Wanted

I saw "Wanted" at the theatre last night. It's a nice movie action movie about a guy who's recruited into a secret society of assassins. This poor cubicle dweller is plucked out of a wholly unpleasant life and dropped into intensive training as assassin. Believe it or not, the only thing that bothered me was the idea that this guy could master fine combat skills in a few weeks.

It takes a least a year to go from raw talent to world class, if you have the talent to begin with. We all talk about how it takes years to master a martial art. I don’t think that’s true. George Foreman walked into a boxing gym in 1967 and year later was good enough to be considered for the Olympics. 18 months after he walked into that gym he was good enough to win the gold medal at the ’68 Olympics. 18 months from raw talent to gold medal. So much for the idea that it has to take years or even decades to master a martial art.

For those of us who don’t start with the necessary raw talent, I’m pretty sure we can train for decades and never reach that pinnacle.

Does that mean we shouldn’t do it?

To not make the effort is to eternally be less than we can be, to walk through life as a shadow of our potential. The vast majority of people I meet go through life as shadows. Whether we remain shadows because we are afraid, or lazy, or we believe there is nothing more to be aspired to than TV on weeknights and beer and movies on the weekends, or for some other reason, the shadows I meet every day terrify me. The idea that I could end up living like that scares me far worse than dying.

I have the potential to do a lot of things. What scares me is that I could make excuses to not avoid them. Like a lot of people I know, I have done things that the shadows consider amazing, though why they are amazed I can’t fathom. I’ve traveled to Asia and spent years living in a country whose language I didn’t speak when I arrived, learned the language, found masters of the arts I was interested in, became their students, and learned as much as I could. For those who have done something similar, it’s no big deal. The idea that I find amazing is to not do something similar. To drift through a series of soul-suffocating jobs in the place where I was born and never know anything else. To do so little with my potential, that’s amazing to me.

Now that I realize how little time it takes to get really good (since it is clear that I don’t have that world class potential I have to settle for being really good) at just about anything, the excuses for not trying seem even weaker than they were before. I just have to choose a path and start down it. I’ll get there.

Guelph

I went to Guelph last week for the Spring Seminar. Namidome Sensei was back, along with the two Eto Sensei and Eto Sensei. Namidome Sensei is the senior Shinto Muso Ryu teacher in Fukaoka, and the Eto Sensei's are a mother and daughter who are both 7th dan in Jodo and Iaido. They've all been to the Guelph several times. I got train with Kim Taylor for much of Saturday. Sensei kept us hoping until I was thoroughly exhausted. At one point I left my hand hanging on Shamen and Kim whacked it quite definitively with the bokuto. The pain was bad, but the embarrassment from leaving my hand there to get hit was worse. By the end of practice on Saturday, Kim and I were both punchy with exhaustion.

On Sunday I trained with Ward, who was testing for his yondan on Monday. Kim very diplomatically arranged for me to be able to test on Sunday, since I couldn't stay for the testing on Victoria day. Best of all, the tape I put on the blister that burst on Saturday stayed in place until after the test was over.

It's interesting how arts get pushed in different directions based on things that are really tangental to the original goals and intents of the arts. Judo and Kendo are each bent by the competition that was started as way to for people to test their combative skills. Now the competition has nearly completely displaced the practice of combative skills, though there are still people striving to maintain the combative focus. Iaido was added to the Kendo Federation to push kendoka to learn how to use a real sword to try to balance the effect on skills of competing with bamboo shinai. Now though, the pursuit of rank in the Kendo Federation, iaido is being pushed towards very light, gentle, dance-like movements without a great deal of intensity. Jodo has only been part of the Kendo Federation for a little while, so it's tough to see a trend there yet. The changes aren't necessarily evil. Nothing can stay the same forever. The trick is to keep the valuable core and principles while evolving to fit a new social and historical background.

Clining to pain

I've been watching something in and out of the dojo. People will cling to a way of doing things, or way of seeing things that hurts them and holds them back. In judo the guys learn to be stiff and push their way around the dojo. When we try to get them to learn subtlety, they resist. Advancing beyond the stage they've reached requires working on things they don't do well. They don't want to let go of what they have to grasp something of greater value. It's easier to keep going at a low level of mediocrity. Learning seems to require so much more effort than maintaining their current level that they don't want to risk the effort.

I see this outside the dojo nearly every day. People cling to anger or ways of looking at the world, regardless of the pain it causes them. If you suggest they change a little, they tell you "I can't change." What's sad is that we all change a little bit everyday. None of us are fossilized and unchanging. Life changes us a little each day. What these folks are really saying is "I have no control over how I change and develop." They choose to let life shape them without any effort to choose how they will change. If they choose, they can develop, but this requires taking responsibility for themselves and what they become. It's easier to just role along and say "This is what I am and I can't change it." I haven't figured out what drives this. My last post was "Pain is good." These folks seem to cling to their pain out of fear of letting it go.

Pain is good

I managed to get to judo twice in a 4 day period, the most judo I've done in that short a span in a while. WOW! I was sorer than after working out with the trainer at the gym. When I went again a week later, I trained even harder, but I didn't hurt as much afterwards. I guess my body is getting used to the abuse again.

Last Friday at judo was a little strange. Most of the guys there look to me for instruction. I don't mind this, since I have twice as much time on the mat as any of them, but their expectations of what to learn and my expectations of what to teach don't quite line up. The guys who have been doing judo for 5 or 6 years want to learn cool, new techniques, and I want to teach them principles that will improve the techniques they already know. They get disappointed sometimes when we practice principles. For my part, the real problem I have with teaching the techniques they don't know yet is that I've been focusing on principles for so long, that I've forgotten a lot of the secondary and tertiary level techniques and variations I used to do. I really need to get out the books and remind myself of what I used to know.

Irasshaimase!

I'm trying to work out what to do with one of these things. Should be interesting.

Right now in Judo I'm trying to remind myself to attach more and rely on counters less. Counters are great as long as you are always a little faster than the attack. Unfortunately, I'm not. Gerald Lafon had some interesting descriptions of how to train for tai otoshi the other day on Judo-L that I'm playing with. Now I'm trying to figure out when to apply the technique. Timing is nearly everything.

Jodo practice has been difficult lately because I don't have a regular partner. Even without a training partner, I've managed to get all of the Omote, Chudan, Ranai, and a chunk of the Kage stuck in my head.

Iai is a challenge to not backslide without a teacher around. I've been working to keep my posture upright without being stiff, and the muscle out of my cuts. Ugh! If I don't pay attention, muscling is so easy it's scary.