Watered down?

People who do not have any experience training in my school have guessed that my Quest Center program is "watered down" taijutsu, or they have assumed that I "changed" the ninpo taijutsu I was taught in Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. On the other hand, people who actually train with me seem to find the Quest Center program highly relevant to real-world self-protection and personal self-development. "Watered down" has become an inside joke at our "old timer" black belt training sessions.

What is so different from how I used to teach?

For one thing, we teach the details and principles of each kata one at a time now. For example, we used to teach the kihon happo ichimonji kata as a single "thing" to be learned. We now teach as separate lessons the footwork, body alignment, timing, method for developing knockdown momentum, etc. Students understand better why we do things the way we do. They can more quickly adapt to high or low or inside or outside or punches or kicks, all from "one" ichimonji kata technique series.

Another big difference is the emphasis on what the assailant is doing. Rather than simply step in and feed a generic attack, students in our program are taught different ways of simulating the kind of set-ups that lead to fights. They imitate typical street thug fight-starter tactics of invading the defender's space psychologically as well as physically. We even give them phrases they are likely to hear from aggressors in a real assault. Students get a thorough grounding in recognizing the fight cues in the first moments of the encounter.

Far from being "watered down", our new program is very much "on the edge" and concentrated. When it was reported that our Quest Center program is "easier to learn by more people" some people jumped to the conclusion that we were "dumbing down" or catering to people with little skill. This is not at all true. The problem in the past was that many of our girlfriends, kid brothers, best friends, etc. quit training too soon because they could not relate to it. Even though we knew that this martial art was great, and we wished they wanted to train with us, they could not share our enthusiasm. We lost these good people. We just showed them the technique and expected them to be excited because we were.

In my new program with its emphasis on providing interesting answers to gripping questions of how to be safe in the world, more people are staying. This means that we will have more strong black belt practitioners to train with after a few years. And yes, the requirements for passing the black belt test are still just as challenging, and our quality standards are still as high as they always were. We just have more good people training with us now.

Is the Kasumi-An different or separate from the Bujinkan? No. Not at all. Kasumi-An is the name I gave my branch of the Bujinkan. Kasumi translates as "haze" in a play on words. Bujinkan Kasumi-An Dojo sounded better to me than Bujinkan Hayes Dojo. Are there things that are taught in the Bujinkan that are not taught in your school? No. Absolutely not. My students receive the full program that I was taught by Hatsumi Sensei. Every piece of Bujinkan material is in our program.

What about "hard core" training? I never had more than six or seven students at a time who really wanted injurious hard core training. Of course many claimed they wanted the "full training", but quit when it came down to reality. Today, the few who "can't get enough" at the Quest Center are offered special classes and optional workshops on weekends. Now I have far more than that half-dozen that I used to have. Now that I require students to get to know and trust us first, more people are willing to stay long enough to get into the depth of what we are doing.

"Watered down?" No. I won't let anyone get off that easily trying to dismiss my school. We've got a great program, based on the results. What we have done is distill the essence of what makes Hatsumi Sensei's taijutsu great, and distilling is quite the opposite of watering down.

- Stephen K. Hayes