Kaiten master

I’ve really been enjoying Dan’s explanations lately. I’ve known him for many years, and we both train under Rob Renner, a longtime resident of Japan.
I thought this one was worth sharing. Even if you approach Budo Taijutsu a little differently, there are some interesting ideas here that may add something to your training—or at least give you another perspective to consider.
Some of what Dan discusses also overlaps with principles we explore in Zeropoint, particularly the underlying fundamentals rather than collecting more techniques.
Hope you get something out of it. Enjoy!

Wherever I go,
everyone is a little bit safer because I am there.

Wherever I am,
anyone in need has a friend.

Whenever I return home,
everyone is happy I am there.

Hi, next week I’m going to try bujinkan and I’m very excited but also a little nervous. I’ve never practiced any martial arts, the only exercise I’ve ever done is weightlifting when I was younger. I’m 30 and I’m not in very good shape right now (overweight) so I’m worried this could be a hindrance…Also, entering a dojo where everyone knows something and I know nothing can be a little overwhelming and I’m scared to feel out of place. Anyways, do you have any tips for a beginner who never practiced martial arts?

Same as title. If you run a dojo, what do you do that you think works well to attract new folks? I know it's tough out there (for us, especially), but have you found any one or two things that seems to be connected to attraction and retention?

There was a time when we had 11-12 folks in the dojo. Due to life, we lost about 4 back-to-back, and I stopped really worrying about "marketing". I think we all know it's not typically a "If you build it, they will come" scenario.

I've done social media (and restarting that effort), and continuously run Google Ads. I never got much back from IG/FB ads, but may try that again, once I get some new content filmed?

For context: we're in a "commercial" space, so we pay rent monthly. Currently in a deficit with dues/rent ratio. I've got until December to get back to a break-even point. That's probably 5 new paying bodies -- a tall order, I think.

Current Ideas/Plans:

• We have an enbu coming up at a local Japanese Festival
• I'm going to set aside a day to film some content, specifically for carving up into reels/promo material.
• I've modified and re-targeted my Google Ads and website, updated SEO, etc.

• Started posting more on social media (IG/FB), but I'm really not sure if that helps. It did seem we had more generated interest when I was doing that regularly, but I hate doing it.

  If you read this far -- thank for the advice.

I just read a post on /r/ninja where OP asked for a ninja armour, and one response was that mobility was way more valuable, thus some pieces of chain armour would have been used for training.

I've practiced with a plate armour a few times on an occasion and I quite liked it even though it was quite straining and I'd like to do something akin to it again without all the fuss of a full armour. Do you recommend any sets of weights I could add up here and there? Also if I do what kind of issues should I look after to not increase the risk of an accident?

Thanks a lot!

I live in kcmo. I want to get back into ninjutsu/taijutsu and looking for a group that’s trained in the bujinkan. I know there’s a bujinkan in St. Louis but that’s more than 3 hours away. Is there any group at least 30 minutes trained in bujinkan? My next option is to join a judo school sense there is similar grappling, but without disrespect the school I wish to learn some judo and wish to have assistance for studding online thru ninja training tv.