Should I Train in the Bujinkan, Genbukan, or Jinenkan?

nitflegal

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Not to be an echo chamber, but go where you felt the most comfortable and feel you get the most out of it. In the past, I made the mistake of training close by instead of sucking it up and driving to the better school and have always regretted it. Adequate really isn't, a good teacher you connect with is going to impart so much more to you.

Heck, from work to home (pick up family, daughter and wife take classes as well) and then to the dojo is and hour and a half, 50 minutes to make it straight home. Going to a solid school with an excellent teacher is worth it, IMHO.

Matt
 
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goldwarrior

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Go where you felt the most comfortable and feel you get the most out of it. In the past, I made the mistake of training close by instead of sucking it up and driving to the better school and have always regretted it. Adequate really isn't, a good teacher you connect with is going to impart so much more to you.

Going to a solid school with an excellent teacher is worth it, IMHO.

Matt

Yeah, I definitely agree with you! There is actually another guy near me that stopped training for about 1 year. He wants to start going to train again, so it looks like we'll carpool down. I guess it's all works out in the end.
 

bgunn

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I used to train in the Bujinkan for several years. I stopped for awhile, for various reasons. I was going to start training again in the Bujinkan, but then found a Jinenkan instructor that was close to my house. I trained for about 2 years.... and found I wasn't learning much.

Now here is my dilemma! There is actually a Genbukan school about 20 minutes from me. However the instructors there from what I understand aren't that good. I thought of going back to the Bujinkan, because the instructor I had was very good. I felt when I attended his classes I was always learning a lot. However I live 45-50 minutes from this teacher now. I'd like to go train and learn from him again, it's just far.

What do people think I should do? Should I train with the instructors who are closer, but not as good? Go train with the better instructor that is farther away?

Man I wished I had that problem. I am trying to find a Ninjutsu school (Bujinkan, Genbukan, or Jinenkan) to train at with little luck. The closest school is about an hour to 2 hours away. Good luck in your search!
 

Bruno@MT

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Man I wished I had that problem. I am trying to find a Ninjutsu school (Bujinkan, Genbukan, or Jinenkan) to train at with little luck. The closest school is about an hour to 2 hours away. Good luck in your search!

Have you looked at the dojo finder on www.genbukan.com ? That lists all existing Genbukan dojo. I have heard that Jinenkan has something similar, and for Bujinak you could use www.winjutsu.com I think, but that is more an informal list.
 

Bruno@MT

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www.genbukan.com works too, although you enter the japanese language site by default. You can click though to the English website though.

www.genbukan.org asks you for your language preference before taking you to the main site.
 

bgunn

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Yeah I have checked the dojo finders on all 3 sites nothing closer than like 2 and half hours away. I live in Tennessee and I would think as big as nashville, clarksville and jackson are they would at least have a training group or something going on. I have tried the home study courses through various schools but for me it is REALLY HARD to train by video.
 

jks9199

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Yeah I have checked the dojo finders on all 3 sites nothing closer than like 2 and half hours away. I live in Tennessee and I would think as big as nashville, clarksville and jackson are they would at least have a training group or something going on. I have tried the home study courses through various schools but for me it is REALLY HARD to train by video.
Contact the dojos directly. They may or may not have study groups more local to you -- but they probably don't advertise those groups. After all, they're not formal dojos...

And they may want you to attend the main school a bit before they invite you to the training group.
 

Bruno@MT

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Contact the dojos directly. They may or may not have study groups more local to you -- but they probably don't advertise those groups. After all, they're not formal dojos...

And they may want you to attend the main school a bit before they invite you to the training group.

That is true. Study groups might not be listed in the dojo finder, especially if they are fairly new.
 

bgunn

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Contact the dojos directly. They may or may not have study groups more local to you -- but they probably don't advertise those groups. After all, they're not formal dojos...

And they may want you to attend the main school a bit before they invite you to the training group.

Thats a great idea, I am going to give that a shot! Thanks guys!
 

Inazuma

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Yeah I have checked the dojo finders on all 3 sites nothing closer than like 2 and half hours away. I live in Tennessee and I would think as big as nashville, clarksville and jackson are they would at least have a training group or something going on. I have tried the home study courses through various schools but for me it is REALLY HARD to train by video.

There is a Jinenkan Dojo in Cookeville led by Dojo-cho Matt Stennett. Let me know if you have trouble contacting him.
 
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goldwarrior

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There is a Jinenkan Dojo in Cookeville led by Dojo-cho Matt Stennett.

From what I know Matt is a good instructor. (I haven't meet him personally though.) The Jinenkan overall has very good instructors. If that is the closet dojo to you, I'd definitely consider it. It would be worth it to see if there is a group closer to you not listed.
 
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goldwarrior

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In the past, I made the mistake of training close by instead of sucking it up and driving to the better school and have always regretted it. Adequate really isn't, a good teacher you connect with is going to impart so much more to you.

Matt

I'm curious, did you train in another XKan School? Did you just train in a dojo that taught a different style?
 

nitflegal

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I'm curious, did you train in another XKan School? Did you just train in a dojo that taught a different style?

I changed arts as I felt I had too much on my plate to drive to Derry and Boston. Which was foolish in retrospect, as the Bujinkan is what really spoke to me in my training when I found it. Matt
 
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