Why Ninjutsu?

I'll start with the most superficial reasons first. I like black, I like the aesthetic, even though historically speaking ninjas didn't really wear the black jumpsuit at all.

I like the elite requirements on both intelligence and physicality. This practice existed for the best among the samurai.

I like ambidextrous training.

I love the challenges involved. I love the richness of the movement. I like that we don't compete, and that we have a relatively hidden reputation, but that very seriously dangerous people follow this practice, that those people don't bother trying to amend ninjutsu's reputation as a joke or unserious martial art, instead they use it as a smokescreen.

I like that I continually discover new limits and thresholds in my body and slowly overcome them. Most people have a huge bundle of limitations but never realize it because they don't engage in a sufficiently challenging practice that can highlight all of those issues.

I like the people who choose to practice ninjutsu. The type of people who will willingly chew on an extremely bitter taste because they know it will benefit them. The type of person that knows the pain of feeling your bone vibrating like a bell and comes back anyway.

I like discovering all the surprising ways the entire system functions as a holistic unit, drawing connections across weapons and techniques, feeling the integrity of the body that underlies all the movement.

I like the travel and the ordeals that I've undertaken in service of practice, that have forged me into a more adaptable, stronger, and more observant version of myself.

I like the trickiness and subtlety of the movement and the way some of the movement just slides off of our eyes and brain because they seem somehow impossible. I love seeing a movement for the sixth time in some number of years and suddenly having it click, like oh I caught a bit of it and now I have an idea.