Does the practice include training with weapons, or how to deal with armed assaults?
Yes, it wouldn’t truly be self-defence training if it didn’t. However, for the first several years students will work primarily on unarmed defence against unarmed assaults. Only after they have a good grounding in the principles of unarmed combat will they begin to delve more into the study of weapons. Weapons techniques in Shinseido generally build upon the skills already learned in the unarmed portion of the syllabus. Weapons you will train to defend against are those that you might expect to face in real life assaults in modern Britain, not the medieval battlefield. When far enough through the syllabus, all students will learn to use sticks of various lengths as both defensive and offensive weapons. Training in the weapons of classical Okinawan Shorin Ryu is also available for those wish to pursue that aspect of the system.
