Why is jujitsu and specifically what we teach so effective? This isn’t a real short answer so please be patient. I will do my best to answer it with a little history of the Total Ryu System and it’s predecessors, our philosophy and our teaching method.
As many of you know, my training, before I founded Total Ryu 10 years ago included karate, jujitsu, aiki jitsu, newaza, kenjitsu, saijitsu and other traditional weapons systems. These 
martial arts were all contained in one system. The main philosophy of that system was “we find what works, refine it, teach it and implement it”. Our roots go deep into traditional Japanese martial arts, with my instructors being taught by many of the great ones of the modern era of Japanese martial arts, including Oyama, Yamaguchi and more.
My philosophy piggy backs on my lineage’s philosophy, but I take it a little bit further. Where they took all that was good, they also hid a lot until a student was “deemed worthy.” While I still do not teach some things to all students, I do teach the application of the techniques for any given level, and will also give much more information to younger students than was given in the previous systems. I also teach what is needed to help a student advance, and teach application for techniques at any given level for those who can understand it and use it wisely.
Because we have karate and jujitsu in the same system, we can combine the striking, multiple attacker techniques, throwing etc to expand our capabilities and meet violence with violence if needed. We can hit hard and we can throw hard. That is rare in martial arts in todays world. Many think they have the capability but they are lacking the technique and the knowledge to apply correctly.
Understanding adrenal stress in a confrontation is huge. From my early days in martial arts we were required to over exaggerate techniques in order to build muscle memory and capability to move powerfully, and strike powerfully while under adrenal stress. Many believe that this training technique is a modern invention. They couldn’t be farther from the truth. This way of training has been around for 100’s or even 1000’s of years and can be seen today in most systems if you know what to look for. Because of what martial arts is made for, they needed to train this way to be as effective as possible. The training techniques are in the kata and should always be remembered for applicability under stress.
I like to use what works, but not only what works, what works under adrenal stress. Each person will react differently to adrenal stress. So it is important to use our ACT (Adrenaline Confrontation Training) to see how an individual handles and reacts to varying levels of adrenal stress. It is also important to train and become inoculated to lower levels of adrenal stress so that a student can function in a high mental state.
I also believe that almost everyone is trainable, if they are teachable. Those are two completely different things. In order for me to train a student, they have to be teachable. This goes for any age that we teach. We have very young students in class that were raised to be teachable, well behaved kids. These particular students are better at learning and applying techniques than some of the teenagers and even adults that we have taught. Age 4 to 5 is just about perfect to start training a child, but the best time is now. It doesn’t matter if you are 20 or 50, we can train you if you are teachable.
There you have it, some history and some of my philosophy on Total Ryu Martial Arts Jujitsu and Karate. I hope this helps you understand why we do things the way that we do. As always please let me know if you have any questions.
