The Shinobi Survival Manual: A SERE manual for the mosern ninja.

 SERE school is a classified military school that is a requirement for Special Operations Units, fighter, bomber and spy plane pilots, and certain other groups. The CIA may have something similar for their people or they may use the military SERE school. 

SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. Sounds pretty ninja right? Well I explain to the reader all the core principles of how a ninja infiltrator would operate behind enemy lines, including the resistance part going over tracking and counter tracking, how to escape handcuffs and shackles, primitive and historical ninjutsu methods of survival, along with modern methods of cache supplies. How search patterns work and how to beat them. 

I recently pulled it when I realized that I didn't include the information on evasive driving like how to counter the pit maneuver and the rolling road block. This book contains the Black Dragon Ninja's EDC kit; every day carry kit and how to use it. 

Survival is more than a ninjutsu practitioner's ability to use boy scout level field craft or more advanced bush craft. In a way it is all of that and more. While I am adding to what I already wrote, I will also update Army of Shadows and the Shadow Hunter Manual for Black Dragon Ninjitsu Sniper Program (good thing that the Trump Sniper never read it), as I also address how to hide from night vision and thermal devices. 

Black Dragon Ninjitsu is not a martial art but, a strategic combat survival system that contains elements of martial arts and battlefield strategies and tactics both historical and modern. The ninja is not a member of the now non-existent warrior caste trained in skirmish and guerrilla tactics, though that statement is historically accurate. Nor is the ninja a practitioner of Japanese jujutsu in a black gi. The ninja is an archetype of the elite warrior-assassin-spy who uses low tech, no tech and even 21st Century high-tech tools for a single purpose; to serve the highest standard of self-discipline, self-improvement, self-actualization, and Self-sacrifice. 

That last line may appear selfish, but it is the self that puts everything into motion. It is the self, the individual who begins training and who keeps training and who seeks to improve their training and their skills adding more tools to their proverbial toolbox. So self-discipline is the first step in learning to control the desires and emotions of the individual to resist the trapping of their enemies, including the worst enemy of all their self. Self-improvement is built on the foundation of self-discipline and, self-actualization is the purpose of training; to put training and self-improvement into action and, becoming a hidden influence upon the world around the individual. Finally, comes Self-sacrifice; the willingness to work in service to a higher goal beyond the self. The Individual must be willing to die for what they believe in, but not just die; die in a way that serves and promotes that higher idea. Because whatever you are willing to die for, you must also be willing to live for it too...

Thus, all the self-empowerment is thrown away as you are living and dying for something greater than yourself. In this way, your life and your training becomes an act of selflessness.

Taiso: An understanding of Fitness and Martial Arts.

 Taiso "Body Hardening" sometimes translated as "Physical Conditioning" or "Physical Exercise" and mostly reflects Calisthenics, aerobic exercise, cardiovascular, isometric, and anaerobic exercise that condition the Taijutsu/Jujitsu practitioner to excute their art with Speed, Power, Precision, and Endurance for the Physical Trials of the Art.

However, Taijitsu meaning roughly "Body Art" is sole aspect of Physical Exercise. The application of context must be applied to the name of the Art. So what is the context of the "Body Art"?

Jujitsu or jujutsu, is the "Yielding Art" roughly translated and the inferred context is the "Yielding Art" to Overcome an Adversary in Self-defense or (as where the needs of the Samurai who invented it) Combat. So to can the translation of Taijutsu assume the same inferred context, using the "Body Art" to Overcome an Adversary in Self-defense or Combat. Taijitsu or Taijutsu is the Art of Using the Body to Overcome an Adversary. Taijutsu was defined as another form of Jujutsu by Jugaro Kano the founder of Judo, who helped to promote Japanese Martial Arts to the World outside of Japan.

Taiso, is the Hardening of the Body for this single purpose, and by hardening the body, by conditioning the physical form of the Martial Artist to Give and Take injury and pain, one also conditions the Mind/Heart of the Taijitsuka (Taijutsu practitioner) to Harden the Will and Focus the mind to push through pain, fatigue, and tiredness of the body.
Taiso makes use of stretching, body weight exercises, running, swimming, muscle tension, weighted conditioning, and repetition drills to develop the body to perform at its peak or near peak performance level. This is combined with other forms of training in techniques and tactics, that allow the principles of tactics, and biomechanical functions to maximize your physical ability with physics and mechanics of moving your body to focus mental intent, through physical action.

Though pushed to the extremes of Physical Exertion, the Taijutsu or jujutsuka, is stressed to maintain mental focus, emotional control, and discipline even when feeling exhausted and worn-out. Discipline takes many forms Attention to Detail, to Traditional Customs, Posture, and Personal Hygiene.

Other exercises include simulating life threatening events, which will push the Jujitsu/taijust practitioner to push through pain and fatigue, sleep deprivation, and hunger. During the Winter months Kan Geiko December (usually January) to February from 5 to 7 am, involve Taiso and Randori practice, in cold weather outside. As a form of mental conditioning Kan Geiko forces the student to face and overcome the challenges of training outside in cold winter mornings. Likewise, Shochu Geiko is between June and August, mostly July, from 1 to 3 pm, where students wear heavy duty clothing and train during the hottest hours of the day, so that students are faced with being hot, sweaty, and fatigued engaging in Taiso and Randori. These types of essentric hard style training camps, develop mental toughness since complaining is not allowed and quitting (unless a medical emergency) is seen as a sign of weakness. A minimum of 5 days of Geiko training is required and it can last for up to 30 days.

Shugyo is a kind of "Knight's quest" that Samurai went on. Actually, it was a time before the Samurai became a samurai; as in a loyal retainer of a Lord or Daimyo, shugodai or, higher ranked samurai, spent as a Ronin. The Bushi was to live by performing manual labor, sleeping outside regardless of weather conditions, and engaging in duels and serving Ronin mercenaries in other Domains wars and battles, developing a reputation, and, with luck, being offered the position of Retainer, or Samurai.

In Black Dragon Ninjitsu, it is a period of 3 to 6 months where a student is sent away to train at another school, gym, or dojo. During that time they are to enroll in the school and train in that style. They are permitted to spend a year total on the Shugyo. The "Wandering Ronin" returns to the Dojo and teaches the other students about the other schools style and techniques. It also allows the student to test themselves against people who are trained in the same system.

Shugyo is also the term for Ninja Missions that Students can be sent on to advance their own stealth, infiltration, and intelligence gathering skills. Sometimes these missions are to train in another Martial Arts school and write a Report on the style of Martial Art, techniques and philosophy, the composition of the class students, and the psychological profile of the instructor and their teaching style, as well as elements of style that would benefit a Black Dragon Ninjitsu practitioner and, an assessment of how a Black Dragon Ninjitsu practitioner could exploit the styles weaknesses as they provide a comprehensive list of the styles weaknesses. The student then gets to teach the class what they learned of the style, while they teach their fellow students how to exploit the weaknesses of that style. As well as expressing the dangers of facing someone using that style. 

During the time that the student is teaching this infiltrated styles methods, taiso would also mirror that of the other martial arts style, to allow students and instructors to gain understanding of the conditioning system of the other system and, let instructors get a feeling of how to advance their own Taiso conditioning system, while they develop their own fitness and exercise routines.

The core principle of Jujutsu is yielding to overcome, and yet as much as Jujitsu practitioner is taught to yield, to be soft, they are also taught to harden their body through exercise and physical conditioning.