Ranking System

Enson

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How does your ninjutsu school/dojo/ryu rank?
are there belts?
titles?
special names?
other languages used?
how far do you have to be in ranking to start to teach? why?
who ranks you?

Thought it would be an interesting question to present to us modern guys/gals.
peace
 
A

AaronLucia

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My school ranks by...experience/understanding i guess. Both of my teachers have basically told me i'll get it when i get it. :p


We have belts, but barely anybody actually wears them. Iv'e never been told to wear a belt.

Special names? Like?

Other languages used: Um..a little Japanese

According to the Bujinkan, you have to be at least a Shodan (1st black) before you can get an assistant teacher's license.

Who ranks me: my teachers of course
 
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Enson

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in my school we have 3 official ranks/belts

grey= student. one who is learning all aspects of the style and himself. there is no time limit on this belt. its all about perfecting the style within yourself. the best thing about this is that you have not to worry about others passing you by... you just do the best you can and don't worry about who has the next color up. after most of the basics grey belts/students can learn anything they want in the style and are not limited to a certain set of activities they can learn. with this rank you can reach assistant instructor status. you are always encouraged to teach what you know to others who would like to learn. this helps you perfect the technique as well.
red=instructor. an instructor would be considered a 5th dan in any other style. here is where you become the teacher and take on students of your own. you have developed the style within you and are helping others find their way. not much difference in the study between red and grey being that we all train together. red belts/instructors are allowed special privledges like can train up at the "headquarters" anytime they want. they have full support of sensei to start their own schools and will have a network of instructors to help you along the way.
black= lifestylist. one who has made the style their own and has their own way of doing rtms. they have their own teachings and have added to their own personal knowledge of the system within them. would be considered 10th dan in other styles. these people have put in their time and they have earned this belt. no buying your way in. most of the black belts move away from the area and start schools in other states/cities or in europe.

the one to promote would be instructors and sensei.
we don't really use other languages besides english because we are an american style. we do have very little japanese but its mostley concerning the weapons. techniques are in english. (i.e. rolls are called "rolls") it goes deeper than that too (i.e. kicks are called..."kicks";)).

peace
 
G

Genin Andrew

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In Ninjukai anyone who has trained in and passed their syllabus is qualified to teach the syllabus below them ie. a yellow belt can teach the basic techniques and etiquette to a white belt/beginner.

This goes on so that anyone above with more knowledge/experience can instruct anyone below them. However this "instruction" is only valid within the dojo, one cant open a school or branch of ninjukai taijutsu. For that they need to be a fully qualified instructor/have evidence of a certificate from the shihan.

The rank system and syllabus structure goes as follows;

white belt - shu stage- beginning
yellow belt -start of the journey-understanding in and yo
orange belt -follow up level- understanding ranges
green belt - level of creativity and spontaneity
blue belt - understanding the 3m's momentum, motion and mass
red belt - advanced weapons
purple belt - end of the Shu stage- explores rest of weapons
brown belt- commencement of Ha journey-
Shodan - unlearning process- understanding the limitations of techniques
Nidan - Spiritual understanding and appreciation of environment
SanDan - last phase of Ha journey - understanding seiryoku zenyo - the use of minimal energy
4th Dan - the Ri stage- understanding the source of techniques-the mind

Aspects of each rank however are incorporated into almost all levels so that when a student reaches a particular rank they have a basic understanding of whats been taught and adds more "flow" into the journey rather than rigid guidelines. Weapons begin at green belt and different techniques and styles as well as different weapons continue throughout the journey.

Once a student reaches blue belt the testing to move into a new syllabus now incorporates mental testing in the form of spiritual understanding and philosophy in the form of essays, which the shihan himself examines.

Training in Ninjukai Taijutsu covers the following ;

These are just the main aspects,there are others for higher levels...

