Guidelines for Ninja Stealth
These Ninja Stealth Guidelines are taken from Stephen K. Hays in his book “The Mystic Arts of the Ninja“.
- Flex your knees and allow your weight to sink while maintaining a controlled balance. Always carry the least amount of ninja weapons you will need.
- Make sure to breath while you move. Many people hold their breath and this actually produce excess muscle tension, and this may also lead to a loud gasp when a breath is taken or needed.
- You must watch where you are walking but don’t only focus on that you must be aware of your surroundings and notice other people or obstacles are coming up.
- You must use all your joints for ninja stealth, move like flowing water and engage your ankles, knees and hips for stepping. Do not swing your entire leg from your hip this will certainly increase the noise you make.
- This is critical, keep all your weight and balance on your leg that is grounded. Avoid distributing your weight over both legs.
- Let one of your hands ‘float’ in front of you and the other beside you one torso high and one torso low. This will help in detecting possible barriers before your full body weight commits to them.
- If you feel you have made to loud of a noise stop for a moment for signs of detection. This will be a quick movement made by others and/or immediate silence following your sound. The good thing is that immediate silence is a guess that a listener heard something they have not detected you. As you are stopped slowly sink lower on your knees to physically relax. Once on your knees take a deep breathe and release it slowly to help relax. Remain this way until you are confident to proceed and give enough time for listeners decide they didn’t hear anything at all.
- You must remain calm and patient in this skill. You should actually focus on taking as much time as you safely can.
- The Ninja always understands the environment. For example if it is rough terrain you must take smaller steps so that you keep in control of your balance and one last tip If at all possible crawl for concealment.
