On the Day Before Martin Luther King Day, today, I listened to Senator Nancy Schaefer give a speech about how corrupt our government is... About how CPS (Child Protective Services) is given money to take kids away from parents. This amounts to Modern Slavery in the United States under the Color of Law (Appearance of the Law and Serving the Community).
I suggest you take a moment to listen to this speech.
Children raised in foster care and state ran orphanages have a rate of Post Traumatic Stree Disorder highef then veterans returning from war. How is this form of modern American slavery and being paid to kidnap children for financial incentives, monetary gain through bonuses for length of time that children held and number of children seized, even legal in the United States of America?
The same people screaming for women's rights, don't care about the rights of women to be mothers. As much as I accept my transsexual friends has appearing to look like women and, even address them as women, they cannot be mothers. They can love a child and raise it but, they cannot give birth to it... That is something only a natural woman by birth can do. Yet these Women's Rights groups often ignore this, why?
The same people screaming Black Lives Matter when a cop shoots an adult, are silent over this very matter. If Black Lives Matter and, locking up adults in prison cells is likened to slavery, why aren't the same black children abducted by CPS called out as if they matter and, their separation from their families likened to slavery? Why isn't Antifa protesting the facism of CPS? Why aren't professional Athletes kneeling in protest of this corruption in legal human trafficking, broken homes and CPS legally kidnapping children from Parents for finacial incentives?
Martin Luther King was slandered, beaten, imprisoned, hosed, maced, attacked with dogs and eventually assassinated. The FBI Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) was developed to stop communism and used to attempt to him and his message. But, he left his mark and we celebrate his life today. Dr. King was a leader, he marched from the front and lead those who trusted him into suffering to bring attention to racial inequality of American Rights. He suffered first and along side those who trusted him and, followed him. If you are an American and believe that we should protect all of our nation's children, parents and parent's rights as protection of All American Families. We need to stand together against this form of modern slavery. Otherwise, to say All Lives Matter is a lie meant to undermine the Message of Black Lives Matter and, discredit the overall message of Police, CPS and Court Corruption.
Why am I telling you this? Because I have been a victim of said corruption, even wrote a book about it, Never Back Down, I am suing Kristen Keller for fabricating evidence to discredit me and, lying in press releases and news interviews to make me seem unstable. Yet spending a decade fighting this corruption, I showed I am a leader... I lead the way, not because anyone followed me but, because I went at it alone. I am no Martin Luther King but, I donlook to the example he set, as well as Malcolm X and others, who's message and philosophies are just as American and, just as important to American History and American Culture as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and John Adams.
I have stood up to corruption and, all Americans need to come togather to fight it. I will not tell you do anything I have not done, myself. I achieved my token victories against internet tough guys in the online martial arts community (who cares, right?), I have interviewed William Williams who used Black Dragon Ninjitsu methods Standing with Standing Rock, showing this isn't just me who make these methods work (William Williams learned these methods from the Book Black Dragon Ninjitsu.
Americas children are our nation's future &, I don't care about skin color, religion, political party or anything else... This is our Nation and if we want to make better, as everyone claims, we need to work together. If you allow our future to be stolen what does this say about our future and ourselves? We cannot be followers, do not follow me. We must be leaders and, lead the way for the people who can't, like these children, against Judical Corruption and kidnapping of Ameican children under the color of Law.
In the tragic shooting in Las Vegas has been quickly and deeply publicized by the Mainstream Media on both the Left and the Right. However, while the left is quick to blame Trump and guns, many on the right believe the shooter did not act alone...
'Gowdy told host Martha MacCallum he was skeptical that Stephen Paddock, the individual thought to be responsible for the shooting, could have acted without at least one person identifying his behavior as suspicious. The South Carolina Republican predicted in coming days he will be proved correct.
“It’s an incredible level of premeditation that you don’t ordinarily see,” Gowdy said. “And it is difficult to believe that a single person could have done this without detection. And so, I hope that what comes out of this is people – you know, lots of crime is prevented because a non-law enforcement officer says something. The weapons and whether or not it was altered to become fully automatic and the premeditation of picking a certain hotel room. I think we’re going to find someone along the way was suspicious they should have turned that suspicion into a phone call to law enforcement. It’s an incredible amount of premeditation to not go detected.”'
Sometimes I speak of Ninjutsu and sometimes I talk about Survivalism and Prepping, the ever dreaded when the Shit Hits The Fan or SHTF. SHTF can take so many forms and not all of them are end of the world disasters. Take the conditions from which Jews lived in the Warsaw Ghettos or the way the poor in many nations live. Sometimes when SHTF is simple stuff like being falsely accused of a crime or having a car repossessed. One thing leads to another and the show ball effect takes place and while the rest of the world goes about it's day... You find yourself neck deep in "shit."
