go team

Things ninja need to be good at
Sneaking
Evading capture
Avoiding detection
Combat
Interpersonal skills
Broad knowledge in many areas
Disguises and ability to lie

Sneaking can be learned through rigorous training, refer to this article on how to sneak. To become good at sneaking and stalking simply takes practice and learning how to move swiftly and quietly on any surface and environment. Practice makes perfect stands true here.

Evading capture requires you knowing your environment and where you are better than the people chasing you, and putting your resources to good use. Its very important for ninja to be very fit, you want to be able to sprint and keep moving very quickly for long periods of time. Parkour is an excellent way to train evasion techniques. Almost nobody will be able to keep up with someone who is able to scale a 10ft wall within 3 seconds. Refer to this article on parkour training for ninjas for a more detailed explanation of how to apply parkour to your training.

Avoiding detection is simply a combination of knowing how to sneak and your environment, if you are doing surveillance on an area make sure that you know how the guards move and when they take breaks. Avoiding detection means using your environment to your advantage, wait until the guards go for a break – make a distraction so that they move to check it out. This take creativity and you will get better at it as you apply it. Other methods include using unconventional entry strategies. Being good at rock climbing and being good at parkour are two things that a modern ninja will benefit from greatly. Almost nobody will expect you to climb up through an open window or some other exposed entrance. Stay safe and use it wisely.

Combat is an important skill, not only for ninjas but for survival in general. Hopefully you will never be in a situation where you need to apply force to escape but being good at martial arts will save your butt in many instances when things go wrong. This doesn’t only apply to being a ninja but life in general, if you are walking home late at night and you are approached by some shady characters, you can either try and run or fight. If you can’t run and they are looking for a fight, then you only have one option. I suggest you read my fighting and martial arts article. Specific martial arts that are useful in real life and that have genuine carry over are muay thai, Brazilian jui jitsu and boxing. Most other martial arts are a sport and aren’t designed for real combat. Muay thai involves training your body to be able to take hit and deliver vicious hits with your head, elbows, hands, knees and shins – search a muay thai video and you will find out why this is one of the most practical martial arts that exists.

Interpersonal skills, being able to lie your way out of situations and lie your way into places you aren’t meant to be is a very useful skill to have. Social engineering and the ability to lie and detect lies is absolutely invaluable, if someone asks you why you are somewhere you aren’t meant to be, getting caught lying is definitely not something that you want. Refer to the article on how to tell if someone is lying for a more thorough guide and tips on how to detect liars. Charisma and a smile are also very important and highly overlooked. Saying thank you and please will get you very far, always smile and always be polite – people want to be nice to those who are polite to them. If you want something from someone and they are working a boring job, chances are your politeness will stand out to them and they will be more inclined to give you want you want. Try it out, it really works.

Having a broad knowledge in many areas means that you can talk at length on many topics and that you know a lot about the world. Its important to be knowledgeable as you will often find yourself in situations where you will need to talk your way into or out of something. Stay up to date with current world events and read all the classic books that you can get your hands on. Developing a large vocabulary and having a lot of general knowledge is never a bad thing.

Being able to disguise yourself and stick to a personality that isn’t you real one takes significant skill – not many people are able to switch in and out of different personalities very easily. It takes a while to master this, and being able to lie and having a high level of general knowledge will equip you well for slipping in and out of different disguises and persona’s to establish your reasons for being places you aren’t meant to be, or to gain knowledge you aren’t mean to know. If you assert yourself as a person of power in a company – and you are on the phone to an employee who doesn’t know you personally, chances are that if you are convincing and a master of disguise and all your research and surveillance is done correctly… the person on the other end of the phone is going to tell you anything you want to know. For all he knows you are the boss of his boss. (haha this makes me think of eddie murphy in beverly hills cop, he does this really good & hilariously)

A modern ninja doesn’t train with chopsticks and practice catching flies – he uses his environment and knowledge to get what he wants and needs. If you develop a skill-set like this, you will find that many things in life seem to fall into your lap and that you never go wanting. An understanding of human dynamics and psychology will take you far, many people are easily manipulated and tricked, especially those who work boring jobs. Do not do anything illegal, and if you plan on doing anything at all make sure that you have done thorough research and you know absolutely everything about your mark, your target and your goals. Focus on building rapport with people who can give you information you need – but do it under a disguise. (from http://ninjahq.com/)