great job as always. however while watching the episode i noticed a few inaccuracies. first the catching of ab arrow can be done. i have seen it on TV when the catcher acually grabs the arrow from the side in a sweeping motion. also at a further distance. (no one shoots an arrow at amother person from point blank range) another problem is a ninja would never have faced a compound bow. try it at a distance of 40' with a recurve bow. Jamie i loved the aticulating hand, an engineering marvel. very simply done and effective.

The second myth about the sword catch. if you watch in super slow mo you can see that the hands caught the sword then when the hands bounced bach it let it through. you need to make the hands with a inner structure to simulate bones that will keep the pressure on after initial contact.

Note that a target arrow would be easier to grab ... but a broadhead would be more likely to be used in combat. So ... the hand needs to be open wider, which makes it slower. Also, how fast can a human arm move? At [say] 20 meters how fast is an arrow from a recurve going? (Of course, the Asian archers from a century or more ago would be slight compared to today's model.)
While it MAY be possible to occasionally grab an arrow, I'll guarantee that it hasn't been done on a regular basis by ninjas, who could not choose when and from where their enemies would fire! And they'd need to more their BODIES, because that's where the arrow would be aimed! (Why bother catching one that's not gonna hit you?)
Of course, it only takes ONE to make a legend.
But the myth is that is was *typical*.

dont forget that a traditional non-mounted samurai soldier would have fired an arrow that was approx. 4 feet in length from a LONG BOW thay was approx 5 and a half to 6 feet in length, not from a compound bow(designed to add more power, under less draw weight)and not fired at point blank range.

For the "Catching an arrow" myth.

Hate to say this, it's not busted.

I watched this happen on an episode of "Ripley's Believe it or Not" episode #312, airdate 4/03/02 & 9/04/02.

http://www.americanblackbeltacademy.com/Arrow.htm

http://www.abbakarate.com/data/terry_bryan.wmv

This was the worst episode ever. The tested nothing, busted nothing, and proved nothing.

First the walking on water. They took an untrained, inexperienced, non-athelete to use some fabricated equipment and because he could not do it, they busted the myth. I can bust the myth of acrobatic down hill skiing. You see, I went to the museum and looked at some skis and fabbed up a pair. I may have missed wax, stabilizing grooves, etc, but my skis look nice. I then went out to a snowy slope labeled "expert run" because that is where the acrobatic skiers are supposed to work. I tied the skis on with rope and discovered I could not even walk well, let alone slide. I then pointed down the slope and immediately fell over and broke my leg. I did do acrobatics, but not in the air. That myth is busted. :-)

Next the arrow catch. The bow they used was a descendant of the English long bow with a hardwood shaft. The Japanese Yumi is a bamboo bow with a much longer bamboo arrow. The longer, lighter arrow would be easier to catch (more surface, slower speed). Next, when Jamie tried to catch the arrow, he moved his hand with the arrow flight as any of us would. Then they built a stationary hand to do the job. That makes the trick MUCH harder. Next, every time I have ever seen an arrow catch, there is a wrist twist. The arrow does not end up pointed at the target. Rather, it is perpendicular. If your hand is twisting on the shaft, you deflect the momentum and make it so the arrow shaft would have to split your hand in order to continue. Again, a stationary hand.

Finally the sword catch. Again a stationary pair of hands. No one catching the sword would leave their hands stationary. They would move them down to give more time to remove the engegy. You don't even catch a ball that way. Next, the hands slapped together heel of the hand to heel of the hand. Anyone trying to stop a sharp sword would try to catch it by the flat of the blade with the fingers first, then the ball of the hand, then the palm, and finally with the heel (if needed). And pressure would be applied throughout. Finally, while in the arrow myth they used an expert's reflexes to set the timing, on this they used one of their own. That is crazy.

Sorry, as I said, you tested nothing, you busted nothing, and you proved only that you guys can mess it up big time.

I personally enjoyed the episode, I spent a lot of time laughing. But maybe that's 'cause I mainly watch it for the entertainment value, not the science content.
I will agree that it IS possible to catch an arrow, I've seen it on TV as well.
I did think the walking on water was a bit off. They should have had their new ninja friend give it a shot.

-Jennifer

IMHO the western world has but one person that is qualified to ask any Ninja related questions.

Stephen K Hayes. He has been on the Discovery Channel before so you may have some luck.

Yeah I have to agree with everyone. These myths were tested but not tested well. I saw a show called "Fight Science".

The walking on water myth, ninja usually have uncanny balance, supernatural even. The human foot is the most complicated bone structure, and ninjitsu masters can manipulate those bones giving them better balance. This being said I think this would have a lot more to do with balance than that. This could be possible in my eyes, even if a person has a large plank of wood strapped to their feet, with the right balance.

Reaction time has also been proven to be enhanced greatly. Their brains seem to work a bit differently. By the time the normal brain recognizes something they've already reacted.

Speed and strength are great assets to them. As pointed out, I doubt a stealth warrior would do anything barehanded, but I'm sure it can be done. They forget that if your skin has been cut over and over, it becomes tougher. Most of martial arts is about being able to predict and react, so it's plausible that as the shooter of the arrow, even at that range, is about to let go, the shinobi has already reacted. The range was a big issue, as well as the bow style.

