Right Action

I was reading a post on Chris' blog today in which he talks about not trying but just doing. Despite this being a great opportunity for me to do a Yoda impression "ah-hah try not... do" I would like to add some of my thoughts to this topic.
Recently it has struck me that it is incredibly easy to become burdened down by thinking, whether it is on the fencing piste, at work, home or whatever. It takes no time at all for the human brain, when presented with a problem, to start over analysing it and tying itself up in knots. We love to chat, confer, compare notes and otherwise delay action. I know I am certainly prone to this at times as I tend to be a reflector. Sometimes this is counter-productive though. I've recently been reading the autobiography of Gene Kranz, who was one of the Mission Flight Controllers during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes in the United States during the 1960s and 70s. He talks about how they often had a very short space of time to make crucial decisions. For instance, at the moment of launch, if anything went wrong with the rocket the controller had no more than four seconds in which to call an abort and/or jettison the astronauts via the escape rocket. During this time many pieces of data had to be assessed and considered. Any hesitation would likely be fatal for the astronauts. Think about that; four seconds, probably as long as it took me to type this sentence. So how did they get to such a state of clear headed thinking? Well for one they practiced the scenarios they would face time and time again, rehearding both mentally and physically the actions they would take in certain circumstances. Secondly they had faith in their own abilities and finally the confidence of their leaders. It was definitely the first factor that was critical though.
So how does this relate to fencing? Well, I think the main thing is to differentiate between strategic and tactical thinking. Strategy allows you to prepare your general approach to an opponent. Before the fight starts you observe possible behaviours, techniques in your opponent that you can lever as an advantage and you prepare a mental strategy to utilise them. Tactical thinking comes during a fight when something isn't working and you need to change it. This second type of thinking is the one you don't want to over elaborate. Your response to situations should be within a framework that you have practiced time and time again, allowing you to act instinctively and in the right way. The Japanese constantly refer to the hara (see previous posts for the locaation of this mysterious bodily node) as the centre of the spirit, i.e. the 'gut' instinct. By training and preparing for situations it allows us to deal with them in an un-cluttered way when they arise. It is more important to do something than to be paralysed by indecision and analysis.