Akhilleus,
Have you ever trained with Rick Bianchi? I think he was in the suburban Baltimore area.
Rick Bianchi Rick Bianchi…you know…I’m surprised to say that I haven’t…or at least I can’t remember…but I’ve been away from ninjutsu for some time now…most of my ninjutsu training took place in Columbia, MD…is he in the Bujinkan?
Cutting something while a student is holding it is absolutely stupid. That he botched the cut is even more stupid, sounds like he’s a bad teacher…
I am a student in ninjutsu.. It’s a real art. This thread focuses on Bujinkan, some instructors are verry verry good. Some are absolutely horrible. There’s not really a lot of regulation of quality within the Bujinkan.
Genbukan is very consistent, as is Jinenkan. If a person has rank there, it means they have the skill to back it up. In Bujinkan it can be any which way.
Taijutsu as taught by Bujinkan tends to focus on a ‘flowing’ feeling though certain ryu’s within the curriculum definately have a huge ‘hardness’ factor to them.
As far as I know, the blow gun isn’t a weapon included in the Booj curriculum ?? It’s not taught at most Bujinkan dojo’s anyways, maybe in seminars or every once in a while if you’re training in Japan.
Thanks for the input. Good post.
Ok, here’s more controversy to add to the mix:
I studied what was taught to me as ninjitsu and it supposedly (I say this because I have only the word of my old teacher w/o any sort of documentation or even anecdotal evidence to back it up) came from Mr. Ron Duncan. I trained in it for about 5 years, no rank or anything. I’ve already been told by one poster here that Mr. Duncan is not regarded that highly.
I know HOW I was taught and I feel that I was taught effectively. I just don’t know if what I was taught was legitimately ‘ninjitsu’.
Anyone else have an opinion?
Hi, umm I don’t know about how effective it is, at least, I have seen a video of Ronald Duncan performing/demonstrating ninjutsu and I was not impressed. Mainly he was dealing with multiple attackers, problem was they were attacking one at a time and waiting for him to finish each technique before coming in for the attack. I remember one in particular where he struck a guy in the face then moved behind him and slowly strangled him with a tessen or some short stick about 1 foot long.
In my mind he would have been roasted if he’d kept doing techniques like that past the 2nd person.
As far as Ronald Duncan’s legitimacy he does not teach any real ninjutsu whatsoever, maybe outside of the video demonstration I saw his techniques are good, but I don’t know where his ninjutsu system was developed from. It may be a case of taking Kung Fu techniques and adding his own spin to them, I don’t know. I think if you want a real guage of effectiveness, try a quick sparring session with someone of equal experience from the Bujinkan or Genbukan. You should be able to see if what you know is working or if it’s kind of useless.
If you’re talking about the video you can get off his website, I’ve seen it too.
What is shown in those clips is not what I was taught. {shrug} It actually reminds me more of some arnis bladework vs. the tanto blade work I was taught.
FTR, I did email one of Mr. Duncan’s sons via the website in an attempt to verify that my teachers teacher trained with him…no response yet…unless the creaking rafters I’m hearing now are some sort of response 
While your critique of his video is in line with mine…it’s a critique one can make of most ‘demo’ videos…so, I definitely take the video with a grain of salt. It’s hard to make a demo that will pass muster with other martial artists unless you have an uke who likes getting hit hard.
I don’t know. I think if you want a real gauge of effectiveness, try a quick sparring session with someone of equal experience from the Bujinkan or Genbukan. You should be able to see if what you know is working or if it’s kind of useless.
truth for any litmus test of fighting ability
Unfortunately, what I’ve heard about these local guys doesn’t really inspire me to seek them out.
good talking to you.
If you don’t mind…what is your experience and with whom? you can PM me if you want to.
regards,
Matt
I’ve got roughly a year in Booj, and more experience than I’d care to admit in street fighting (I think thugs just like to pick on me 
Bad guy to try it on though)
I’m actually in the process of switching to Genbukan for all the things I mentioned above, Bujinkan is just not regulated enough for me to feel like I’m learning the proper techniques. Each teacher can modify the original technique a little bit, and after it’s handed down from 2 or 3 different teachers, the technique begins to lose its original form.
For what it’s worth, the description of ninjutsu near the top of this page does not even sound like ninjutsu, it sounds almost like a cult. I personally don’t know ANYONE from ANY system that would have their student HOLD an object about to be used for ‘tameshigiri’.
great, thanks again for the input.
good luck in your switch. I’ve made two major switches in my kung fu life, it’s kinda a *****.
For what it’s worth, the description of ninjutsu near the top of this page does not even sound like ninjutsu, it sounds almost like a cult.
Right, it sounds like a cult. But what about it doesn’t sound like ninjutsu?