Being a ninja was probably more about reacting if anything. I'm sure people can tell when someone is about to let go of an arrow if they are trained. About knowing where the enemy might be or fire, well if you don't know where the enemy is, yes it would be pretty difficult to grab the arrow. Where it's aimed though? If you see the archer and he's aiming toward you, you can predict where the arrow is going to end up. This would be the same thing as a pitcher throwing a baseball and the batter hitting it. It can be done, and batters do know how to hit it a certain way to cause homeruns. Baseball is not just a game of luck. I would like to see a baseball pitching machine throwing it at 150mph, and a batter hitting it.

Ninja might be human, but they've trained to make their bodies and minds faster than what "normal" might be. These myths aren't saying that a normal person can do these acts, but highly trained and skilled warriors.

dale out ranks steve hayes by 5 dan maybe more last time i saw steve he was at 8 but i think he went up to ten before leaving the bujinkan.

the dan ranking in the martial arts has little to do with how fast a person is but based on knowledge and experience. Also as you gain experience it naturally comes with gorwing older so there is a trade off of the speed of youth to the knowled of age. the closing hand test was based upon spped and not wether the reaction time of an 8th dan is slower than a 15th dan.

Agreed that this episode was pretty bad.

Arrow Catch - When Adam did the catch himself, he "swept" his hand along the path of the arrow, giving his hand more time to close around the arrow before it passed through. I don't remember the numbers quoted... 180mph for the arrow? If we assume a person moves their hand in the neighborhood of 60mph, as they did with the sword chop, then a stationary hand has 33% less time to close than it would with a sweep.

Also, as mentioned, just getting your hand around the arrow allows you to deflect it a bit and slow it to the point where it's not a big deal to catch it. Imagine if football players stood there and just tried to close their hands around a football to catch it. They deflect it with their hands and then wrap up.

Sword Catch - As mentioned, bones in the hand would have cut down on the hands flopping around a lot. Also, what was the point of measuring the time it took for a super ninja master to close his hands, then measuring the force that a geeky robot builder could apply to a plate? Nobody is accusing the Mythbusters of being ninjas, and as such, using their strength and speed to calibrate machines to emulate ninjas does no good.

If I remeber correctly, Sephen stopped his ranking with the Bujinkan at 9th, Bud actually got 10th before him and he then started To Shin Do Ryu and his Quest Centers. He is a very good speaker on the subject of ninjutsu but from my understanding was only trained in one lineage back when Hatsumi Sensei was ill and wasn't sure about passing all of the info to one student, each of the shihan were trained in a particualr lineage.

I've been practicing martial arts since age 6, I'm now 16. I've tried ninjitsu from time to time and learned a bit about their style. Ninjitsu is more deception than anything else. It was an improvising art. A ninja could "walk on water" using previously placed pegs in water. Air filled papyrus wood were firmly fastened to one's feet for higher ranking ninja.
A ninja was also almost NEVER unarmed completely. As showed by Dale, they had a unique claw-like device on their hand made specifically for four things:
1) Climbing
2) Fear
3) Catching weapons
4) Killing.
They all knew in was impossible, so they never went without something.
A ninja would also do everything to remain hidden from archers and were in fact VERY far away from them at all times. Typically, if spotted, they would try to hide. If they failed, they'd most likely die. Otherwise, they'd use a smoke (sulfur) grenade, (I was shocked when I found out they had those), and escape in the smoke. I've got no information other than movies about an arrow catch, though.

Did anyone else notice that Jamie, as the voice-over proclaimed to be an "experienced archer" was shooting with the arrow on the wrong side of the riser, not to mention having the bow canted backward?

They've done enough archery related stuff on the show to have been better equipped for this simple myth.

Water Shoes

As one other poster suggested, just because an untrained person can't demonstrate a legend, doesn't mean no one else could, with the right equipment, balance and rigorous training.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the show.

I found an article about Ninjas with a description of their water-shoes toward the bottom.

http://www.angelfire.com/gundam/manji/page29.html

that site contains a ton of misinformation probably taken from bad 80s ninja books. ninja weren't peasants

About sword catching..

I've seen this done. Not on television, in person.

The time i saw it, it was done by Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura, Grandmaster of Seido Juku Karate. He was DEFINATELY not stationary when he caught it. He twisted it to the side and pulled it backward as he caught it in 1 quick, fluid motion.

I was accually surpized to see that they did not try the method used in the 3 ninjas kick back movie. where the people ran across a "runway" that I think was made of Bamboo.

They didn't use the technique because it's running across a mat. Not walking on water.

I agree with most posters here. The myths wer definitely not tested accurately.
Like everbody said here, even I have seen a martial ars black belt master catch an arrow on Ripley's Believe It Or Not. I believe it is possible to catch that arrow had the rig been designed to duplicate the twist motion of the human wrist a well as move with the arrow to be able to dissipate its speed over a larger distance rather than trying to catch it with a stationary robotic hand.
I also want to say that the Ninjas spent years in meditating and acquiring certain abilities that today's normal humans cannot duplicate. Hence I feel it was unfair to test the myths using human force as a frame of referance.

HEY ADAM AND JAMIE, I think you should do these myths justice by trying being more accurate in your testing. I love you guys and I'm crazy about your show. No disrespect Adam, but I am sure a Ninja would be far quicker, fitter and more responsive than you are. So I think you should respect all the as you say, "VARIABLES" before you busted some poorly tested myths on the Ninja episode.

Again, the show is just ammmazing, keep doing what you guys do, only a little more accurate in certain cases.