14 DAY TRIAL // They call him the ninja of Norwich. He’s 33 years old, a husband and a father, a publishing clerk, and has decided to master the ninja warrior skills so that he can fight crime at night, at least once a week.
His has been a long and difficult training, but Martin Faulks is well aware that he still has a very long way to go, he says in an interview for the Daily Mail.
Still, being able to creep up behind a deer and tap it on the back is no small feat, so it’s not like he hasn’t done and learned plenty already.
Faulks says he grew up wanting to be Batman because he felt that was the only way he could have a long-lasting impact, leave his mark, as it were.
He soon got into martial arts – and then decided to do things all the way: he traveled abroad, trained with Tibetan and Japanese monks, meditated in the Sahara desert and under an icy cold waterfall.
Eventually, he became a ninja – and he’s putting all his skills to good use, patrolling the streets, and fighting and preventing crime.
“I was always inspired by superhero stories. For me, being a ninja is about being a person who can help others,” he says for the Mail.
“I think every martial artist has a duty to protect those around them. We are the bodyguards of the world,” he adds.
However, at home, he’s not that much of a ninja, but rather plain ol’ Martin, husband and father. “My wife doesn’t really appreciate me creeping in and materializing beside her when she hasn’t heard the door unlock or the stairs creak or anyone in the room,” he says.
Even with his skills, Faulks would be the first to walk out of a confrontation if possible, and that’s because his aim is not to provoke violence but to prevent it. Plus, he says, there’s still plenty to learn.
“I am really still just a beginner and you are not invulnerable. There are some very nasty people out there. If someone threatens you it’s safer to back down, appease, run away, because ninjutsu is about getting the result you want,” he says for the Mail.
Martin Faulks is also putting out a book on his own: “Becoming A Ninja Warrior – a quest to recover the legacy of Japan’s most secret warriors.”