We are a small group of traditional Japanese martial arts practitioners in Regensburg, Germany who supplement this training by also developing our knowledge and skills in the diverse areas described on this website. Our aim is not only protecting ourselves and those closest to us from harm, but indeed working for the benefit of all sentient and non-sentient beings, as well as the planet itself. Yet what we do is also about finding fulfillment and perhaps even meaning in life.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
While striving, each of us in our own ways, to contribute to bringing about a better world, what we do together alongside this is not merely training against opponents that may or may not ever exist in reality, but it is seeking self-improvement, personal development and spiritual refinement. It is striving against the metaphorical enemy within, polishing one’s own heart and developing one’s spirit, so as to be able to unearth and awaken the hidden potential within each of us in the service of all and for the benefit of all, regardless of race, color, creed, gender identification or any of the other differences that far too often prevent us from realizing our shared humanity, collective essential unity and in fact, the interconnectedness of all of existence.
“When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of men we are.”
-Cesar Chavez
Our group leader and primary instructor is a former military intelligence officer who spent more than three of his nine years of service deployed in combat. He is now pursuing a seemingly quite different second career in hopes of promoting mutual understanding, respect and harmony among all people. As part of this, he recently submitted his doctoral dissertation in religious studies with a focus on the topic of mysticism, or the personal and experiential encounter with ultimate reality, which he sees as a potential bridge of understanding between people of all faiths or of none at all. Another part of this new mission in life is the activities of our group as described on this website.
Concerning the immediately practical aspect of the knowledge and skills we explore, in contrast to solely honing the ability to defeat an opponent in a physical altercation, we strive toward not being in such a situation in the first place. We do so by studying and training in a diverse array of topics and skills in the following categories:
Protection, Detection & Avoidance, Evasion, Escape, Survival, First Aid, Leadership
Within each of these are various subcategories, many of which could serve as complete areas of study in their own right. The intent, however, is to gain introductory familiarity and a basic working knowledge and competency across the full spectrum of these skill sets. This foundation can be deepened over time and according to personal needs, interests and inclinations. Moreover, this curriculum, so to speak, is non-static and continuously evolving. Thus, our program of training is not set in stone and is based on a number of working hypotheses, which we hope to confirm or deny, refine and build upon over time.
We incorporate knowledge, strategies and skills drawn from a plethora of sources, ranging from the boy scouts and parkour, to the doctrines of contemporary military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies. We also explicitly welcome others with knowledge, experience and expertise that could help contribute to our aims and expand our scope. We are continually learning and ever searching for new ideas, and are thus open to any new perspectives you might also be able to share.
All of that said, we do not train in offensive tactics. Instead, we focus on preventing, detecting and avoiding or otherwise eluding threats before any hostile encounter can even take place, or escaping from and surviving one if it does come to that.
Our overall concept involves cycling through training in these various categories on an annual basis. For instance, in the warmer months we might practice basic wilderness survival skills alongside stealth movement in nature, relying on methods used by infantry, snipers and trackers. Then in cooler months, we could move to adapting police room-clearing tactics for unarmed use in finding a clear escape route in an urban setting. We might also go into the busy streets of the city center or a shopping mall at Christmas time to practice the same surveillance detection and counter-surveillance skills that were refined into a science by spies and spy-hunters over the course of the Cold War, and that have continued to be developed throughout the unfortunate conflicts that have sadly arisen since. Conversely, we might simply sit in a café, unobtrusively observing and learning from human behavior.
