ok folks, so I have taken a bit of a hitatus, but I do attend Ninjitsu classes here in Edmonton
it's not a sports art like MMA, in fact, I think it's quite likely a ninjitsu expert would loose against a close quarter MMA fighter.
Ninjas were essentially the anti-samauri. They were people for hire to do all the dirty work. Their fighting styles is more for escape and evasion than direct action.
Ninjas actually oriented in one place in the mountainous area of Japan and the various clans spread out from there.
Every martial arts claim that they are an efficient fighting system, and we claim that ours is as well. The major movements come from sinking (lowering your body closer to the ground), twisting, and thrusting to generate all of our power. Theoretically, our objective is to break our opponent line (something like balance or circle theory). In our school, there isn't very much emphasis on grappling, but we do a fair bit of striking and counter-attacking. We don't really do katas like karate (could be just my school though). In my opinion of studying it for about 6 months, is that it is mainly a defensive art. At a higher level, ninjitsu becomes more a dirty art. We strike nerve bundles to paralyze parts of the body, destroy joints and limbs to immobilize our opponents, and attack in such a way that we never appear in front of our opponent. Even in beginning level, we're doing things like eye jabs, and obscure pressure points when we're fighting.
Historically, a ninja on an assassination mission won't confront a target head on, rather they wait, observe and plan. A perfect ninja kill would be sneak in, and poison the targets tea while they are distracted, or slit their throats while they slept. The weapons reflect this as well, as things like throwing starts and caltrops are things utilized to cover the escape. As someone mentioned, if it was a ninja vs MMA, the MMA fighter would have had an accident the night before or would have been compromised in some way.
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