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
2 Comments:
It sounds to me like the original meaning of that quote is more along the lines of what a teacher said in class today: a complete newbee might well kill someone in a duel because he can not read the game. He can not read openings, so you can not trick him into doing things. Being completely unpredictable, the best thing to do is probably not to let him take any initiative.
I'm known to be wrong at times, though. :P I speculate a lot. If Musashi doesn't explain WHY then maybe his book isn't that great, from a pedagogic point of view.
Hi Kontakt, thanks for commenting. I think you make a good point regarding the newbees; they can be quite dangerous because they don't know what to do in a conventional sense, which makes them very difficult to deal with!
I also would partially agree with you re the pedagogical side of Musashi. I think many things about the practical side of swordplay are unclear in the Five Rings for a number of reasons:
a) it's difficult to put across and describe complex physical actions in words that are effective. The curse of sports/martial arts manuals everywhere!
b) it was the custom of the time to use quite esoteric and descriptive prose (i.e. the 'crimson foliage hit' - can't figure that one out at all!)
c) Musashi didn't want to give all his techniques away
d) most of the old school knowledge was passed on via word of mouth
What I do think it's good for is the mental and psychological side of things and for making you think about things deeply.
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