Having seen the paces of training Bujinkan and Genbukan. For example, within a period of 6 months the Bujinkan students would have already learned more techniques and usages of weaponries while the Genbukan students are still dodging bokken, learning to bow, and basic blocking and defensive techniques. I am not asking which is better, just want to know your personal experience for those perhaps have trained with both organizations. Also what I've noticed, the Bujikan train on hard surface like wooden floor where Genbukan normally train on rubber or tatami mats. True that Genbukan might want to keep the traditions alive, but spending almost 2 months learning to bow and repeat the things we won't really use in real fights anyway seems like an overkill. I also like how Bujinkan (where I am close to anyway) class have tonight-techniques sort of discussion after the class, allow students to practice techniques they lack whereas in Genbukan you have to repeat the same things for the whole night if the instructor is busy with other students.
Dear Sir, This is not the case in the Genbukan dojo I study at. Lower and upper ranks work on the same techniques in class most of the time, but at other times we do rank specific training per our syllabus. It allows us lower ranks the opportunity to see what's ahead, and I think helps us get a feel for the art, as well as giving you some good self defense techniques.
StingKing said:- You may find that this is somewhat of a generalisation. For example, I'm Bujinkan and my classes are mostly carried out on mats. You'll probably find it comes down to the preferences of the individual instructor and what resources they have available.
So Genbukan are focusing on ''dodging bokken, learning to bow, and basic blocking and defensive techniques - you have to repeat the same things for the whole night if the instructor is busy with other students'' (ie you cannot get correction.) Is that really a bad thing? focusing on Tai sabaki & Uke waza and only training things you know unless you can get correction on it by someone who knows more then you. To me that is a good learning environment.
Different dojo within the same organisation can be vastly different. Some Bujinkan dojo may appear to train more like Genbukan dojo than other Bujinkan dojo and vice versa. As for syllabus and progress they seem to turn out similarly skilled individuals once you get past a certain level. Think of cooking as an analogy. Learning to cook one perfect dish at a time is different to learning the skills that will eventually lead to a vast repertoire of dishes but twenty years down the line all you see is two chefs each with a vast range of recipes which all taste just as good.
I would also chime in on the overgeneralization bandwagon. In the Genbukan dojo I attend, my experience is similar to the one EWBell mentioned
Care to site your sources? You know the old saying, "I do not fear the man who trains 1000 techniques once, I fear the man who trains one technique 1000 times"? Well now you do.
As a person who was in the Genbukan in the past and now in the Bujinkan, your post is totally incorrect and full of assumptions. Most of these generalizations you make really depend on the teacher within the respective Kan's. when I was in the Genbukan, my dojo had class for 3 hrs +. The first hour was rolls and tai sabaki movement, the 2nd hour was various techniques that the teacher wanted to go over (which included weapons training) or boxing or randori (free for all wrestling) or both. the 3rd hour was training time for the techniques for your ranks.. I have trained on mats, on hard floors, on grass, etc.. it depends on where you would train not how you would train..sometimes we would train at parks or at other dojo's or gym's... learning the bowing and respect and such, I learned when I was a mukyu (white belt, not later on as I went on)..sometimes if something was a issue you learned during the course of your training, the bowing or learning the names of the techniques wasn't just all you did.. Also one night a month the whole class time was focused on strictly Ninjutsu stuff= stealth walking, goton no jutsu, blindfighting, metsubishi, ninja swimming techniques, etc, etc.. Sometimes my Genbukan teacher would have discussions after class or we would all go running and do a mile of cardio. Again, all this depends on the teacher of the X-Kan in particular, not a particular X-Kan itself.
Wow i must admit that sounded like great training! Question: do you train still like that in the bujinkan?
Other than the cardio, that sounds pretty much like 99% of the Bujinkan dojos I've belonged to. Never trained in the other schools, but learned along time ago, each teacher teaches differently. Sure, some may be influenced by what their teacher did, but the will all add their own flavor to the training and approach it from where they believe it to benefit the student the most (my experience, your's may differ). I've trained in playgrounds, on mats, hardwood floors, concrete covered in carpet and so on and so forth. I've trained hard, soft and somewhere in the middle.