So what are martial arts? And how should they help you come SHTF?
Martial Arts fall into a series of categories and sub-categories.
Because of this Martial Arts attract a Niche Market. I person trying to better themselves might focus on Traditional Arts to develop themselves Physically and Mentally or in Competition Arts to see themselves as develop better physically. Self-Defense Arts focus on the type of injury they can produce and many times all arts have these elements in their system but choose to focus on one or the other. As an individual, you need to find what works for you...
The new trend in Martial Arts is cross-training, due to the sport of MMA. So many people have to train in one art at a time & martial arts markets compete over gets the business. The blunt honest truth that no one wants to tell is that by and large martial arts are worthless... And some punk with a gun can take it all way from you.
So lets ask the hard question, why train in martial arts at all?
The surprising answer, because you need to. You need physical exercise you need to health and fitness and you need to be able to defend yourself with a gun or knife because sometime they aren't handy and we drop stuff... This is why I was being specific in the saying Martial Arts. Traditional Arts either focus on self-defense application with "too deadly to spar" kata (non-resistant training compared to Karate solo-forms called Kata) or they embrace rules and competition called Randori (Free Exercise) such as with Judo. Arts like Karate call these striking drills Kumite (Free Fighting "Sparring") and Kendo calls in Shiai (Competition). Typically in arts like Judo, Japanese terms, culture, philosophy and etiquette are learned as their goal is to spread Japanese culture. In many Chinese traditional styles, Chinese terms and etiquette are also taught but they place a greater focus in fighting then on spreading Chinese culture.
Traditional arts have one huge defect, they exist to spread or pass on a tradition and cultural influence... Both Morihei Ueshiba the founder of Aikido and Jugaro Kano the founder of Judo built their arts around this aspect. While Ueshiba was more spiritual in his focus & Kano more practical in his, both arts have spread aspects of Japanese culture and philosophy around the world. Competition Arts focus on how well one performs techniques and competing within a specific set of rules. This more well know in MMA but can be seen in Sport Karate & Sport Judo (off shoots of Kano's original vision). They include arts like Sansoo (Chinese Kick Boxing), Muay Thai (a Thai sport variation of the combat art Muay Boran), Brazilian Jiujutsu & even the Western Arts of Boxing or Wrestling.
Competition arts focus on fitness and techniques. They often exclude the more dangerous elements reserved for combat or self-defense and water down their techniques. Its not about the techniques they use but the ability to beat another person with them. Competition arts like Kano's original form of Judo used competition as a metaphor for life and conflicts, you overcame adversity by "rolling with the punches" and flowing around a head on challenge with meeting directly. Funakoshi's philosophy for Karate-Do was different, meet adversity head on and face challenges with perseverance. Like Judo, Shotokan Karate-Do used competition as a metaphor for life and life's hardships.
Self-Defense Arts tend to focus on doing damage. So they rarely, use "safe" or Competition friendly techniques. They often focus on things like knife hand strikes, eye gouges and groin strikes because they need to inflict pain quickly and break contact with the aggressor or threat. Some traditional art teach their philosophy and culture through the traditions of a particular branch of martial arts lineage.
What you are shopping for isn't always what you are buying... For example, I won't "Out" anyone here but... There is a certain group online who lives for the expression of the history and traditions of Japanese culture. Now sometimes, they do teach real Japanese history and sometimes they add their own lies to it. They claim to be more legitimate because the head of their tradition is in Japan.
Of course, I am a Collins from a Branch of the Family that left Ireland came here before the Civil War. I could spin you a tell of ancient Irish fighting arts used by my family during the civil war and go back even further to Cork County Ireland with myths of Celtic warriors and such. I'm from West Virginia, my father is from Virginia and my mother from West Virginia. Both places have lost of history related to the Civil War and some of the bloodiest battles & skirmishes were fought here using tactics passed down from trapper, fur traders and Indian fighters (specialized soldier who adopted Native American tactics to European &, later American, technology). My family roots span from Ireland to colonial Virginia & spread up and down the east coat... But that would all be Bull Shit and no more creditable then some old Japanese con-man and his cult of pseudo-mystical ninja telling half-real Japanese history and half-made up garbage.
These same people teach otherwise effective techniques with some made up history all to convince you to buy a proven lineage. But they don't have the lineage they claim and the otherwise effective techniques aren't taught effectively. They are basically, selling you on a made-up "Warrior Lineage" and effective techniques but don't deliver either. You can train in a fly-by-night course that teaches you "Killer Commando Combat Self-Defense Secrets". I can spend all day telling you what is wrong with the self-defense industry or I can waste less time by telling what it done right about self-defense arts...
1. Self-Defense techniques are gross motor skill movements. They don't need a lot of time to learn, think of them as fighting hacks, but they do need regular training to maintain your skills. If the course doesn't have a formula for expending your training or offer additional courses of study to expand that training it might be worth in the long run.
