Clarity Of Mind - or How Reversible Fridge Doors Can Be Bad For Your Mental Health.....

Someone once told me that the most effective weapon a fighter can employ is his brain. I would take this a step further and suggest it is the mind rather than the brain. The mind can determine whether you approach a situation calmly or in a state of agitated tension, where the latter is more likely to lead to mistakes and frustration. An example of this was vividly demonstrated to me last week whilst coaching. Usually I allow myself some time to prepare a lesson before commencing a class as I believe that my students deserve the best I can give them. Last week I'd had a pretty hectic day at work and upon returning home discovered that we'd had our new fridge-freezer delivered. In order to get it set up we decided to reverse the doors to suit our kitchen before I went to fencing. So with my Wife holding the freezer tipped up I commenced the 'simple' operation described in the instruction manual. Nearly an hour later the 'simple' job had turned into a frustrating (near infuriating) battle between man and appliance; the instructions were poor, the components hard to fit, I was working in a cramped space and I was running late. Eventually we discovered a part that had not been mentioned in the manual and at last had fridge doors that were no longer in danger of falling off. I quickly got changed and rushed off to the Salle, desperately trying to formulate a coherent lesson in my mind. Unfortunately my mind was still exceptionally agitated and by the time I got to the Salle I only had a brief chance to stretch and glance at my notes before taking the lesson. I wasn't particularly happy with the resulting lesson on the parry of prime and close in fencing, feeling that it lacked coherence but things steadily got worse. My students were keen to continue their award work and I agreed to go through the rest of the syllabus with them, however my mounting frustration at my poor performance as a Coach culminated in forgetting where I was in the lesson and then having a complete mental blank when demonstrating a fairly simple technique! Luckily my students thought this was quite amusing (probably putting it down to my advancing years) but one did make the comment "So much for an empty mind then?!" This comment really struck home and proved a good learning point for me. I take pride in being a pretty calm minded person but this goes to show that even if one understands a principle one still needs to work hard to apply it!

The Japanese have various terms that describe the quality of mind or spirit (Shin). The most commonly referred to in relation to martial arts are Zanshin and Mushin. I have seen Zanshin translated as 'aware mind', 'focussed mind', 'stable mind' or 'abiding mind'. The general essence of this term is that the mind remains undisturbed by events and abides in calm awareness of the situation. It also seems to mean a mind that is able to assimilate details that others don't see due to being undisturbed by emotions and preconceptions. So when my student mentioned the fact that I was off balance he was directly commenting on my lack of Zanshin. The state of Mushin is subtly different. Mushin or No-mind refers to action without intent, a purely reflexive response to a situation developed through extensive training. We all experience the odd flash of Mushin where we do something without thinking but the advanced athlete actively trains this into their way of fencing, reflexively responding to an attack or threat from their opponent without having to wait for their brain to tell their muscles to do it. Yagyu Munenori refers to the mind that doesn't abide on anything and just reacts from a state of no thought. Needless to say, this isn't a state that is reached easily in this modern world.

A reasonable example of these mental states is shown in the movie "The Last Samurai", one of my favourite films. Bear with me, I accept that the film isn't totally great - Tom Cruise teaching the Japanese how to be Japanese is a bit rich - but there are some interesting hints of greater depth besides the superbly choreographed fight scenes. In particular, the scene where Cruise's character finds himself unarmed against three enemies but defeats them is a reasonable example of No-mind. Cruise's character launches into a spontaneous blitz of moves and then only at the end does his mind replay what he has just done, allowing him to absorb the encounter at greater length. Also of some interest is the scene where he is sparring with the demanding sword master (an interesting coaching role-model) and gets beaten every time. His Samurai friend tells him "Too many mind" - in other words Cruise is worrying about and being influenced by external events too much - and he is able to clear his thoughts and manages to draw the next bout with his instructor. Obviously the practice and application of Mushin and Zanshin do no come quite as spontaneously as suggested in the film! It does make a good point in a simple way though.

The fencer can benefit from at least an awareness of the concepts detailed here. With any sport, a lot of the secret of success is to develop the right mental framework from which to operate in. If you let external circumstances or your opponent distract you, there is more chance of defeat. A large part of any sporting activity is dependant on the mind set of the athlete. Negativity, agitation, anger and apprehension all play a part in undermining the chances of success. Even a fridge door can be a effective enemy to the clear mind!