Uchi-deshi usually live in the dōjō or the home of the teacher, or in separate accommodations near the dōjō. He serves the teacher all day, every day. Duties may include cleaning and secretarial work. In contrast to uchi-deshi, students who live outside are referred to as soto-deshi (Kanji: 外弟子 Hiragana: そとでし literally "outside students").
Historically, an Uchi-deshi was typically chosen and groomed to become the next head of a school of martial arts when a direct family member was not available. In modern times, the role is also referred to as tsukibito (Kanji: 付き人 Hiragana: つきびと literally, "attached person"). Other terms include senshusei (専修生; せんしゅうせい) and kenshusei (Kanji: 研修生 Hiragana: けんしゅうせい "trainee"), although these terms are more general and do not necessarily indicate a live-in apprentice.
Gayku Homma Sensei runs a Uchi Deshi program at the Nippon Kan in Denver. I knew a couple of guys that spent a summer there and came back much better.
They improved at an accelerated rate, because one way or another they were training nearly 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
I always wanted an experience like that.
I’ve come close to that a couple of times hosting Mark, and Rory but not quite the same. At your own home you have a certain familiarity and “normal life” leaks in.
Camp Taiho Jutsu
Last week I finally had the uchi deshi experience. Douglas County SWAT wanted Special Operations Control Tactics training. They also wanted Instructor development training for their DT guys. We developed a week long training program. Steve Jimerfield would run a One on One Control Tactics Instructor Course Monday – Thursday and I would work with the local area SWAT teams on Friday.
(I love my job)
The training took place at Alexandria Technical College (about 2 ½ north of the metro area)
My brother Kent let me use his cabin (his totally kickass resort like cabin)
So living in a cabin 3 hours from home with nothing to do but eat sleep and train.
Great week! I can see why the Uchi Deshi process accelerates learning. I learned as much over dinner or watching Kung Fu movies after class as I did the whole day on the mats.
Another cool thing happened last week. Control Tactics / Close Quarter Combatives were accepted by Mixed Martial Artists.
This is usually the discourse between sport fighting enthusiasts and people who have to use their training to protect their lives while they serve others
Enough to make you want to pull your hair out right?
So when a friend of mine who was a amateur MMA fighter and now teaches Muay Thai and BJJ asked me about how to teach cops I was a little apprehensive.
Gus is a good kid and he has helped me teach SOCT before so I invited him to the One on One Control Tactics Instructor Course. If you’re going to teach cops there is no better foundation to have.
Jimerfield, Miller, MacYoung all teach:
· Structure
· Range
· Power Generation
· Movement (Motion defeats strength)
Gus got all of this in the Uchi Deshi experience. He learned 1st hand what Operators need, and that real world violence has very little to do with the paradigms of sport arts.
Gus wasn’t the only person who learned this. One of the students also managed Brock Lesner’s private training facility. When his size and strength were made useless it was very cool to see the gears click and watch him use structure, range, and movement to end violence quickly.
He thought it was so cool he invited us to the training camp to meet Brock
Train hard, Train Smart, Be safe, and - make an opportunity to have that Uchi Deshi experience, it’s totally worth it
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