2. Self-defense Courses that simulate combat conditions, teach awareness, and criminal tactics to avoid threats and conflicts are great systems for practical application. As opposed to whipping out a "Color Code Awareness" worksheet without telling what to be aware for.
3. Self-Defense Course are great when they mix the "culture shock" of simulated combat conditions with a grading process. They aren't grading you for rank they are grading you on progress. run you through the threat situation before training, give you some good training and run you through a different situation of similar intensity. This also gives you an idea of the value of your training.
Now lets ask something else... What does this have to do with SHTF?
First off, like I said not all SHTF situations is a World Ending event. Sometimes the world is here but, the world you live in has fallen apart. You might find yourself homeless from a house fire, a messy divorce or a number of other possible situations that might leave you in a bad place, in a bad way... More then fighting or teaching Japanese history (real or BS), they should teach you to be mentally tough and emotionally strong...
They should teach you to deal with life, not just fighting or a mugger. Martial Arts should test you, try you and build you up. They should teach you to think and act with purpose and to aways be working to develop yourself even outside the Dojo, Gym or Kwon.
This is going to be an interesting & extremely honest blog beginning with a simple question of "Who am I?" I will answer that question simply, I am me. I don't go running around saying I am master, guru, shogun, jonin, soke or what have you. Even the infamous "Sensei Ron Collins" label was used by my previous publisher Dojo Press (aka Ashida Kim) who felt just calling myself "Ron Collins" was a bit to low key. I've even told people I am a "White-Trash-Red-Neck-Trailer-Park-Hillbilly" (and I will start marking other on the US census and filling that in the blanks lol). Apparently, I didn't know this but Ashida Kim did, there are several Ron Collins in the World...
Ron Collins the who writes fantasy books... Ron Collins who is football coach (calls himself Coach Collins)... Ron Collins who is a boxer (24 & 5 record, born in 1963 from Texas)... There is a Ron Collins in aviation... and lastly there is even a Drink called a Ron Collins (2 oz. light rum, lime juice, 1 teaspoon powdered sugar, soda water/carbonated water & an optional cherry as a garnish) very similar to his cousin Tom Collins.
So here we are back to "Who am I?" I often have so much trouble defining myself because I "wear so many different hats" and play so many different roles in my life. I am a very emotionally unattached person and without that emotional attachment I am more analytical, I am more Spock then Kirk in another words. Without that emotional string to pull me into believing or acting on feelings, I deal with rationalizing, analyzing and hard logic. More so, the emotions are there but tightly controlled, in those moments I do "lose control" I tend to seem a bit extreme. More so, I make cold and calculated decisions... it is vitally important you understand this, I do nothing without a purpose & many times to achieve multiple purposes with a single action. The "good or bad" of that purpose is debatable but, regardless there is a purpose.
Its vital you understand that I am an analytical person because, I look at things without emotional attachment or with less emotion then others. Many times, especially online people who's opinions are colored by their beliefs, desires and what they choose to believe say am I "acting like a grandmaster and treating them like a bunch of white belts" because I analyze and develop my opinion based on the information presented... Now I don't sugar coat things, I am very direct in my statements.
More so, I find the internet culture of online experts and exponents amusing, especially the emotional attachment of some people to an idea or their idea. You see ideas often illicit emotional responses and if you don't control those emotional responses, you are controlled by those emotional responses. This is the basis of Ashida Kim's "ninja mind control" & psychological manipulation in general. There is a reason for the phrase "Looking through rose colored glasses." Emotions alter the way our perception of the world works and cold hard unemotional (this is ultimately impossible but you can reduce the degree of how much your emotions effect you with unattached logic). Very simply, if you are near sighted and wear corrective glasses, you can now see things at a greater distance in more detail. If you are wearing sun glasses, things appear grayer. Sun glasses with a pink, violet, blue or whatever colored hue will effect how things appear to you. The florescent lights of a store (a very light blue in nature) actually alters the appearance of the colors of clothing, a service industry trick to make things look more appealing. Those same cloths will look different in Sun Light.
Your emotions and what you already believe, have that effect on your perceptions of new information as well... Quite simply, I don't believe anyone has a legitimate claim to a Ninjutsu tradition to date. I believe that everyone in the Ninjutsu world either "made up" or learned from someone who made up their traditions. To someone who holds the belief they are learning from a "legitimate Soke" or "Master" I am wrong. If I start stating cold hard facts, I have an "agenda" or "I am attacking someone" because someone doesn't want to believe as I do, they make it a point to "attack" the sources of these facts or me to discredit those who oppose their beliefs. For no other reason then they are defending what they want to believe. And I find some small amusement in aggravating these people, yes I have troll-ish tendencies...
