Hesitation part 2

I stand corrected. Last week wasn't the best ever training session in my whole life. This week was.

Not many people came because of the school holidays, and partially because Arif (the Club President) announced that there would be no practice. Frankly, Arif is such a lazy bum when it comes to practice, I wonder why I picked him as the President in the first place. When I was President I LIVED and BREATHED KENDO. Even if the school authorities didn't allow us to train, we did illegal practice sessions! We were that dedicated in those days!

There were only five of us this morning: Me, Christopher (a form 5 guy), a small Form One kid named Vincent, a Form Two named Viknes and finally the ever-truly-wonderful-and-sublime-Marcus-Tan Eng Soon. Marcus arrived quite late, around 9.00. So the three juniors were there, waiting for something to happen. To "entertain" them, I led them through several basic cuts that we did a couple of hundred times.

Alright. So that was the boring part of the day. After Marcus arrived and teached the juniors about stamping and ki-ken-tai-ichi, he gave us a small talk about the mindset of Kendo to us.

To summarize what he said, in Kendo, and also in real life, no one can actually change you besides yourself. Your sensei or senior might tell you that your kamae is wrong, ashisabaki not correct, etc... but in the end, YOU yourself must strive to erase those mistakes and emerge as a better Kendoka. Isn't this one of the most basic and fundamental principle of Kendo? To cultivate oneself and to attain self-perfection? In short, we must always improve on our mistakes, and this is how we gradually mature both physically and mentally.

Next up, bogu on. I learned a lot from Marcus today. A LOT. We started off with basic kirikaeshi-waza, men-uchi and kote-men-uchi. But when it came to jigeiko, it dawned upon me that in Kendo, we must not have hesitation. I read Marcus' post about the subject, and only now I really understood it to a deeper extent. In keiko, I learnt that I must not be afraid to get hit. I must just go do it. Like the Nike ad, JUST DO IT. Shut out any external distractions and just go for it. Kendo requires more of the mind rather than the body, and a perturbed mind leads to a haphazard Kendo. A clear mind leads to good quality Kendo.

Another thing I've learnt is to not think as we are sparring. Thinking, as we define it too be, only slows us down. The reason that technique is practiced so assiduously in Kendo is to make movements almost instinctive. Trying to plan a response to your opponent's action is as effective as carrying water over two hundred metres with jugs full of holes. If you anticipate acting in such a way against a technique and the opponent does not execute that technique, your plan has failed; leaving you wide open against a volley of attacks.

I have done slight research on this matter, and I found out that the famous Zen monk Takuan, wrote a famous essay about this state where the minds slows down due to excessive thinking. He calls the effect "sticking". His essay was addressed to the famous swordsman Yagyu Munenori on the relation between the sword and the mind. As a Zen priest, Takuan was interested in showinghow our mental processes sometime interfere with our direct perception of reality. Munenori, while interested in Zen, was also a master swordsman fascinated by the ways in which Zen could help his sword technique. He came to the conclusion that mizu-no-kokoro, or "mind like water", could assist swordsmen. Since in this state the mind is unfettered with fear or anticipation, it creates no advance plans of response and is not even consciously involved in the swordsman's actions. The opponent moves, and you respond. Much like water. When it is still, it is like a mirror, very calm. When you throw something at it, it reacts.

There is not intervening process, and therefore the technique has the celerity needed for free fighting.

So I let go of whatever that came to mind this morning. Actions were based on impulse. And I surprised myself that I could do a kote-men cut AND score ippon! My very first ippon in my whole life. Scored against Marcus when he was anticipating me to do a men strike. But I didn't. I did kote men. Marcus' mind was "sticking", therefore provided me with the oppurtunity to attack.

You know that feeling of accomplishment that comes after a sudden realisation? Well I achieved it today. I always thought that I needed to work harder on my strokes and cuts. Of course, that is important, but the most important thing in Kendo is the mindset, and the state of mind. Mind like water, remember. Only when we realize this can we truly progress.

Lessons learnt today:

1. Mizu-no-kokoro is the way to go in keiko and in everyday life.

2. The ability of the kote-men attack.

3. Basic thing in Kendo: IMPROVE YOURSELF.

Goals for next training:

1. Apply mizu-no-kokoro technique again.

2. Create less open areas of attack for opponent.

3. Work on IMPROVING ONESELF

4. Do more ki-ken-tai-ichi whenever got spare time and practice snap cuts.

5. Improve kote-men-uchi.

Thats all for today then. Ouch my legs hurt.... no pain no gain! I tell you, if this life were a video game, you'd see me "level up" already by a few levels.

Oh yeah, just now.... about the ippon thing..... I did it in less than five seconds! Awesome! Be confident in everything you do and you might surprise yourself at what you're truly capable of.