Most practitioners of Bujinkan spend their time on doing nice and calm techniques putting emphasis on balance and timing. It is useless. Especially when, in most cases, the martial artist is out of shape, lacking in strength and endurance, which is the fundament of a warrior.

Worse yet, and probably the main reason why most martial artists can't fight, is that only a select few has any fighting experience, simulated or not. They are physically and psychologically unprepared for a real fight.

There has been and are persons in the Bujinkan who grasped this. Takamatsu for example.

Provoked yet? Chance is you should be. Dojos around the world claim they are teaching their students how to win fights - when in fact, they are not. They are teaching techniques. Out of wich 0.01% will work in combat.

It has been important for me to realize this. Because I want to excel at fighting - I want to win. Therefore I will adjust my training in the time to come. Also, the reader should be aware that I can only describe what I have seen and understood from personal experience and thus there may be dojos that have none of the negative qualities I describe.

Edit 2008-01-15: seems this article is quite popular, even 5 years later, so I thought it prudent to draw attention to a short paper I wrote on the same subject, here: The Art of Pretending

Though I do not train martial arts any longer, it is painfully obvious that the above is still true. Bujinkan practitioners and similar martial arts styles simply cannot fight. Watching them getting their head bashed in, when they actually try to participate in competitive fighting, is a bit saddening.