And now for something completely less frivolous.... Crushing!
Last week I arrived at the club with a mind totally free of plans. I had not a clue what to talk about so at the last minute I pulled out my dog-eared and annotated copy of the Five Rings and it fell open to the page on 'Crushing' and I quote Musashi-San:
"In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than ourself, if his rhythm is disorganised, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath. It is essential to crush him all at once. The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little. You must research this deeply."
This gave me some much needed inspiration and I gave a lesson based on this principle, showing how to pursue an opponent up the piste with aggressive footwork, remises, reprises and fleches using a bind on their blade. All that covered off the practical aspects of the techniques but one thing I couldn't totally put across was the idea of the mental approach to this. How often have you been in a fight with an opponent who is a beginner, or has poor technique or is just not aggressive and thought to yourself "I'd better go easy here"? It's an almost natural urge not to inflict too much damage on someone if you don't think it's "fair" which is admirable but in my view the wrong thing to do. By being kind you don't learn how to close out matches (and in some cases may actually lose the fight) and your opponent does not get a valuable lesson in how they must improve (and may feel patronised if they think you are being nice to them). Some people may argue that they don't want to put someone off or discourage a weaker opponent but I would counter that losing is part of the experience of fencing; all those defeats make the joy and experience of victory ultimately even sweeter. If someone is discouraged by occasionally losing badly I would suggest that any kind of competition may cause problems, let alone a martial art. I always tell my students that the moment the opponent steps on the piste they are there to be beaten, even if they're your best-est buddy ever! At the end of the fight no matter what the outcome you can then shake them by the hand, smile and go back to being nice!
The other thing that struck me about Musashi's words is that they are still relevant today and also what a chillingly brutal and pragmatic message they give. But then again if you're in a life and death fight this is the attitude you need I suppose. I do wonder if there is still a recognition of the human effort and challenge with developing this mindset in Musashi's acknowledgement that getting to this state requires someone to "research this deeply"......
"In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than ourself, if his rhythm is disorganised, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath. It is essential to crush him all at once. The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little. You must research this deeply."
This gave me some much needed inspiration and I gave a lesson based on this principle, showing how to pursue an opponent up the piste with aggressive footwork, remises, reprises and fleches using a bind on their blade. All that covered off the practical aspects of the techniques but one thing I couldn't totally put across was the idea of the mental approach to this. How often have you been in a fight with an opponent who is a beginner, or has poor technique or is just not aggressive and thought to yourself "I'd better go easy here"? It's an almost natural urge not to inflict too much damage on someone if you don't think it's "fair" which is admirable but in my view the wrong thing to do. By being kind you don't learn how to close out matches (and in some cases may actually lose the fight) and your opponent does not get a valuable lesson in how they must improve (and may feel patronised if they think you are being nice to them). Some people may argue that they don't want to put someone off or discourage a weaker opponent but I would counter that losing is part of the experience of fencing; all those defeats make the joy and experience of victory ultimately even sweeter. If someone is discouraged by occasionally losing badly I would suggest that any kind of competition may cause problems, let alone a martial art. I always tell my students that the moment the opponent steps on the piste they are there to be beaten, even if they're your best-est buddy ever! At the end of the fight no matter what the outcome you can then shake them by the hand, smile and go back to being nice!
The other thing that struck me about Musashi's words is that they are still relevant today and also what a chillingly brutal and pragmatic message they give. But then again if you're in a life and death fight this is the attitude you need I suppose. I do wonder if there is still a recognition of the human effort and challenge with developing this mindset in Musashi's acknowledgement that getting to this state requires someone to "research this deeply"......
posted by Dave at
2:55 PM
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