RICHMOND BUDO is a Virginia based group in Richmond and Northern VA (Great Falls) of authentic Japanese martial arts with the warrior essence still alive for practicality in today's situations. Our martial art is not a dead historical tradition, nor focused around sports competition. Our unbroken traditions go back hundreds of years to an age of professional warriors and continual warfare to the age of the Samurai and Ninja.
Samurai Jujutsu
progressive training methodology: isolation -> coordination -> integration
-receiving impact safely from falls and strikes and to train the nervous system
-structure and alignment for power rather than muscle strength
-movement from the core and big movements at first for the body itself to learn
-positioning to be evasive while moving to counter
-strikes and receives using the whole body for power to specific points
-grappling for up close encounters
-strategic combinations and self-defense applications
-weapons study as root of combat "a warrior is always armed"
-continued refinement of principles for adaption to counters, resistance, and free movement or sparring
...strength is overcome by technique, technique is overcome by principle...
old Samurai poem
"I have no parents; I make the heaven and earth my mother and father.
I have no home; I make awareness my dwelling.
I have no life and death; I make the tides of breathing my life and death.
I have no divine power; I make honesty my divine power.
I have no means; I make understanding my means.
I have no magic secrets; I make character my magic secret.
I have no body; I make endurance my body.
I have no eyes; I make the flash of lightning my eyes.
I have no ears; I make sensibility my ears.
I have no limbs; I make promptness my limbs.
I have no strategy; I make “un-shadowed by thought” my strategy.
I have no designs; I make “seizing opportunity by the forelock” my design.
I have no miracles; I make right action my miracle.
I have no principles; I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.
I have no tactics; I make emptiness and fullness my tactics.
I have no talents; I make ready wit my talent.
I have no friends; I make my mind my friend.
I have no enemy; I make carelessness my enemy.
I have no armor; I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.
I have no castle; I make immovable mind my castle.
I have no sword; I make absence of self my sword."
-anonymous
