The Five Rings of Satsubatsu Swordfighting

So me and Whitey spent a good couple of hours, a whole pack of cigarettes, and a good amount of safety coming up with this concept. We realized that you guys are officially veterans and that we've been still training you like noobs. It's time for your next step in combat training. This is what we came up with.

Look at your Satsu banner, proudly showing the Five Rings of Musashi's teachings. We'll use this symbolism to give our idea some life and visual representation. One outer ring encompasses three inner rings which all overlap each other, overlayed by a central ring that encompasses the three inner rings.

The first ring to be named is the outer ring. This ring holds all the others in place, keeping them in balance and in check. This ring is the foundation of all the others and that is why this ring represents the simple act of holding your sword. We have exercises planned to improve your handholds, grips, stances, posture, and balance. This will give you a better platform from which to fight from.

The next three rings are the inner three. Each one overlaps the other two, showing that they are all combined and a part of each other.

The first inner ring (second ring all together) represents the simple act of swinging your sword. Training in this ring will involve using proper cuts and learning what cuts/blocks/counters are available to what stances.

The second inner ring (third ring all together) represents your movement in a fight. Training drills are being developed to teach you to use your footwork to position your body more properly for an attack, to find open angles, and to exploit them. You will also be taught the act of posturing, trying to deceive your enemy into thinking things by the way you're standing or moving. Another neglected principle in footwork is incorporating strikes into footwork. Drills are being developed to encourage combo-cutting and cutting-on-the-move. Another important aspect in footwork is positioning your opponent, either for your advantage or that of an ally. Learning how to position an opponent for an easier Shinobi assassination or to enable team combat to be more effective, giving the enemy multiple fronts to fight on. And finally, footwork drills are going to be made for evasion and extending and closing range on your enemy.

The final inner ring (the fourth ring all together) is to symbolize a concept that we call "Focusing the Fight". Once we're in a fight, it's time to focus and out-think the opponent. Training in this ring will focus on opponent analysis, awareness of your surroundings, fighting through errors, capitalizing off of errors, and controlling the pace of a fight. We have drills developed to hone all of these.

The final ring is the inner ring that holds the inner three together. This ring symbolizes a simple concept; Finish the Fight. This ring will teach the finer aspects in slaying an opponent. We will be teaching feints, creating openings in an opponent, and incorporating your analysis of the opponent into a killing blow.

These concepts may just seem like a good idea, but we spent a good amount of time developing drills and training routines for these. These principles will work, and we all will become better fighters for it. The main thing about this training routine is that while you will have Sensei over certain rings, the training revolves around your guys' input and ideas. We're going to evolve by having everybody's styles picked apart for all of us to see the strengths and weaknesses. We will then reconstruct our styles around what we learned in training and what we learned from each other.

Most importantly, these principles don't just apply to swordfighting, it applies to most every weapon. We will also be training against more than just swords in these drills, we will probably also be USING more than just swords during these drills.

So boys, what do you think?

I think it is a very good idea, I also think that training using different weapons will give people and edge while fighting against those weapons. (and with this training maybe everyone won't run away from a nagi anymore..)

Precisely, we're going to be picking your Nagi style to pieces, hook you up like a lab rat to some computer, run some tests and shit... MUAHAHAHAHAHHA

Learning to use different weapons is definitely on the agenda for learning how to counter them.

I propose that we hold a tournament after we introduce these teachings to everyone, and we should have a cool prize for them too. Maybe the red and black-striped Spirit of Satsu bead?

Awww, my secret style which I have worked on for a year to learn.....fine.....I guess the Daimyo will take one for the team... =)

Daimyo Samuru Itazuki wrote:Awww, my secret style which I have worked on for a year to learn.....fine.....I guess the Daimyo will take one for the team... =)

take one for the team your learning my son but i guess i dont have to give up my style right killing time

Some more knowledge for you all. Inspired by Zaya, articulated by myself. Also, after thinking about it, this is pretty much the basis of my style. Thus the title..

The 5 Rings of WhiteBread

Outer Ring
When fighting 1 on 1, it's not about you. You should not think just about the self. You need to think about the opponent and yourself; however, IT IS ABOUT THE OPPONENT FIRST. EVERYTHING depends on your opponent. Without an opponent there is no fight.

Center Ring
In order to outsmart your opponent, you must think like your opponent. See the fight from their eyes. Know what they will know based on your positioning(this is why we teach you stances, cuts, blocks, etc. And this is why I'm writing this right now. TO HELP YOU SEE THE FIGHT FROM YOUR OPPONENT'S EYES). Once you know what your opponent knows, you can begin to manipulate the situation. Position yourself according to how you want the opponent to think. You must then see your opponent thinking, and continue to position yourself accordingly. Once you are one with their thought, you can then move on to taking victory.

Inner Rings 1, 2, 3
You must be able to deceive, overpower, or outlast your opponent in order to achieve victory.

Inner Ring 1 - Deception
Deceiving your opponent can be as simple as a feint, or as complex as a staged performance. Whatever the method may be, the objective is to fool your opponent into leaving an opening for you to take advantage of.

Inner Ring 2 - Overpower
Overpowering your opponent means to have a greater presence than they do. You must be bigger, faster, stronger, and more intimidating. Some methods for this include: landing the first strike, striking from outside of their range, making them drop their sword, and causing them to flinch with a "Kiap!"

Inner Ring 3 - Outlast
Outlasting your opponent means to have more endurance and a greater resolve. Having more endurance means to be able to keep up the cycles of exchanging blows between the opponent and yourself. Having a greater resolve means to have a greater will to win, or to have a more powerful driving force within you.

a bread um you think a nigga can hop in the title mabe like shadoubread or bread of shadou you know some thing like that just a SAFTEY THOUGHT at work still killing time

I'd like to throw out a few thoughts that I thought might bolster some of the ideas i saw in this post.

There is a concept in kendo called kiai. The idea is to show sudden aggression at the exact moment that the opponent exhales. The aggression can be in the form of attacking or in a sudden shout. Doing so as the opponent exhales causes loss of more air than they intended and throws the psyche off-balance. It takes some practice, but the concept can be very useful in intimidating the opponent.

Also important is conservation of energy. Balancing offense and defense without using more energy than you need to can force your opponent to use more than you, hence tiring them out more quickly and increasing the likelihood that they will make a mistake. This is especially useful against opponents naturally stronger or faster than yourself.