without emotional involvement. Your mind stays clear, and you can weigh your response calmly.
Usually a strong unease lingers until the danger has passed. But if you rise and put a quick end to the threat, you soon return to a calm, relaxed state.
Learning to endure such situations, to accept defeat, fear, or humiliation in order to achieve what you want, is deeply rooted in ninjutsu. The syllable nin 忍 means “endurance, persevering, enduring, coping with”
. It is one of the hardest exercises, because persevering in the face of death above all takes great self-control.
Second Rule
Fighters must master their feelings so that they do not defend themselves automatically when no defense is needed. This goal, too, is reached through mental training. Only if you fail to nip the threat in the bud, or at least to let it pass without negative consequences, do active defensive measures come into question.
Then the principle “protect your opponent”
applies. Seriously injuring an opponent is often easier than simply letting them run into empty space, or letting several opponents run into each other. If you try to protect your opponent, namely from their own actions, no one can cast you as the wrongdoer when the opponent gets hurt. If they hurt themselves, your record stays clean.
When people think of ninjutsu, many think of physical fighting techniques first. In fact, these come only third. Fighting is the least suitable way to lead a harmonious and natural life. By the time a fight begins, you have already suffered a defeat. And “those who live by violence will die by violence”
.
Even so, training in ninjutsu usually begins with physical training. A solid knowledge of the body’s conditions is the prerequisite for mental growth. Close-combat training teaches students to know and understand their own feelings and moods in a confrontation.
Still, it would be good if many fighters turned to the mental side of their art earlier.
Third Rule
An important goal of your own development is to perfect your physical abilities until you can come through any confrontation successfully. This goal is reached through physical training.
Ninjutsu includes numerous elements of self-defense and a whole range of body weapons. Together with weapon techniques, dynamics, energy generation, and other aspects, they fuse into a unique combat system. A half-circle kick feels exactly like a sword cut. Ninjutsu is therefore more a series of feelings than a collection of techniques.
Every human being is unique, in build as well as in state of mind. That is why ninjutsu does not force its students to copy rigid sequences of movements. It gives them guidelines for developing their natural emotional and physical responses.
Pointers for a Fight
If a fight cannot be avoided, always keep the following points in mind:
- Be fully present. Give one hundred percent. Hold your awareness as if nothing else in the world existed. Only the goal matters, and all your concentration is directed at it. The mind must not wander.
- Keep your center low. Keep your center of gravity as low as possible without losing the flow of your movements. Do not let your power gather in the shoulders or upper body.
- Stay loose until the end. Move fluidly and relaxed, and release your power only at the last moment. If you perform a technique with tense muscles from the start, you will cramp up.
- Use your whole weight. Put your entire body weight behind every strike. Never counter with single limbs.
- Keep moving. Never remain in a rigid stance. Your footwork must be quick and suited to the situation.
- Breathe in rhythm. The right breathing rhythm saves strength and helps you regain it. Exhale as you perform a technique, inhale as you retreat or prepare.
- Watch your opponent. Mind where you are looking and keep your opponent in sight at all times. If you focus on your own technique, you will miss the changes in your opponent’s way of attacking.
- Remember the purpose. Never lose sight of what a technique is for, and never cling to a technique that has long stopped being appropriate.
- Use every moment. Use every moment to increase your knowledge and strength. Do not practice for the sake of practicing or to discipline yourself.