For what it’s worth, one year in the “Booj” (is that what they are calling it now? Thank God I left) doesn’t exactly make you an authority on ninjutsu, especially when you admit that you are concerned with the quality of what you have been taught…I spent a decade in the BUJINKAN and admit that I don’t know jack about ninjutsu because it’s hard to find reliable info on it and there are so many aspects to it that it takes a long time to get good at…but then again, I’m not a great street fighter like you…
I guess since I mentioned my instructor’s names, and since they make their living teaching ninjutsu, I should point out that niether of the sensei’s mentioned were the one involved in my little anecdote…both of those guys showed me a lot of great stuff and were very skilled…
One more thing I saw on bullshido somebody posted a video of Hatsumi Sensei, who is revered as “the most deadly man in the world” by many top Bujinkan members…here is that clip
http://tv.motionmanage.com/net_hp/navi/navi.aspx?site_id=nodasi&channel=0&movie_no=339&link=ok
One more thing I saw on bullshido somebody posted a video of Hatsumi Sensei, who is revered as “the most deadly man in the world” by many top Bujinkan members…here is that clip
Hatsumi is legit.
funny, that clip was from one of the groups local to me.
Hatsumi is legit.
Cool…I wasn’t questioning his legitimacy…
I got that, sorry if it sounded like that was directed at you. It was a knee jerk response initiated by the forum’s usual response when any JMA teacher’s video is posted.
Hello Oso. Ronald Duncan’s “Ninjitsu” is not from an authentic lineage. It was his own creation. He started out as a young man training in Judo & Jujitsu. He went on to learn hand to hand combat (including knife & garrotte) in the Marine Corps. He has trained in Isshin Ryu with the late Don Nagle and in Jujitsu with Moses Powell (a former top student of Florendo Visitacion). He was part of the whole East Coast Old-Boys network of former military martial artists that began back in the 50s/ 60s and had access to a wide range of martial arts and instructors from which he created his own art.
I’ve never heard or read of him admitting to having made this art up himself, but then at least I haven’t heard of him claiming some mystical, secret master from Japan either (so, unless he starts making such claims, I can at least respect him more than someone like Ashida Kim). His M.A. background is well known to those who were training and teaching on the East Coast back in the 50s/ 60s though, so I doubt he’d try to make up any such stories as he would likely be called on it. So far as I can tell, his stuff is probably fairly effective (especially since it has a high concentration on weapons and a fair amount of unarmed defense against same).
“I got that, sorry if it sounded like that was directed at you. It was a knee jerk response initiated by the forum’s usual response when any JMA teacher’s video is posted.”
No prob dude…my comment that people say he is the most deadliest man on earth was just a little bit of backlash from all the Hatsumi feetkissing I’ve read on the net…I was actually really interested to see the video because for all I have heard about him I had never seen him perform before…
He started out as a young man training in Judo & Jujitsu. He went on to learn hand to hand combat (including knife & garrotte) in the Marine Corps. He has trained in Isshin Ryu with the late Don Nagle and in Jujitsu with Moses Powell (a former top student of Florendo Visitacion). He was part of the whole East Coast Old-Boys network of former military martial artists that began back in the 50s/ 60s and had access to a wide range of martial arts and instructors from which he created his own art.
Wow…I would rather learn from him than probably 90% of the “legitimate” ninjutsu instructors out there…but if he markets himself as teaching authentic “ninjutsu” I would be shocked…I mean, his real credentials are a lot more impressive than the ones he has allegedly falsified…
Well, like I said, I don’t know if Duncan has “falsified” anything. He just claims to teach “Ninjitsu”. Maybe he claims more than I’m aware of, I haven’t had the chance to speak with him or question him. I’ve just never read or heard of him claiming any Japanese lineage for what he teaches, and his actual training background is fairly well-known.
That’s cool…the history of ninjutsu seems to be shrouded in mystery and controversy, so I’m not about to question somebody that does seem to have some real hardcore training…
When I said that he allegedly falsified his credentials, I was referring to Streetfighter Paradoxbox’s statement that:
As far as Ronald Duncan’s legitimacy he does not teach any real ninjutsu whatsoever
I believe that Ronald Duncan has claimed Koga Ryu lineage. This claim, by my understanding, is impossible.
Yes, he has referred to his art as “Koga Ryu”, but I’ve never heard him claim a lineage to Japan (though, yeah, claiming to be “Koga Ryu” is deceptive after all). It’s been years since I’ve even thought about the whole twisted ball of yarn so I’d kind of forgotten about that.
cerebus, thanks.
I’ll definitely stand by my opinion that the body of information I learned that was attributed to Mr. Duncan is effective.
And some of it is so ingrained that i have a hard time shaking it…the stepping methods for evasive fighting in particular…in favor of other things.
We trained it as ‘ninjitsu’ in that we spent a lot of time outdoors in 2-4 man teams trying to ‘kill’ each other with it. Fun times. 