Bujinkan Taka-Seigi Dojo San Diego

09/10/2026

~ This Week’s Focus

Hanbōjutsu: Koshi Ori

09/09/2026

~ Student Quote of the Week

"I really love Rokushakubō!" – Julie

09/08/2026

09/04/2026

~This Week’s Focus

Hanbō Techniques: Tsuke Iri and Koshi Ori.

09/03/2026

~Student Quote of the Week

"The problem isn't in your ability; it is in the perception of what you think is happening." – Shaun

09/02/2026

~ Training Highlight of the Week

This week's highlight came from training Ippon Seoi Nage.

This throw takes uke over one of the highest points of tori's body, and when you're the person being thrown, it can be intimidating. It's a long way down.

After demonstrating the technique, I could immediately see the fear in everyone's eyes. Once everyone started trying it themselves, that fear began turning into anxiety and hesitation. So we dialed everything back.
Instead of immediately performing the full throw, everyone began from a knee, bringing uke much closer to the ground. Once that became comfortable, we gradually increased the height. Little by little, everyone became more confident. As the evening progressed, the training became smoother, the throws became better, and there was a wonderful synergy developing between everyone on the mat.

There was an important lesson hidden inside that progression: anxiety has an incredible ability to construct stories about what might happen. We imagine the fall, we imagine getting hurt, we question our ukemi, we worry about hurting our training partner, and we remember previous injuries or failures. Before anything has actually happened, the mind has already constructed an entire possible future, and our body begins responding to it as though it were already real.

The interesting thing is that one of the best ways to challenge those stories is through experience. You begin closer to the ground, you take the fall, and you're okay. You go a little higher, you take the fall again, and you're still okay. Eventually, experience begins replacing assumption. You discover that your ukemi works, that your training partner can control the throw, and that you can safely throw someone else. Most importantly, you begin discovering that you are more capable than the version of yourself that existed only in your imagination.

This is why competence is the road to confidence.

Confidence isn't just telling yourself, "I can do this." Genuine confidence is being able to say, "I've done this before, I've trained for this, and I know what I'm capable of." That confidence is earned through experience.
It's incredible that something as seemingly simple as practicing Ippon Seoi Nage, on a cushioned mat no less, can expose so much about how we perceive ourselves. But that is part of the beauty of martial arts training. The technique becomes a vehicle through which we discover our fears, assumptions, strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities.

Every time we train, we gain experience. Experience develops skill, skill develops competence, and competence gives us a genuine reason to become confident in ourselves. Suddenly, the thing that once seemed terrifying becomes something we simply know how to do.

Then we find the next challenge.

Keep challenging yourselves and each other. Keep building competence, keep moving forward, and don't spend too much time looking backward.

Competence is the road to confidence.

08/27/2026

~This Week’s Focus

Ippon Seoi Nage

08/26/2026

~Student Quote of the Week

"I should probably take a break, but I'm not going to. I'm going to keep pushing!" – Jim

08/25/2026

~Training Highlight of the Week

This week's highlight came during our Ken Nagashi training.

Everyone was moving exceptionally well. The initial movement off the line of attack was clean, the knife was being grounded effectively, and everyone maintained enough distance and awareness to deal with the possibility of a second slash or stab. Rather than becoming completely occupied with the weapon, I could see everyone beginning to confront the attack and then immediately turn their attention toward dealing with the attacker.

Just as importantly, the work from uke was excellent. There was clear intent behind the attacks. Targets were deliberate, the attacks were committed, and everyone gave their training partners something honest to respond to. That commitment from both sides allowed the training to become much more fruitful.

But what impressed me most was what happened when things didn't go according to plan. There was significantly less hesitation and pausing for thought this week. Even when a block broke down, someone miss stepped, or the exchange suddenly put one of you in a dangerous position, the recovery was phenomenal. Yes, we were using wooden training weapons, but the situation still demanded an immediate response. Instead of freezing because the technique had "failed," everyone adapted and continued moving. This is an important step forward.

In the beginning, we tend to think of kata as a sequence: this happens, so I do this; then this happens, so I do that. But a real exchange does not care about the sequence we intended to perform. Things go wrong, distance changes, timing breaks down, or someone moves differently than expected. At that point, our ability to recover becomes just as important as our ability to perform the original technique.

This is where we begin approaching the idea of mushin, often described as "no-mind." Mushin does not mean that the mind becomes empty or that we stop perceiving what is happening. Rather, the mind is no longer becoming stuck on every decision. Through training, our movements and responses become embodied enough that we can perceive, adapt, and act without unnecessary thought interrupting the moment. Thought gives rise to action without hesitation.

There is a confidence in your ability and a trust in your training that allows you to simply do what the moment requires. The interesting thing is that I saw glimpses of exactly that this past week, especially when something went wrong. Instead of stopping to figure out what you were supposed to do, you responded to what was actually happening. That is a significant change in training. The goal isn't merely to become better at performing techniques. It is to develop ourselves until the principles behind those techniques become part of how we naturally move, perceive, and respond. When that begins happening, our capability can reach entirely new heights.

Keep going, keep sweating, keep challenging one another, and keep trusting the training.

See you all on the mat!

08/21/2026

So we train