The San Diego Taijutsu Club is a group that meets regularly in the San Diego area to study the art of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, or just Taijutsu for short. Taijutsu is an ancient Japanese system of self-defense based on natural body movement. At its core, Taijutsu is a way of using universal principles such as distance, timing, angling, balance, and deception to overcome opponents without relying on superior physical attributes such as strength, size, or speed.
The Bujinkan is an organization created by Masaaki Hatsumi to share his teacher’s martial arts legacy with the current generation. Budo means the art or the way of warfare, or real fighting. All together, the name Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu says that this is the Bujinkan’s way of using Taijutsu, or the natural body methods of self-defense, for real fighting or warfare. Since the full name tends to be quite a mouthful for Westerners, we usually refer to the art simply as Taijutsu.
Taijutsu allows you to overcome those that would harm you without relying on athleticism, size, or strength. The movement skills and strategies that comprise Taijutsu are based on hundreds of years of experience by real warriors on the battlefields of old Japan. These techniques survived because they allowed their practitioners to survive and persevere in dangerous and difficult times.
In spite of the weight of tradition, or perhaps because of it, the way we practice Taijutsu is very relaxed, informal, and full of humor. The headmaster, Hatsumi Sensei, teaches this way; encouraging us to play in our training. Training with a playful attitude and heart is central to the way that we practice. It’s part of what allows you to bypass your own ideas of what you think you can do and let the tradition begin to flow through you. It also makes training more fun. Fun training is done training, and the more training’s done, the more training’s fun.
Training is led by Nate Daly, who has been studying Bujinkan martial arts for the last 14 years. To contact Nate about training, email sandiegotaijutsu@gmail.com.
San Diego Taijutsu Club 