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"Martial arts training in Nami ryu is a path towards self awareness, self confidence, the ability to defend oneself and the responsibility to defend others." James Williams
A sharp knife will not lie to you as any motion under the blade will cause it to cut. It doesn't take much pressure to perforate human tissue with a sharp instrument either. The fact is, speed and the narrowness of the point greatly reduce the amount of force needed to puncture. Having had just under half a dozen, or so, of such punctures myself. I can attest to subtle difference in the perception of pain from the receiving end. Two-thirds of my wounds were through and through. These punctures ranged from blunt perforations to being impaled by stabbing points of long thin-ish blades. Some of these injuries were accidental in nature and others were sustained while trying to avoid worse wounds. Generally speaking, the faster the thrust the less they hurt on the get go. The sharpness factor also seemed to keep the pain and trauma to a minimum during recovery. They hurt less during healing and recovery too if nerves and bones were missed. The diameter of the hole likewise had an influence in determining the pain factor.
I would be willing to say that my fascination with martial arts started with my love of the swashbuckling movies of my youth. I had already began to practice stick fencing following along with an old test on non-sporting sword and dagger work with my friends. Being a fan of Sherlock Holmes who was also a stick fencer introduced me to the unarmed combative art of Bartitsu. So, I also did the same type of study with Bartitsu. Bartitsu is an eclectic martial art and self-defense system combine methods of jujutsu, boxing, wrestling, and stick fencing. Bartitsu helped addressed the problems of self-defense in an unarmed society, where the criminal element was still armed with both knife and revolvers. Yet, the lessons of the blade are great and the blade is a harsh teacher. A few years later I started traditional instruction under a teacher. The lessons were in what my teacher called kempo jutsu and/or interchangeable karate jujutsu. He barely addressed any knife work (most likely due to my preteen-age years), but still enough information to keep me interested in the lesson of the blade. Most of his blade instruction was anecdotal from his experiences being a MP during the occupation of Japan at the end of WWII.
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By my early teenage years most of my concentration was on unarmed martial art skills, but by my middle and late teens I was often practicing ten thousand cuts a day at least a third of the time. On my off days the count would drop to a thousand or even only one hundred. I now only do around three hundred suburi a day in contrast, that is with counting both suburi and kata together. My blade work is mainly drawn from Itto Ryu (see Nami ryu below), but I have influence from various seminar instructors that have altered my understanding of the blade over the years. In my life, so far, I have had the opportunity and misfortune to test my understanding of my techniques with both stick fencing and live blades (knives), on the street. These tests have come from wooden stick fencing challenge matches to just outright street robbery attempts or combat situations. In the latter situations I picked up a stick to defend myself when I could, that being if there was time. None of these street situations were announced duels. On a few occasions these encounters were against several guys at once. Usually they were only armed with sticks although they employed them more like clubs. That was for the most part, but at least one time three guys had knives. That is where strategy comes in as I would not have stood a chance fighting three at once with them being armed with knives.
Next on my quest for life long learning came my introduction to Nami Ryu Aiki Heiho. Nami ryu means wave style, as it follows the universal law that energy travels in waves. I have found that Nami ryu is as fluid and relaxed as any other system I've ever encountered. For the last five years I have been trying to improve my approach to the blade (and also unarmed martial arts), through the application of Nami Ryu Aiki Heiho principles. It is even easy for me to see (and I am generally dis-satisfied with myself), how my techniques have improved and become more fluid. On top of this, I am continually polishing my Nami ryu skills as I work toward my goal of learning this amazing system. Nami ryu is founded on the Yanagi ryu, but it also has strong influences from Kuroda Tetsuzan, sensei of the Shinbukan dojo and even Systema. Nami ryu is a principle driven system and is not technique based, these influences are easy to see in all expressions of the art. The depth of Williams, sensei instruction is comparable to the sharpness of a blade as the effectiveness of both are easily verifiable. Nami ryu also seems to have more spontaneity with its application in combat situations than techniques based learning systems. Nami ryu is easy to learn and difficult at the same time as the only thing you have to alter is your thinking.
“The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.” William James
Dream Walker Books
About the Dream Walker book series, this series is a tale of martial arts adventures with an essence of the para-normal from dream mediation. Each book in the series reveals their struggles as they work to make a life for themselves and elude those that seek to use and control them.
Book 2: The Assassins Gift. Xander Davidson struggles with the conspiracy of his family and the group that is actively trying to manipulate him to join them or die. The young Dream Walkers learns an early lesson to be careful about whom they let into their circle.
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