Takusankage Soke

Show them that with hard work, comes reward but with foolishness, comes consequence. Making a student execute difficult and exausting tasks works best for me (carrying water buckets, rigorous acrobatics).

There are certain kicks in the modern martial arts that are only meant to look good. A lot of these are high kicks to the face and spin kicks. Very rarely will a kick to the face or a spin kick work in a real combat situation. To learn more about functional kicks, study a traditional art such as aikido, ninjutsu, shotokan, etc.

If you can't find hockey tape, electrical tape is better than nothing. However, if you can find the hockey tape, you can either wrap it around the handle in a normal fashion, or you can use the method of tsukamaki. There are sites that will show you this better than I can explain it.

Research Iaido or Iaijutsu. Both of these arts when practiced slowly will greatly increase your sword arm's strength.

There are still instructors out there who have preserved the lore of the ninja. Seek one of them (i.e. Masaaki Hatsumi)

Takusankage Shinobido consists of three arts: 1. Takusankage Ryu Ninpo 2. Hayai Ryu Kenjutsu 3. Koto Ryu Koppojutsu. Please post if you have any experience with Ninpo, Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu, Koppojutsu or any comments.

I have been studying Takusankage Shinobido for 13 years now.

Very well put

I don't feel as though sparring is that essential to success in the martial arts. Kumite occasionaly can help aquire the feel of a real combat scenario, but other than that sparring is only for sport.