I been training within both Bujinkan (Ninjutsu) and Villasin Balintawak for a while now, so its not strange that i have found similarities between the two styles…. 🙂
The Similarities…..
Some of the similarities i did find was the way Bujinkan tries to step out and avoid a strike by not being there, in Villasin Balintawak we use a lot of Boxing movement to bob and weave to also avoid strikes by not being there…
I also found out, that the source to power in both cases comes from our legs and besides these things Bujinkan also has their unique way of kicking, some counters against sweeps and many strikes and locks in common with Villasin Balintawak…..
Both Styles did also share a open minded and deep understanding of Martial Arts, by open minded i mean they both tell students to use their background within Martial Arts and by deep i mean they understand it’s important to “try” to learn the student how to improvise and adapt in a real fight…
The difference between Villasin Balintawak and Ninjutsu…..
There are of course also some things that are different between the two styles, like Ninjutsu has “special weapons” like Metsubishi, but on the other hand Villasin Balintawak does say you should use your background so these things could become a part of it if you want to bring it with you…. 🙂
But another difference is that Villasin Balintawak has a lot of “aliveness”, where most Bujinkan schools (90% or more) these days dont have that at all….
Villasin Balintawak also has weapons that is more modern and easy to find in your daily routine, then many old school weapons from Bujinkan…..
Why the many similarities?
I think the reason is that Villasin Balintawak has both Boxing and old school Jiu-Jitsu in its style, some things in Bujinkan has similarities to Boxing, that we get power from the legs and move out of the way of a strike….
But Bujinkan is also made up of several Ju-Jutsu Ryus (old school), so they would have many things in common with the Jiu-Jitsu in Villasin Balintawak…
Please Note: This is only about the similarities between Villasin Balintawak and Bujinkan (Ninjutsu), since there is a difference between the different Balintawak Schools, so i can only talk about the ones i did try….
