Original Sin

  Our original intent with opening a dojo, was purely self-serving. We wanted to work with like-minded Yudansha who (also) wanted to increase their knowledge and understanding of what had been shown and learned from Taika's instruction. This was only partially accomplished.

   

  We allowed Yudansha level practitioner's from other system's to participate as well (though they never stayed around too long, WTF?). What we discovered, was that the majority of individual's (regardless of which system they studied) were not knowledgeable enough in their own technique's application, to contribute to the project. This isn't to say they couldn't make them work, only that they didn't (always) understand how/why the technique did (or didn't) work.

   

  Additionally, this isn't to say that we were so intelligent and knowledgeable about the techniques. Only that they (so obviously) weren't. This was what led us to develop The 6 Basic Tuite Principles. These were instructional principles that could be utilized when learning/applying any of the tuite technique's that had been taught to us (by Taika).

   

  What we thought we were doing, was pointing out the obvious. What we discovered, was that we were pointing out what had been ignored. Everything that we listed (in those principles) had been originally put forth by Taika. And (in Taika's typical manor) if you didn't pay attention to it (when he originally said it), then it was your fault (and/or problem) to figure it out (now).

   

  This discovery kind of side-tracked our training endeavor. Additionally, we began training a group of student's (who were Yudansha) at yet another school. They were not originally RyuTe, so they (first) had to be brought in to the association. That took time, LOL.

   

  That was 3 year's ago, that school now has 2 Association Yudansha (with 2 others assisting) for the instruction of their RyuTe students. The number of RyuTe students at that school is also limited (hence no need for a greater number of Yudansha). This (should) free myself to attend our (own) school to work with it's (growing) attendance.

   

  Hopefully, this will also allow my associate and myself to pursue our interests as well. We will (hopefully) be finishing up our Tuite manual, and begin making further headway on our Kyusho research.

   

  Though we began with the intent of forming a cooperative research group, what came about was the development of a training format for (already) known material (Tuite). It's not that this was a bad thing, only that we feel that (maybe) some opportunity has been lost.

   

  Regardless, we are going to pursue our own interests (as well as our students) as we progress in our endeavors. It is our hope that we can connect with other RyuTe members who are attempting to do similar research.

   

  Having mentioned this (several times on my blog) before, We are likely to never reach the ability level of Taika, but that doesn't mean we can't acquire an equal, and maybe even a better understanding of what he does.