Omasajutsu - strength training
Taihenjutsu - grappling, throwing and choking
Dakenjutsu - striking, kicking and blocking
Shinobi Iri - situation techniques
Bojutsu - Ninja 6ft staff
Jojutsu - Ninja 4ft staff
Hambojutsu - Ninja 3ft staff
Saijutsu - Sai techniques
Juttejutsu - Jutte techniques
Kenjutsu - Sword techniques
Tantojutsu - knife techniques
Kamajutsu - Sickle techniques
Wakizashijutsu - short sword techniques
Tonfajutsu - Ninja batton techniques
Manrikijutsu - Chain techniques

Some terms often used in the dojo to specify rank may include, Genin, Jonin, Renshi, Hanshi, Shihan to name a few. Hope this is of interest.

-andrew
 
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Enson

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Genin Andrew said:
Hope this is of interest.

-andrew
thats awesome! seems like you guys use alot of japanese in your style. kinda like traditional. cool :ultracool
 

Satt

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I know in To-Shin Do the ranks are like this...White, then Yellow (Earth level)
Blue (Water level)
Red (Fire level)
Green (Wind level)
Brown (Void potential)
1st Black and so on... I don't know all the specifics yet. I am sort of a newbie. Hope that helps some.
 

gmunoz

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Yep, To-Shin Do actually has more than that, but those pretty well cover it. There are striped belts as well as you move through the kyu's.
 

Bujingodai

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This is a good topic

OK in Honshin Ryu, we use Japanese terms, we are a hydbrid. However I guess we feel more like it with the terms LOL.
Position wise we have 1 Shiso, not a Soke. No one has reached a Shihan level yet but that is 7th to 10th dan. Shidosya 5th and 6th. One can get Menkyo (teaching lic) at 4th Dan At the Shodan level they are referred to as a Sempei, once 4th and 200 hrs of supervised teaching is completed then the title of Sensei is considered. If there is a small training group as in at a University where the student that heads it is say a blue, under direction they can grade to a certain level, say to under green. That is all done on a per location basis. Here only the Shiso or the lic teacher grades. Sempei do instruct as well.

We have 7 kyu and 10 dan, each kyu has a profienceincy stripe in between to coincide with the rank following, has some academic and some skill to it, along with history etc etc.
White is treated as a rank however only really focuses on the warming up to class and getting to know the reiho etc etc
yellow is the Taihenjutsu, basic body movements falls etc
orange is the Jutaijutsu, for us the focus in orange is the more basic gross grappling skills
red is dakentaijustu, all kicks and punchs, strikes.
green is the review of the 3 basic grades, the ability to put them together. We actually have the student try their hand at some choreography to see how their timing and practical usage of the moves comes in. In no way instructiing chambara, just trying to show an idea.
blue is the combination of striking and grappling
brown is chokes and throws
shodan, along with a bevy of auxillary stuff the review of all kyu ranked material
nidan weapons with taijutsu
sandan advanced grappling and taijutsu
yondan seated fighting, and multiple attackers
Godan, hope I spell this right. I don't have it with me, this is the kyoketsu no tabi (don correct me please if I am way off, this is what I was told) journey to reward, the practical test of what they would have learned. 1st one we had was a 8 mile treck thru the bush with 10 attackers, all different situations, different geographic areas and at that particular day lots of inclimant weather.

We do also have a Bujingodai Freestyle fighting course, grades are standard as these are but only based on # of tournaments and basic skills. No Japaneses is used.
 

Bujingodai

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we don't use Okinawan weapons in our system, However I know a few that do. Most times just due to the instructors past training, maybe in another style. To negate any of that training and not do it at all may be silly. Why not.
 
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Enson

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Bujingodai said:
we don't use Okinawan weapons in our system, However I know a few that do. Most times just due to the instructors past training, maybe in another style. To negate any of that training and not do it at all may be silly. Why not.
i totally agree. that is what makes modern more liberal. we are not traditionalist who say this is the only way to do things. would that make me a liberalist? :eek:
peace
 

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