Been poking around youtube and it seems Israel has quite a large number of practicioners of Ninji/utsu, the quality of which looks quite nice. Emphasis is placed on realistic training and application it seems. Interesting how that society always seems to pare combat arts down to their most viable forms, this example being sort of a Krav Maga meets Bujinkan.
Like MJS, I'm not really sure what you're wanting to say here.... this is like saying "I saw a good movie the other day, it had dialogue and acting, and was quite funny, which is good for a comedy", without any other information. Do you have a question about them, or are you wanting us to comment on a group (without you specifying who we are to comment on?), or is this an attempt to demonstrate genuine interest re: our latest interactions?
From the sounds of things (although you haven't confirmed this yet for us), this sounds like the Akban group. From memory you linked a clip of theirs a while back, refering to it as "the best taijutsu you had seen", at which point I pointed out how little of it was taijutsu in the first place. (
http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72683 pageg 4, post 50+). So are you just trying to re-visit old ground again?
For the record, the AKBAN group is made up of the students of Doron Navon, the first non-Japanese instructor of the Bujinkan (before Steve Hayes, for the record), of Israel. Doron had/has a very strong background in Judo, and is a practitioner of Feldenkrais, so they feature quite strongly in the approach here (Judo-style randori, for instance). The AKBAN group also added in other elements, such as TKD for kicking and striking, which seems to come to the fore in their sparring, and aspects of other arts such as Tenshinsho Den Katori Shinto Ryu, which comes with more than a little controversy. I'm not sure where they are supposed to have gotten their Katori Ryu from, as I haven't heard of anyone there linked with Otake Sensei, Sugino Sensei, or even Sugawara. My suspicion is that they have simply taken the techniques from Otake Sensei's Deity and the Sword book/VHS series from a few decades ago, as their wiki site has the techniques "demonstrated" by showing the relevant clip from the video. To say that this approach is frowned upon by Koryu persons, and the Katori Shinto Ryu is an understatement to say the least. Katori Shinto Ryu, like most Koryu, is incredibly protective about who can teach (and therefore represent) the Ryu, as well they should be. I sometimes wish all martial arts were like that, but that would lead to far fewer systems being available to most people.... still not a bad thing, though!
The makeup of the AKBAN training is based on the Bujinkan Ryu-ha (most specifically, the Gyokko, Koto, Togakure, Kukishinden, Takagi Yoshin, and Shinden Fudo Ryu, as well as the Ten Chi Jin Ryaku no Maki), combined with TKD and Judo, with the competitive sparring aspect brought over from those influences, and then other things such as Katori Shinto Ryu "tacked on". It therefore is not really Budo Taijutsu (a purely Bujinkan art), Ninjutsu, or anything like it. It is it's own creation, which to my mind is a little schizoid in it's attempts to be all things at once.
But now let's take your opening statement bit by bit, shall we? I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here, and assume that you are now wanting to actually learn about these arts, and your post here is a way to ask for our take on the (undefined) group you are talking about. Ready? Okay!
Been poking around youtube and it seems Israel has quite a large number of practicioners of Ninji/utsu, the quality of which looks quite nice.
As Tanaka said, it is Ninjutsu. One "I", two "U's", not the other way around. To be taken seriously, especially after first having been corrected on this nearly two years ago (
http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1103046#post1103046 post 9), I highly recommend you take this on board.
Okay, now to the second thing in this sentence. The "quality" looking good to you really, to be frank, doesn't mean anything. You are, from all indications in your entire posting history, completely ignorant of anything to do with Ninjutsu, and that includes your understanding of what is quality or not. So what you really mean is that the methods of training appeal to you. That's great, but that doens't mean that you are drawn to the Ninjutsu aspects, rather to the non-Ninjutsu/X-Kan aspects of their training (which is really what I said when you first brought the AKBAN group here, as seen in the thread linked earlier).
Next, it really has to be said that you may be misinterpretting things. The AKBAN group has a large you-tube presence (over 700 clips, from memory....), but that doesn't mean that there is a larger number of practitioners in these arts in Israel over anywhere else. Just that they are more vocal, internet-wise...
But to get back to why you have posted this here in the first place, er, why have you posted this here in the first place? Are you wanting to find someone training like this near you, or are you wanting to move to Israel to train with them? Because really, the AKBAN group is the only place you will get AKBAN-style training. And one of the big reasons you won't get such training elsewhere is that most of the disparate elements actually contradict each other, so most who are seriously wanting to just focus on training the Ninjutsu/Budo Taijutsu aspects will focus on that. You really do seem to be drawn to things that you simply won't find in most X-Kan schools, or anything related to authentic Ninjutsu.
Emphasis is placed on realistic training and application it seems. Interesting how that society always seems to pare combat arts down to their most viable forms, this example being sort of a Krav Maga meets Bujinkan.
Okay, I'm going to try to break this down for you here. "Realistic training" is not the be-all end-all of all martial art methods. Even if it is, you need to be very clear as to exactly what that would entail for your environment (the military will have different needs than a security person, which is different again to a civilian, whose needs will change depending on the situations they are likely to find themselves in, if they may have their small children with them, the local laws regarding self defence and assault, and far more). So "realistic training" is different for different needs. TKD point sparring is very realistic training if you are training for point-sparring competitions.
I'm going to assume, though, that you are talking about self defence as "realistic training". Leaving aside that most seem to have little idea what that actually entails (and your given background has little to none in it as well, so you know), you really do need to understand that when you are training in a traditional/classical system, such as the X-Kan systems (or Katori Shinto Ryu), then realistic self defence is not the real highest level goal. It is much easier to take the skill sets of the Bujinkan traditions and generate self defence skills and training than it is from, say, Katori Shinto Ryu, but the fact remains that the classical skills are not designed for modern attacks, environments, situations, assaults, or more. So to take these arts and train them for self defence, you must first move away from what they actually are (for the record, I teach the classical traditions as "martial arts", and "self defence" as a seperate, but related, area of study).
So if you are looking for something geared only towards modern self defence, don't look to ancient traditions. And if you still think you can create your own version of an art you have no experience in or understanding of, you are still deluding yourself.
Oh, Tez, what do you mean, a comfy chair? You aren't by any means trying to indicate that I perhaps tend towards the long-winded and verbose from time to time, are you? Okay, fair point....
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