I tried to hit Rodney Omoto sensei (80+ year old kendo instructor , 8th dan) with a variety of sword attacks during a seminar a few years back. hes legally blind and mostly deaf.

most of the time, before I moved he had his bokken tip at my adams apple.

he was in the last graduating class of a samurai college which was closed during the american occupation. Becasue he was a native of hawaii he was not considered a enemy combatant and after the war became a translator..

during Q & A after training he knew who would ask questions before they raised their hands., that was a gas.

could I attack him?

NO.

do or do not. there is no try. and despite my efforts, i was not able to attack him.

he is still alive, and last I heard (3 years ago) still trains 2-3 hours daily with bokken and jyo, occaisionally appearing in seattle kendo schools.

for an interview with omoto sensei writen by my first sensei, bud cook sensei, see;

www.furyu.com/archives/issue8/Omoto.html

Hello Qatana,

I'll give you how this is done on the street....and there a real good/evil dynamic is involved.
First, always listen to the inner voice if it ever goes off with,"Something ain't right..." This is the voice that will tell you the direction someone/something is coming from....very often you this gives you time to simply walk around.."it"

If someone that truly means to do you harm is in your space....face them....look at their throat area and get slight looking through diffuse peripheral focus..with this focus you can See any movement, or intention...CENTER in tanden and smooth deep breath....don't blink...

Make your peace with god (ok, like 12 step...as you understand him/her) (god with a sex never did compute with me.)....these are your last five seconds on earth....b u t if attacked...they are going with you...(You will feel the greatest peace you have ever felt in this life come over you)....keep breathing.....you might feel that you are inside a sphere of energy...like a force field...whatever occurs don't focus on the manifestation...See the person in front of you.....

You can't fake it....if you have the skills (waza) and the spirit...the person will stop like they hit a brick wall, turn around and walk away...and they don't look back....

This is "Victory without drawing the sword....." please forgive next self aggrandizing statement.......I have done this about a dozen times on the street....but not in last 13 years ...no one has approached me...and that is ok with me.....a Shamanic thing, you will only get this teaching on the street if "spirit" sends these people to be your uke. And strangely same teaching form Falun dafa chigong (expect tribulations if on the right path) and Native American deer tribe....expect "petty tyrants"....if on right path....both say "things" will pop up ....

It is a light/dark dynamic.....the dark cannot face what is in the light....although some people seem to be overtaken by dark energy at times.....something Grandmaster Dr. Kim told me...(I saw him bounce a schizophrenic who had walked into the dojang in Austin in '77.walk onto the mats and start screaming...I was teaching the class .. before I could get to the person. ..Dr. Kim put his arms around the disturbed person and escorted him out the door without touching him and then looked the person through the eyes and pointed down the street and had to do the point twice..then the person quit yelling, turned and walked away,, and didn't look back....total Star Wars.....at the time I was doing 5 hour work outs and 600-1000 kicks a day....but "Saw" there was another level of the art beyond the physical and fighting.....) Was, always give a disturbed person a way out...and let them take it......(Dr. Kim was senior to Tohei...and Tomiki and is now 10th dan...hapkido, which is Aikijujitsu....turned Korean)

Unasked for advice........when you bow to go onto or leave dojo floor.....really leave your stuff outside...whatever it may be....if "bad" day...leave it outside the dojo floor...and feel energy boost...if "good" day....bring that energy with you and center, flow it through your being....What you find in the dojo will be a slowly increasing constant... what you leave outside the dojo floor when you bow...will vary week to week, month to month...it is transitory.....

A chi exercise....(I got this from Leonard Orr..one of the founders of rebirthing...I "bumped" into him in Houston in '86, I think..)

Can do sitting or standing...focus on tanden...center chakra....normal breath....now breath in and out 4t imes focused on center chakra...
in-out
in-out
in-out
in-out kinda fast and then
in-out slow deep........pierce the chakra...sense opening in and out...give and receive......when open feel a "split"..standing....chi going from center chakra through feet into earth...both in standing and in movement....it helps to just keep centered and with 10% focus be aware of the knife edge of the feet...no tension, just a little awareness...

And let chi flow through torso , arms, out fingers..at the same time....

To learn how to sink chi....stand...and stance ok but real good with Seisan.....
shoulder width..
toes point straight ahead...
line sideways from heel of front foot ... toes of back foot on same...line...(not wide front to back)

stand fairly close to a wall....make fist Isshinryu vertical fist seems to work best...with elbow 1/2 bent push fist against wall.....
sink stanc say 1 inch...knees slight bend....hips slight bend...no muscle tension in legs mid..abs....feel chi going through skeleton and into earth....
you can also do this with your belt around any solid thing...tree etc. and pull to sink chi...push/pull....



I'm ok, you're ok,
T. Texas