Budo Theory provides tools for deeper understanding of your martial art. Format: 8.5x11.
Explore Foundational Principles:
How Budo has evolved and matured into what it is today. The significance of the Dojo, and how Courtesy (Reigisaho) can enhance your training. Understand learning stages you travel through on your martial arts journey. Principles (Ri) underlying Practical Application (Ji) and when technique Lacks Principle (Muri). Concepts of Energy (Ki), how it is Coordinated (Kiai), and Expressed (Aiki) to your opponent. See how Duality (Kyo-Jitsu) shapes combat.
Investigate Technical Principles:
Using your Eyes (Metsuke, Ken, and Kan) to perceive Gaps (Suki) in both your opponent’s movement and mental state—before he moves. How Breathing (Kokyu) affects stability, technique, mental status, and its relation to the Abdominal Convergence (Tanden). Using your Voice (Kake Goe) to both coordinate movement, and affect your opponent. Of Stance (Tachi), Footwork (Ashi Sabaki), and Engagement Postures (Kamae).
Discover Tactical Principles Using Time And Space:
Create (Tsukuri) and exploit Gaps (Suki) in your opponent’s stance, movement, technique, and mental status. Understand Initiative (Sen) and how to retake it using different timing concepts. Utilize Engagement Distance (Ma-ai) and Body Shifting (Tai Sabaki) to dislocate your opponent’s strength while sustaining yours. Collapse (Kuzushi) your opponent’s structure and strategy both physically and mentally.
Uncover Unifying Principles:
Using Variation (Henka) and Reverse Techniques (Gyaku Waza) to broaden your technique. Learn tools to enable deeper Analysis (Bunkai) of technique to peel back the outer layers of Traditional Forms (Kata). Journey inward to explore mental states (e.g. Fudoshin, Mushin) that point toward higher orders of strategic thinking. Find concepts that tie together mind, body, and technique.