Mid life martial arts changeup

[Mike Melillo]

Hello! Just came back to martial arts from a decade and change lag. Studied YSR naginatajutsu, iaido, and kendo with Sensei Robert Williams, and recently started over in Cuong Nhu with my ten year old son. Glad to be here.Mike

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Welcome to MT!

 

[seasoned]

Welcome aboard, Mike. You will find training with your son very rewarding. Good luck to both of you.........

 

[rlobrecht]

Welcome to MT, and welcome back to the arts. My son and I also train together, and I love it.

 

[stone_dragone]

Greetings and welcome to MT!


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[Chris Parker]

Hi Mike, welcome aboard!

Out of interest, when you say "YSR", which Ryu do you mean? Yagyu Shinkage Ryu, Yagyu Shingan Ryu, YoShin Ryu? I also seem to remember a thread on e-budo a few years ago where you posted a naginata you had made, and mentioned some exposure to Katori methods through your Kendo teacher (always going to get my attention...). What exposure did you have there?

 

[Mike Melillo]

Chris, sorry... Yagyu Shinkage Ryu. The KSR interest was fleeting, for both Sensei and I... It was motivated by an interest in history more than anything else. He had a video we studied from, and we bought the KSR book through Koryu... Certainly not the right way to do it, but there being so few real KSR schools here, it's one of the only options. He has since gone onto Shaolin Kung Fu, despite being a world class Iaido practitioner, because of the beating his aging knees were taking, (we are both in our 49th year). As far as me, having kids slowed and stopped my interest, revived only because of my son and his interest in Cuong Nhu this past January. I find their community to be very open and intriguing, with so many styles rolled into it. When I read O Sensei's story of escaping Vietnam, and his philosophies of love and community service, I was hooked... It all clicked at the right moment. It is very rewarding to be learning alongside my son, and I look forward to a demonstration we will be doing with our dojo at an upcoming festival... He knows the kata better than I!Mike

 

[Chris Parker]

Ah, interesting. I hadn't come across Yagyu Shinkage Ryu having a Naginata syllabus, and only some lines having an Iai syllabus (Yagyu Seigo Ryu in the line that teaches it), and some having Jo (Jubei no Jo). Most Naginata in Yagyu Shinkage I've come across is actually from the Owari Kan Ryu Sojutsu, taught alongside Yagyu Shinkage at the Shinpukan Dojo from memory. As far as the Katori, yeah, videos and books aren't the way to go about that.. Otake Sensei was known to have altered the performance, particularly in the older videos, and the books have entire sequences missing! And now you've moved onto Cuong Nhu, hey? Interesting.

 

[OKenpo942]

Welcome to MT.

 

[Mike Melillo]

Chris, you may very well be correct. I trusted my Sensei's talents and judgements on what we did, and though I'm more than sure that the Kendo and Iai we practiced were from YSR, I never thought to question him on the naginata, which very well may have come from another system. I was lucky to have studied with him outside the system, and you can certainly read into that in any way you like, but it was spiritually and physically beneficial for me, and a far cry from the image one would have of two backyard samurai smashing away at each other. Sensei was NOT papered at the time in YSR, not being Japanese, but with the changes after Sensei Nobuharu's death, he has since been papered.

 

[Mike Melillo]

Good grief, I of course meant O Sensei Nobuharu. My apologies.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Hello, and welcome to MT!