Without any emotional attachment or desire to agree, disagree or be accepted into the group I watched this video;
Now in the online community (Ninja Quest) myself and others, didn't like what we saw, those who claimed we didn't understand what we were seeing didn't explain it to us. They simply declared we had an agenda or already our minds up. Despite asking them with their claimed insider knowledge to explain what e were seeing. So I took it upon myself to analyze the video and here is what I felt was wrong...
Grabbing the hand right off the get, before it clears the holster is smart I even compliment Hatsumi at the point... Previous in the video he explains he is grabbing the hand and establishing a wristlock. And Hatsumi is controlling the thumb to keep from being shot/allowing the opponent to perform a trigger squeeze.
So he has a wrist-lock, the Uke still is holding the gun. So here the gun is pointed down but the Ukes arm is to the outside, away from his body.
The arm is further pulled out and the same elements are still in effect...
Now there is a serious debate on this between me and the pro-Hatsumi crowd, because it seems pretty obvious to me in the video that gun moves parallel (horizontal) to the ground (across Hatsumi's groin/stomach area) and not vertically.
More so, It appears the gun goes back across the groin/stomach area. and from the angle in the still above shows Hatsumi.
Here Hatsumi demonstrates the small-joint manipulation of the Uke's gun hand.
Hatsumi and the thumb still explaining... or if you agree with me still excusing.
And now Hatsumi attempts controlling the gun... I question why he didn't do this sooner.
Here Hatsumi continues the lesson that without a thumb someone can't pull a trigger. Which I disagree with, a smaller pistol (commonly used by criminals because they can easily be concealed) could be gripped with the remaining three fingers and possibly allow the trigger to be squeezed.
I fundamentally don't care what Hatsumi teaches and I don't think my disagreement with him will stop anyone from joining the Bujinkan or learning from him or anyone else in the Bujinkan. In fact, I give myself so little credit in this regard that I've both intentionally and unintentionally ruined my own creditability with others to various degrees. Mostly this has been done for "making fun" of online experts who are committed to "discussing" how great their style and masters are while bashing others.
In fact, if you look at the martial arts world with a bit of honest skepticism you'll find even the "creditable martial artists" are full of lies and exaggerations. In fact, creditable is an empty label because it depends on creditable to who? To those devoted to a particular style, questioning the style is the equivalent of questioning God. Many times, instructors invent answers when questioned on things they don't know. More so, many martial arts instructors make things up on the fly to fill gaps in their training. This is not a bad thing by any means, after all if you find yourself in a self-defense situation and encounter something you aren't accustomed to you have to make it up as you go along.
I once asked Omoto Sensei how to counter a technique he showed me, and his tierce reply was only "How would you counter it?" I was not what you would call friends with Kiyoshi Omoto he looked at our relationship as a duty... it was his job to teach and my job to learn, we were not friends. More so, Omoto Ryu under Kiyoshi Omoto was a job and under Sensei Martin it was not. I was friends with Reginald Martin which is why I learned this style, I even dated his daughter. Under Sensei Martin Omoto Ryu used a simple ranking system that did not have belts, where as Koshi Omoto used belts because Omoto Ryu Jujitsu & Budo was a commercial school... these ranks were simple Deshi (student), Sempai/Sensei (Senior Student/Teacher) and Shihan (Master). A student learns what he is taught, a senior student understands what he is taught and teaches it to those learning and a master understands what he isn't taught and acts without thinking. Omoto Ryu has no Soke in the traditional sense... One becomes a Shihan, as the Shihan who taught him or her no longer teaches them. You may train together but you are no longer "learning" you are "experiencing" this is somewhat like some parents who kick their kids out the house after a certain age. They haven't disowned the child and are there to help and offer advice but the child must face the world as an "adult." This is true of anyone who has to use their art in real world, whether you are an "operator" on the battlefield or a telephone operator being mugged in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
Now isn't that a long winded and pointless way to say "Sometimes in life you have to make it up as you go along?" Sadly, the fantasy of being a martial artist makes it seem like "Master" has to or should have all the answers be filled with stories and anecdotes speaking in riddles instead simple, direct and straight forward. Once you understand this, you have to deal with two facts. 1) Sometimes people make up shit and 2) sometimes others don't have an answer for your questions. Guess what that means, deal with it & go figure it out yourself... I've had to figure things out so much, I don't ask I just observe and analyze, form my opinion and go on. Sometimes I change my opinion and, most times I don't. Do I care what you believe? No... like your sexuality or religion those are things for you to deal with unless your region tells you to kill me or you want to practice your sexuality with me I don't care. Nor should you care what my opinion is, people who seem to care that I don't agree with them or think I "bash their art" forget I don't regard my own opinion very highly. People will believe what they want because they want believe it... Who am I?
