Meet Your Instructors

I’m Cody McCormack. I started martial arts at 18 with Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan, spent some time in Tang Soo Do, and found the Bujinkan in 2009. I’ve been training in it ever since.

I travel to Japan twice a year to train with my teachers, and I bring what I learn straight back to our dojo in Huntsville. In 2015 I passed my Godan test in Japan under the supervision of Soke Masaaki Hatsumi, and I now hold the rank of Judan-Kugyo. In 2024, Shinden Fudo Ryo Soke, Nagato-Sensei recommended me for the title of DaiShihan. This implies a duty to keep training earnestly, and transmit the teachings of the Bujinkan as correctly as I’m able.

What matters more than the ranks is how I teach. The nine schools are old, but the principles inside them still apply today, and my job is to make them useful for the life you actually live. Sometimes we ask things like, “Would that really work?”. Often I’ll say, “Let’s find out!”. I believe there are levels to learning, that spans from “Just copy” to training against resistance, and up to randori.

I don’t view myself as a teacher, but a student still walking the path. My goal is to help others start their own journey, and find their own martial path.

I opened Rocket City Dojo in 2018. In 2023 we moved to our current location and merged with the long-standing UAH Bujinkan Dojo, so you’re joining a community that has been training in this town for a long time.