I decided to take advantage of my recent move to Germany and soon after I learned that in Hamm, at about 100 km away from where I live is a seminar with Pedro Fleitas I decided to go. 

I think it's important to see as many teachers as possible to be able to form your own informed opinion and to find a teacher that deserves to be followed, or to be able to discover mistakes that are not evident for the moment in the teacher that you follow.  Pedro Fleitas is one of four older and more famous practitioners of Europe, along with Peter King, Arnault Cousergue and Sveneric Bogsater and the only one of the four of them that I have not had a chance to see so far. Although I did not have any expectations I wanted to see him with my own eyes as it moves, in order to form my own opinion that I will share with you in the following material:

The seminar unfortunately did not have a certain theme. All day on Saturday, Pedro Fleitas decided to show the execution of a defense when he possessed a knife and the Uke came forward to attack him with fists.  The attacks were far from those of a man who has not all his marbles at home and just wants to kill you as I think it would have been a little more realistic if indeed you have a knife in your hand, clearly visible to the opponent, and yet he decides to attack you with fists.  All the attacks were from long distance and with low speed and unfortunately, in my view, completely unrealistic.

I think the training could have represented any fighting "military” style.  You could unfortunately very rarely see the positions or Kamae specific for the Ninjutsu schools that have a long tradition that need to be honored and respected.  It was all about "feeling" .. Kukan ... Maybe I am not able to judge whether what was taught is or not technically correct but how can a teacher show something to a lot of students that do not even know what a proper Kamae looks like and cannot assume or use it properly? It was the feeling of a college professor teaching advanced mathematics to a group of primary school children who barely know how to do addition. The problem is that the teacher cannot be challenged because others say about him that he is very good. How could the students begin to challenge something that so many guys with high degrees (clearly a wrong reference system in my opinion) say it's actually very good and advanced but as yet you are the one that cannot understand?  Well, I think to quote the words attributed to Buddha:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

(some misunderstandings can collect in every translation this is quoted in English from the internet)

Pedro Fleitas is really athletic, strong, fit. There are moments in which the techniques seem to work and you can see that his long experience says its part. But all that was shown was done against an enemy prepared to fly to the ground for a better showcase of the teacher.  Do not get me wrong, you should not oppose the technique as Uke but you should also not fake it, like jump for no particular reason and attack in the air to the side of the teacher, and from a great unrealistic distance with the potential to impress the public with a false value of the teacher’s technique. To me, the attacks denote lack of knowledge on the part of that attacker, or an example of bad will, or this is what the teacher asks. I do not know what the real cause of this kind of attack here, but if the teacher sees a problem with the attack it is the first thing that he would need to correct.  One more thing I noticed, all attacks performed by Uke on Saturday were made only with your right hand.

Unfortunately, after the first day I felt sorry for wasting time and money. But I decided to give it one chance and I repeated the trip next day and went to the training. Already almost half of the "practitioners" who had signed their presence with their local teachers on Saturday were not presented on Sunday with different motivations.

At the beginning of the training I witnessed a Go (5) Dan test that has been taken successfully by a practitioner of about 20 years that has not managed so far to get to Japan. Congratulations to this colleague!  It was an interesting experience to witness and a first for me.

I noticed with pleasure that Pedro Fleitas now called the attacks to be done with the left hand. After several executions I have understood why. All he showed required executions with his right hand and were better suited for attacks with left hand.  For example Uke attacked with the left hand and Pedro Fleitas executed techniques like Omote Gyaku or Ganseki Nage using his right hand. At one point the participants seemed to have noticed that the attacks were with the left hand only and they were explained that this was chosen to be done so because your opponent may surprise you and attack with his left hand and you must be prepared. It seemed that most of the room accepted the explanation. However, I did not.

He came to me several times, to correct my training partner.  At one point he demonstrated his power on me with 3-4 Omote Shuto “Takamatsu" style like he said, in the back of my neck, while I was not even trying to defend myself in any way.  The hits have been strong and I think they demonstrated a lack of control because my head hurt about 5-10 minutes afterwards from those hits to the Cerebellum area. Of course blows were given by which hand ... Can you guess ?..... Yes the right hand. I also wondered why so many? Is seems because the strokes did not seem to work based on my minimal reactions and I guess because the confidence that the hits worked in the first place and properly hit their targets was minimal and so he then tried several times that maybe, maybe one hits the spot?

After several hours I reached the conclusion that what I thought on Saturday was not just a bad first impression and I decided to use my time better and at lunch I went home.  I've never before been to a seminar where I felt like leaving but I have to remember that nothing should surprise me.  I had absolutely nothing to learn from his teachings.  Pedro Fleitas techniques work sometimes, he is strong and is also experienced.  But he works 100% on the right and you can occasionally see traces of Kamae in him but in general is "feeling" and leaves openings that a serious opponent would ruthlessly exploit...... So I do not know how he would execute such techniques into a situation completely different from a seminar, but I can speak strictly about what I have seen.

The general feeling was depressing, but I was able to train with one of the guys in Paderborn and impregnate his head with repeated advice on the Kamae, alignment and a straight back. He is grateful and said he is thinking to make some T-shirts with my advice which of course benefited me too in my attempt to correct my mistakes that I was conscious of.

My opinion?.... Pedro Fleitas is fit, for the unprepared he is very, very good, and has lots of experience that can be observed, but as a teacher ... there is no way that I would follow him.
I have of course learned from this experience a few things.  They are unrelated to a technique of course but the technique is not nearly enough in life.

There is a saying: "Ignorance is Bliss" meaning that the lack of knowledge results in happiness and I saw at this seminar a very clear example of this saying.  I wish to extend many sincere heartfelt thanks to those who helped me to be able to squint my eyes and to begin to see a little bit better around me.  I find joy in trying to correct my mistakes and in learning from others, but especially from those who are clearly more advanced than me.

                 SO SETSU Buyu.

Adrian Bortea