Willpower and Kendo

Abul told me that, in order to be able to score an ippon at university level, the Kendoka must not only just strike, stamp and kiai at the same time, but must also take into consideration other factors as well.

One is zanshin. Zanshin means awareness to an opponent's movements. In other words, zanshin means to anticipate and always be ready for another attack by your opponent.

And the next, most important of all, is the spirit. Good spirit manifests in not only a loud kiai, but also in how you react after striking. The spirit of defeating your enemy without fear of being struck. Keiko must always be carried out in this type of mindset. I will try to manifest good spirit and the mentioned mindset this Sunday as I keiko one-on-one with Marcus.

During the little free time I have, I like to go on the internet to search for any Kendo related stuff so that I might improve myself. And while during my research for spirit, I stumbled across a very insightful video called "the Way of the Warrior". It's a forty-minute documentary made by the BBC, about Otaki-sensei leading the oldest surviving school of kenjutsu in Japan: Kashima Katori Ryu. I'll post the video whenever I can, now I have no time (sorry guys).

Otaki-sensei says that the cuts and strikes of his blade have to have strong willpower behind them in order to be effective. With willpower, spirit will naturally come.

There is an old story about a young couple who were lovers. The young girl was attacked by a man-eating tiger and seriously injured. No matter what her lover tried to do for her, it was hopeless, and she died. From the depths of his sorrow, he determined to seek revenge on this tiger for killing his beloved. So he took his bow and arrow and went into the jungle day after day, searching for the tiger.

He searched daily, until finally, he saw a sleeping tiger in the distance, and he thought that this was the tiger which had killed his love. He drew his bow, took careful aim and released the arrow, which pierced the tiger's body very deeply. He approached slowly to confirm the kill only to find his arrow stuck into a striped stone which happpened to ressemble the form of a sleeping tiger. 

After this event every was talking about how he was so strong that he could pierce a stone with an arrow. People were determined to test him. But though he tried again and again, the arrows just bounced off one by one. This was because he now realised it was a stone. Before, his wish for revenge was so strong that he was able to pierce even a stone with his arrow. This story is the basis of the saying: "A strong will can pierce a stone."

Basically, if there is a will, there is a way.

Goals:

1. During keiko, I must want to strike my opponent more than anything. I must want my shinai to land on my opponent more than anything else, in order to develop the willpower, spirit, and determination that Kendo requires of us.

Izzaz