Miyamoto Musashi - Master Swordsman of Samurai Japan

You may well ask yourself, "What's a Japanese Samurai doing on this blog"? Well, Miyamoto Musashi is a bit of a role model of mine. he lived during the late 16th and early 17th century in Japan and was a famous shugyosha, or wandering duellist of the Samurai class. What makes Musashi interesting is that it is said he was undefeated in more than 60 duels, which were mostly to the death. His incredible skill extended not only to swordsmanship but to sculpture, calligraphy and ink painting. For more details on his colorful life follow this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi
The most enduring thing about Musashi was that he recorded his thoughts and philsophy on fighting with the sword shortly before his death in a record called "The Book of Five Rings" which you can still find in most bookshops today either in the business or martial arts section. Whilst a lot of this book deals with techniques appropriate to the long swords of Samurai Japan, a lot of Musashi's thoughts and attitudes bear great resemblance to those of the elite athletes of today. In the chapter entitled "The Fire Scroll" Musashi records some of the techniques he employed throughout his successful career as an exponent of the sword. Some of these techniques are physical but many are all about mental attitude and approach. For instance Musashi discusses "Becoming New" when your mental approach to a fight has bogged down or you find yourself in a stalemate. He advocates clearing your mind and becoming as new in order to defeat your opponent. Advice straight from modern sports psychology text books! In other sections he discusses using fear, uncertainty or confusion to unsettle your opponent in order to gain victory. He also advocates looking at your own fights as a third person, or outside observer (a classic technique taught to business negotiators) to gain a clearer view of what is happening. These are thoughts originating in the 16th century that have great relevance to today's athletes and especially to fencers as they are attuned to the martial disciplines. I don't intend to quote all Musashi's writings here but I do refer to some of his attitudes and philosophy in my lessons as I believe that they are still relevant to the modern fencer today. If you want to know more, don't take my word for it, check out the book!