On the teaching of having a position without a position......

Last week I learnt a salutary lesson based on the above teaching of Musashi. It wasn't fencing related but took place at work where in my job I run a lot of meetings focussed on gathering business requirements for IT projects. Essentially it is my job to make sure my engineer colleagues get the information they need to build the system that our business colleagues need. I have recently been assigned to a new project as a senior member of the team and my first task was to plan and deliver a series of workshops to kick things off. It was quite important to get a good start and there were several important stakeholders present so as such I was keen to get it right and a bit apprehensive. However, the first day went well as did the next two, in fact Day 3 went really well indeed (which should have warned me....) All was going to plan until Day 4 where things (in my opinion) were off plan and not working and I did the worse thing a faciliator can do; I got emotionally involved. My plan (and ergo my ego), which had been going so well, was not working the way I thought it should which got me agitated. As it turned out the group carried on delivering whilst I got more into the problem. Very poor show indeed and being the introspective chap I am, one that nagged at me.
The next day I flicked open my desk copy of the Book of Five Rings and it fell open at the section in this post's title and I read "in large scale military science, the arraying of troops is also a matter of positioning. Every instance thereof is an opportunity to win in war. Fixation is bad. This should be worked out thoroughly". It also said "it is crucial to think of everything as an opportunity to kill". What this rather brutal statement taught me was that I had become fixated on my plan and not my objective, which was to get a positive result. Every change of plan or circumstance should be regarded as an opportunity to win, not as an obstacle or problem. I shall make every effort to bear this in mind from now on; in work and on the piste!                     

Pre-emption is better than cure

Last night I re-learnt the valuable lesson that if you don't do anything for long enough on the piste you will no doubt be hit. In two matches I was someone else's "rope-a-dope"* and allowed them to do what they wanted and hit me too many times. I get in this mode sometimes, concentration on stop hits to the wrist when really an attack on the preparation would do it..... Ah well, always learning......    

* Ah... he truly IS the greatest 

How I learnt a new Kanji

Last night I was indulging in one of my usual battle of wills with my compatriot Jai and attempted to lay a trap. I ever so slightly began to slide my front foot forward, not too obviously, on the knowledge that he would no doubt notice my apparent error and go for a foot hit (quite satisfying at epee). Once he went for it my intention was to withdraw the foot and strike down to his wrist or forearm.... the only question was, would it work? I kept edging out my foot further and further until eventually the trap was sprung. Jai's point whipped downward, I pulled my foot back rapidly and my stop hit was on it's way. In slow motion I could see the point heading straight for his forearm and I felt a sense of satisfaction; it must hit, it's going to hit - Doh .....! Just at the last moment Jai pulled back his arm and my hit fell short.
After the fight we were discussing this and Jai made the very valid observation that with an attack like that you need total conviction and I could only agree. On reflection I don't think I could have been putting my all into it or I would certainly have hit. This got me thinking "I bet there's a good Japanese term for this..." and true enough the word for conviction is "Shin'nen" which comprises the characters for 'firm' and 'belief'. Further decomposition reveals that the kanji "shin" is broken into two characters representing a man standing by his word, whilst "Nen" is composed of "now" and "mind". What a great description of the concept of conviction or belief. Standing by what you say in the present moment. So not only did I learn something important about a technique I learnt something slightly deeper too, which deserves greater consideration.                    

Miscellanea

Last night at the club prompted a number of random thoughts so here they are in no particular order.....


Coaches dilemma number one - the mathematics of impatience: if you ask a group to practice two techniques in order, where the second is incrementally harder than the other, within five minutes 100% of the class will be practising the harder technique despite only 30% of them being actually able to do it and 90% of the 70% (are you still with me?) will be getting it completely wrong. I appreciate that improvement is in fact the point of practice but so many people it seems want to get an instant fix, to do the 'exciting stuff' rather than the boring old basics. Maybe it's symptomatic of our impatient all access society where anything you want is just a click away but at the end of the day it's the basics that will build ability and accomplishment. Ignore them and you'll probably plateau out sooner rather than later. Never mind the compound attack with fleche my friend; just try holding your foil correctly first.... Basics + practice + commitment x time = improvement and satisfaction.

"What would Musashi have done"? My compatriot Jai asked me this last night in respect of an opponent with a long reach. My instinctive answer was "He'd have cut his arms off". Initially this was meant as mere badinage but upon further consideration and bearing in mind Musashi always encouraged taking away an opponent's advantage......... it's probably not far off!

Staying calm. One of my fights was a close affair but I'd finally got into a 13-11 leading position. Normally I would have tried to win from there, but I'm pleased to say that for a change I remembered to encourage my opponent to lose instead.

Is there such a thing as a good 15-5 defeat? Sometimes there is, particularly if you had previously felt that four points would be nice and it was a very intelligent fight with ruses, counter-ruses and counter-counter ruses. Mmmmm.... chess with swords....

Contentment is.... being on the piste, not thinking about work, budgets, meetings but wondering how to deceive that engagement of sixte that is probably a trap. Followed by sitting piste-side, pleasurably knackered, exchanging war stories and advice.