Shizen no kamae “Natural body posture” is an aspect of everyday life I have become more aware of since I began training Budo. I was instructed in the Police Academy to use an Interview Posture when encountering citizens. This non threatening body posture allows you to anticipate a surprise attack while protecting your duty weapon during every encounter you have while on duty. There are some slight variations of the interview stance but the elements are the same as the Shizen concept. 

In the interview stance you should have your elbows bent comfortably and your hands in front of you.  Many officers rest their hands on their magazine pouch or on their holster.  We all see it on TV, it’s very trendy and imitated often.  Typically we see the officer pull up his belt; they commonly weight 20lbs or more, and then rest his arms on something.  I have always thought it looked lazy. What I later learned helped me to understand why you want your hands in front of you. I’ll use a drug interdiction traffic stop for my example.   These suspects often have little to nothing to loose.  If you get a sizable bust they know they will be going away for a long time.  This desperation makes this encounter much more dangerous for everyone involved.  When a suspect is at this heightened state of nervousness they sometimes fixate on the officers actions. We always search vehicles with second officer on scene. I was normally the assisting officer and while the lead officer was conducting his search the suspects often asked, “What is he doing? What’s that?” Everything picked up or looked at incited a nervous question.   I found this nervousness compounded when my hands rested near my weapon or handcuff case.  Any movement at all towards any of my gear and they keyed in on it.  The search and my actions were the only things they could think about.

My posture was important because it could be the what triggers the suspects to attempt a preemptive strike.

In the Bujinkan, Shizen no kamae is widely used in the Shindenfudo Ryu.   It is roughly defined as standing in a natural posture with hands held down at your sides, feet pointing straight forward, knees slightly bent “not locked”.  The back is held straight and the gaze is forward.

In understanding how I use a natural posture at work, I can understand how this posture is such an effective stance for defense.

Stephen Hayes wrote in his book, “The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art”, a quote from one of his teachers. “Tanemura-san said, The shizen no kamae is the first fighting position and is the most important. You should become completely familiar with this pose, and thoroughly understand its value, as it is used to handle almost all surprise attacks.”

As pointed out, this stance if very capable of handling surprise attacks.  The position is so capable that it is one of the key principles in several martial arts. Jigoro Kano, the inventor of Judo, regarded correct stance as so important that he made it one of his three central principles of Judo.  The body in its upright position is in a balanced state when the trunk of the body is held directly above the feet. If the body is pushed or pulled it is not easy to maintain balance without moving the feet.  In this natural position the body can then be moved swiftly and easily with the weight of the body shifting from one side to another as the situation demands. This versatility is what makes the posture so effective against a surprise attack.

Miyamoto Musashi wrote in “The Book of Five Rings”, “In all forms of strategy, it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance. You must research this well.”

Musashi brings me back to my point about this being an important aspect of daily life. When you approach the checkout at the store you don’t stand facing the line with your fists balled up in a boxing stance waiting for your items to be scanned.  Through Shizen you maintain a perfect guard while appearing relaxed.

I will try to control my cynical view that mankind is corrupt but the fact is, most victims of a theft by sudden snatch have their possessions snatched from them when their guard is totally down or distracted. Women aren’t the only victims of these crimes. I have spoken with male victims who were watching over their cart of groceries and the wife’s purse when the billfold was taken from the purse. They often are in total disbelief because they were with the cart the whole time. They think back and describe a person coming to them asking them a question about a food product while holding it up to their face so they can “get a better look”. The suspect doesn’t get pushy, but they close the gap on the victim’s personal space with little notice.  When this happens a second suspect comes from behind and lifts the billfold. The suspects in this case performed an excellent surprise attack taking advantage of posture with a distraction.

In summary, with Shizen, I do not appear intimidating or in a state of inviting conflict and I am absolutely capable of responding to anything that comes my way. It does not tire me and I can easily maintain this defensive posture indefinitely.